Peers Educating Peers about HIV/AIDS

We are helping the high school students prepare posterboards for their presentations to the younger students at their school. In these pictures they are preparing rough drafts of the storyboards they will use. This is an offshoot of the HIV/AIDS Camp we conducted for 120 students from 5 different schools. We plan to reach a larger audience by employing student leaders to spread the word about being free from AIDS. Next school year, these students will visit every student at their high school (grades 7-9). There are over 500,000 people in Thailand that are HIV positive. We feel this is an important project because AIDS is the leading cause of death among young adults in Thailand. Each year, over 20,000 people in Thailand die as a result of this epidemic. Thailand has been very pro-active in fighting this epidemic and Peace Corps supports the efforts of HIV/AIDS education. In addition, medicines are also readily available at a fraction of the cost (compared to the U.S.) due to the efforts of the Thailand government.