Thursday was World AIDS Day.  We (and by “we,” I mean the foreigners in town that have been collaborating in the past few months, with the support of a fantastic counterpart, Tiko) decided against holding trainings or presentations, which was our first instinct.  I realize that transfer of knowledge is incredibly important in a developing country, but whenever possible I try to do things with Georgians instead of for them.  So instead, we decided to form a peer education group.

Being on Peace Corps’ health committee has made me a bit of a nerd about peer education programs.  I think they’re brilliant.  They work like this:  choose your target group (for us, young people aged 16 and up) and select well-respected, hard-working leaders from that group.  Train that group about the health issue you’d like addressed.  Empower, motivate and support your group to educate their friends.  The entire idea behind peer education is that information is better received if it comes from someone like you.  (As a foreigner here, I can say that this is completely true.)  Add to this the leadership, organization and self-esteem that comes from being a peer educator, and you have an excellent model for health promotion.

To be honest, though, I wasn’t sure how our peer education initiative group would shake out.  I’ve learned to keep my expectations in check here.  We trained them about HIV and AIDS.  We put the responsibility for developing an awareness campaign squarely on their shoulders.  We didn’t have time, money or resources on our side.

In spite of all this, Akhaltsikhe’s World AIDS Day was awesome. 

Our Peer Education Initiative Group during our World AIDS Day rally in the park

Here’s what the 14 kids in our initiative group planned and executed on Thursday:

• distributed 550 red ribbons to classmates and friends
• decorated and wore World AIDS Day t-shirts all day
• orchestrated a facebook campaign, wherein all group members posted statistics, information and photos about HIV and AIDS throughout the day
• gave four presentations (to 200+ people!) at schools and at one university, showing an 18-minute video (developed by Peace Corps’ health committee) about HIV and AIDS
• held an evening rally at our central park, during which we sang, had a moment of silence and distributed leaflets and extra ribbons
• participated in our local television channel’s “Dialogue” segment at the end of the nightly news

To say that I am proud of these kids is an understatement.  Our meetings ran long.  They all have private tutoring sessions and extra responsibilities outside of school.  Our office is cold.  Talking about HIV and AIDS is a tough, uncomfortable thing to do, especially here.  Yet in spite of all of this, they far exceeded our expectations.

We had a wrap-up celebration yesterday, with certificates and a huge cake.  Sean also put together this video as a surprise for the kids.  Everyone loves Journey!

There are several things I’ve participated in that I’d call successful, but this has to top the list.  Kudos to Kelley, Kimberly, Clint, Martyna and Sean – the other foreigners that worked to pull this off – as well as our wonderful counterpart and translator, Tiko.  But most of all, the congratulations should go to our kids, who worked as a team to do something really important in their community.  Way to go, guys!