Information about the additional projects IAPA is developing.

: Domestic Violence Shelter : | : Mahaballapuram Orphanage : | : PACT House :
: Condom Rules Pamphlet : | : SMIS-Short Stay Home : | : Art Day : | : Ooty Teaching : | : Video Documentary :
: Shelter Trust : | : Peace Trust : | : New Life :

1. Domestic Violence Shelter

      This summer, IAPA paired up with a local organization called International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care. The goal was to set up a modified HIV curriculum that addresses the issues relevant to women and specifically women who experience domestic violence. Our objective in HIV education is to empower disenfranchised women in their own lives. Some members of our IAPA program took interest in this project. We organized a group meeting for these women once a week for two hours. In these meetings we addressed what HIV is, HIV prevalence, and most importantly HIV transmission and prevention. We have observed that these women haven’t been given many educational opportunities and aren’t aware of the options they can exercise to maintain their sexual health. For this reason, one of the most effective and pertinent lessons was the demonstration on proper condom use. The fact that the women have been receptive to our volunteers and to our lessons reflects our success in a very human way. Our organization is very excited about future involvement and the possibility for growth.

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      During the 2006 summer program, several volunteers became aware of an orphanage in Mahaballapuram, located approximately 40 km south of Chennai. The volunteers decided to create an extra project in which volunteers would travel to the orphanage in their free time and teach the orphans our curriculum, as well as give them some much needed attention, care, and support. Over the course of the program, several volunteers made continual trips to the orphanage and arranged for backpacks for the children. Many volunteers regard this extra project as one of the most rewarding as they could see the tangible difference they made in these children’s lives, not only through education but through their acceptance and care.

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      PACT Hous is an organization dedicated to working with patients who have HIV and AIDS, PACT stands for Project Aids through Care and Training. The organization has a hospice for deserted women and a house for childrend who are HIV positive and lost their parents to the disease or were abandoned. Currently there are 30 children in the home and their daily needs are met by a staff who loves them and cares for them everyday. They are a project of the trust Youth With a Mission and rely on funding from them along with donations made, these donations go to providing food and medical care for the children and help to sustain the womens hospice. In the summer of 2009 IAPA volunteers worked on a New Brochure for PACT House to help get their infomration more into the local community. The volunteers also spent time with the children in the home and helped some of them with their english and school work.

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      Realizing the need to reach the community outside of teaching initiatives, several volunteers worked to create a condom rules pamphlet to distribute in the community. As correct condom usage is vital to prevent sexual transmission of HIV, as well as the inability to speak openly about sex and condoms, the volunteers created a pamphlet listing, in English and Tamil, basic facts about HIV, the links between condoms and HIV, and the procedures for using a condom correctly, as well as pictures showing the different steps. The volunteers then asked local pharmacies and stores to stock the condom pamphlets by the condoms and to distribute them whenever a customer purchased condoms. In this way, over 1,000 pamphlets were distributed throughout Pallavaram and Chennai.

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      In continuing the effort to work within the community to provide high-quality services, volunteers taught continually over the program at a hospice managed by… The hospice, located in Tambaram and designed to be a short stay home for patients traveling to Tamabaram Santirorium for testing and treatment, receives a large number of visitors, and also works with people infected with HIV in Chennai. The volunteers collaborated with the hospice by traveling to the hospice weekly and giving informational lectures to the visitors and patients, and also answering open questions. Through this opportunity, volunteers had the ability to work those most affected by the disease and help to eradicate myths associated with the disease as well as increase the knowledge of care for HIV positive people.

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      To enrich the minds and enhance the long-term memory of the students, the Art Day was formed. The Art Day consisted of a drawing competition, in which students were given the freedom to express the creative side of their brains with the simple direction of representing anything they learned from our curriculum. The results were stunning, to say the least. Students were able to absorb the information presented and again reflect that information in their own distinctive, imaginative, and informative way.

       The Art Day took place at our two government funded schools, Karappakkam and Thoraipakkam, and spanned across standards seven through nine. Regardless of standard and school, all students were initially surprised at our request to have them draw freely with crayons and colored pencils, but within five minutes they were eagerly planning out their masterpieces and like I said before, the results were stupendous.

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      Neelesh and Rajesh Anand taught at the Hindu Vidyalaya Matriculation Hr. Secondary School for three days in Coonoor, a small city nearby Ooty, Tamil Naidu. Coonoor is known for its beautiful sight seeing in its tea plantations and lush mountains. The audience at this traditional Hindu school was tenth through twelfth grade boys and girls. These students were fluent in English and were previously educated about biology, social science, and sexual education, which helped the students have strong background knowledge in understanding HIV/AIDS material. The students were exceptional; they were extremely bright and involved with the teachers and within three days the students fully understood the biology, progression, transmission, and prevention of HIV. It was a little difficult to teach with only two teachers, but the teaching was effective because games were constantly played with the students to get them involved in the material. At first the kids were very shy and hesitant to answer and ask questions, but by the end the kids were going crazy while getting involved with activities. After only three days spent with these students, they were given the knowledge and awareness to protect and inform themselves and others about HIV and AIDS, and they had fun doing so.

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      Recognizing IAPA’s mission to spread HIV/AIDS awareness through education, the idea was born that it would be valuable to capture documentation of the work as it progresses in Chennai. Cristina Silva, a video student at UIC, and Julie Littwin, a former HIV/AIDS educator in Tanzania, felt that together they could produce a video that would contain relevant interviews, actual documentation of IAPA’s work in India, and ultimately that HIV/AIDS education is hugely relevant to not just India, but the world.

      The goal with this video is mainly to outreach to people interested in understanding who and what IAPA is. The video hopes to call to those interested in volunteering for future summers of teaching in Chennai, it will also attempt to reach out to those who may be able to further IAPA’s resources as in making a donation or contribution. As for now, the video shooting is about finished. Various teaching sessions, meetings, interviews have been videotaped. We have accumulated about 15 hours of footage with hope to get a few hours more of interviews. Once home, we will spend countless hours editing the tape to create an uplifting video piece about IAPA’s first summer in Chennai. We are very excited about the interviews and feel that the outcome will be true and touching.

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      SHELTER stands for the Society for Health Education, Leadership Training, Environmental Research, and Rehabilitation. SHELTER extends its services to the poor, needy, and the general public irrespective of caste, sex, and religion in India. The main aspect of SHELTER is the childrens home run from the house of SHELTER's founder, Solomon Raj. Daily needs are met through generous donations by local friends, kindhearted individuals, and few service organizations who contribute as per their desire. SHELTER runs a home for HIV/AIDS infected children that gives personalized care by providing nutritional food, medical assistance, counseling services education, recreational activities and clothing. At present there are nearly 30 children in the home. Solomon and a small full-time staff carry out the day to day needs in the childrens home and with the organization. During the 2009 summer volunteer program, apart from being there for the kids, two main goals were accomplished. First, volunteers surveyed the site and hired a contractor to solve the drainage problem in the back yard of the home with a 15 foot deep drainage well. Second, SHELTER was in need of a more updated form of advertisement and donation collection in order to supplement the already unstable sources of income. For this, a website was created that encompasses SHELTER's mission and introduces visitors to the people who make SHELTER what it is.

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      Peace Trust is non-profitable public charitable trust working for the development of the people living in slum areas of Chennai and interior villages in Kancheepuram District. With the funds raised from the public, Peace Trust carries out welfare activities that are useful for the individual families and the society. The organization is runs a home for the children infected & affected by HIV/AIDS called Sneham Children Home. At present, there are about 30 children staying in the home. Almost all of the children are orphans or semi-orphans. The parents or the relatives of the children hesitate to accommodate them due to fear of spreading the disease or lack of knowledge. Peace Trust seeks to save these children from social evils and to give them a proper, healthy life. The volunteers in the 2009 summer volunteer program evaluated the situation with Peace Trust and decided that the organization needed to have a website as another form of outreach to the community. Also, the children of the home were in need of school supplies so the volunteers of IAPA gathered supplies for the children.

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      New Life Welfare Society (NLWS) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) dedicated to work for the health and development of slum population in the city of Chennai. The Organization was started in the year 2005 and for the past three years works amongst the children, slum women and youth. They have been running night schools, non-formal education. During the course of the 2009 summer volunteer program, many volunteers helped with the New Life Foundation, which was based in the Saidepet slums. Initially, the volunteers toured the slums and assessed what needed to be done. Efforts were made to build a roof, install fans, and put up chalkboards for the school. IAPA’s main goal for the summer was to teach HIV/AIDS education, so additional lessons were taught in the slums. In addition to the HIV curriculum, volunteers taught about basic hygiene and cleanliness, because it was a very apparent problem that could be easily fixed. Overall, the side project was a success and the foundation was happy to work with the volunteers.

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