“Local women are shy and lack confidence to negotiate with the men.” Says 25 year old Nori Bibi, volunteer in the small village hall in which the local ‘Red Ribbon’ youth  club meets, Jhillimilli, Orissa.

The link worker who recruited Nori onto the ‘Red Ribbon’ project, 22 year old Gierieja Pradhan, explained how the young women in the group had set up a condom vending system.

Condoms are now available not only from the local shop which they took me to visit but also at road side restaurant where truckers congregate, bittle shops and liquor stores where men gather to drink the local tipple, rice beer.. The pair also teach condom negotiation skills to women in their local area to increase condom use among men.

Gierieja told me how she knew almost nothing about HIV and AIDS before she became a link worker. “Now I have a lot of skills and knowledge,” she said, “Initially I was embarrassed to talk about sex, now I can talk openly about HIV, AIDS and condoms in large groups of people I don’t know.”

The Red Ribbon club in Jhillimilli is just one of a number across rural villages involving 40 link workers like Gierieja and more than 1,000 volunteers like Nori, one of 25 at the Jhillimilli ‘club’.

This was part of UNICEF funded project implemented by LEPRA, of which the aim was to ensure that the vulnerable youth population, in particular rural women have the appropriate knowledge and information to prevent HIV. Half of the link workers recruited and trained as part of the project were young women like Nori.

(No testimonials)

Posted by admin 14:52 13.06.2012

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