In Paraguay, teen brigades fight HIV

Project helps students educate scores more

(Nayeli A. Dault photo)
Maria Luisa Gonzalez Caballero (left) and Maria Isabel Falcon Decoud discussed personal values and self-esteem with students in Caraguata
Ru'a, Paraguay, as part of an HIV awareness effort.

Nayeli A. Dault, a 2004 graduate of MIT and former Boston resident, has been a Peace Corps volunteer for 2 1/2 years for the Paraguayan Secretariat of Children and Adolescents. She trains teenagers to become peer educators on reproductive health, focusing on the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

By Nayeli A. Dault

Dec. 6, 2008

ASUNCION, Paraguay -- The team of three high school girls I am working with as part of Project 1x100 rarely gets the independence to take a field trip past the city limits, let alone for the purpose of talking to their peers about a great national taboo: sex and HIV.

One typically scorching afternoon in Carapegua, Paraguay, the heart of South America, I show up to meet the girls for lunch in the tree-filled, bench-speckled city plaza. The girls -- Maria Isabel, Maria Luisa, and Catalina -- are waiting in their uniform sunshine-yellow T-shirts that promote Project 1x100. Ana, the Paraguayan coordinator of 1x100 in Carapegua, arrives and we all heap into a four-wheel drive to head for a workshop at a three-room schoolhouse in remote Caruguata village.

Along the ride, we have last-minute work to do. All of the workshops are filled with fun participatory activities that aim to grab the audience’s attention and facilitate discussion.

"All right, girls,'' I say. “We have two more questions to write up for our check-for-understanding game, ‘Jeopardio.’ Let’s get to it.”

“We should add a funny goof question,” Maria Luisa says. “Oh, I know! True or false: President Lugo shaved his beard.”

“Ja ja ja. Good one.” Maria Isabel scribbles on a note card.

(Nayeli A. Dault photo)
Maria Isabel Falcon Decould plays "Jeopardio" with the students to
check what they understand about sexually transmitted infections.

Games aside, the idea behind our 1x100 project is to train one youth to educate 100 more. The girls I'm working with today are three of 50 teens selected from the urban Carapegua city school system to be peer educators. In general, the peer educators are 14- to 18-year-olds who have been trained in HIV prevention; self-esteem; rights and responsibilities; and tolerance of people living with HIV, among other related topics. They present workshops focused on HIV and AIDS awareness to primarily 7th- to 12th-graders in schools throughout their department, or state. So far, Project 1x100 has had a brigade trained in four departments. We call the teens MVPs, for Multiplying Volunteers in Prevention, but mostly because it sounds cool.

The majority of our audience speaks in Paraguayan jopará -- the mix between Spanish and guaraní. To truly educate the community, guaraní or jopará must be spoken and the peer educators handle this major challenge exceptionally well.

Winding through the back roads, the girls hug the window ledges heavily breathing in the outside breeze. When we finally reach the school, the audience of students brings chairs outside under the shade of a large mango tree because the tiny school is suffocating.

Catalina leads with giggle-inducing ice-breakers such as “pass the mandioca’’ to introduce the topic and help loosen up the audience. Two teams are formed; the first person must place a cylindrical object (preferably a carrot or mandioca) between his or her legs and pass it to a teammate as fast as possible without using hands. The activity’s innuendo leads into the topic of the day.

Maria Luisa highlights the importance of personal values and self-esteem. Maria Isabel addresses the rights and responsibilities people have to society and themselves. About 30 minutes is spent on explaining what HIV is and why it is different from AIDS. The audience offers up ways in which the virus can be transmitted.

“By kissing,” says a confident red-headed boy.

The girls explain that HIV has only three ways of transmission: through unprotected sex, through exposure with HIV-infected blood in an open wound or needle exchange, and a birthing or breast-feeding mother living with HIV may pass it her child. They then move on to the ABCs of prevention that are standard in HIV awareness education, presenting each as an option and a personal decision that must be valued by both parties: Abstinence, Be Faithful, and Correct Condom Use. In the demonstrations, condoms are filled with water, blown up like balloons, stretched every which way, or placed on that carrot or mandioca used at the beginning of the session.

More giggles.

Later, the students eagerly submit questions anonymously into a box. Can birth control protect you from a sexually transmitted infection? one student writes. The inquiries are answered clearly by the facilitators and sometimes by other students.

Ultimately, the students learn that according to the Paraguayan Federal Response to AIDS and STIs, there are about 7,000 registered cases of HIV in Paraguay (and an estimated 6,000 unregistered cases) with an average of 68 new cases per month in 2008. Seventy percent of the population is under age 30, and the highest increase in the HIV infection rate in the past three years has been between ages 15 and 24.

Our work done, everyone piles back into the vehicle.

“We spoke great guaraní!” exclaims Maria Luisa, proud that the girls have managed to articulate their message.

“It was lots of fun, but we could have coordinated the values and self-esteem section better,’’ adds Maria Isabel.

“I hope we can do more of this stuff next school year. Let’s get trained in general women’s
health. Ana and Nayeli, can you help us?'' asks Maria Luisa.

The three beautiful girls inquire and chime in about their dreams, which Project 1x100 gives them the self-esteem to reach for.

“I want to be a nurse. I want to be an accountant. I want to be a teacher.”

My greatest satisfaction comes from believing that these girls from Project 1x100 are given an education and an empowerment greater than that of their parents. I am realizing that a journey starts with one step -- one person -- and perhaps 100 steps later, a whole Paraguayan generation can be armed with enough information to make responsible decisions about their future.

For more information on Peace Corps activities, go to www.peacecorps.gov. To learn how you can contribute to the Passport blog, contact the Globe's assistant foreign editor, Kenneth Kaplan, at k_kaplan@globe.com.