CASE STUDY: AIDS AWARENESS IN SLUM

Harizonvas is a slum area in Anjar with a population of around 2000 persons. Most of the inhabitants in the area belong to backward classes and minority communities. Daily labourers, auto rickshaws and truck drivers are the primary occupation of the locality. The children are not going to school and grow up without knowledge about health and good behaviour. Most of them have lot of misconceptions about sexual transferred diseases (STD). HIV/AIDS is unknown even among most of the adults. The Prayas team was sure that a lot of the people in the locality were high-risk persons for being infected with STDs, we knew it would be difficult to convince them about the need for protection against AIDS and other diseases. Our information campaigns were no success and easily people became hostile and told us to leave.

It happened when a truck driver died of AIDS, that a young boy came to our office asking for information on AIDS and STDs. He was himself infected with a STD but received treatment at the local hospital and was cured. With his cooperation we started our programs by forming small groups of people infected by STDs.

When the news about the cured spread in the locality, people including community leaders came forward to cooperate. Now they have started an AIDS prevention forum in the locality and are organizing programs for other similar areas.