Let`s talk about aids!

The Armenian Red Cross Youth leaders, and Emma and me had a 2 day seminar to improve our knowledge about hiv/aids and to be better in peer to peer education.

Doctor None gave us important info about hiv/aids, and new ideas and activities that can make us improve our approach in the schools. We watched hiv/aids TV-campaigns which was very interesting, tried some activities and discussed different approaches towards youth. One of the programs she works with is called "Let`s talk about aids". I think it sounds refreshingly direct! :)

Some facts:

• World wide, some 40 million people have hiv/aids
• More than 2 million of them are children
• In Armenia it is estimated that more than 3 000 are hiv-positive
• In Norway, the hiv-number is 2 500
• Euro-asia is the continent where the hiv-number is increasing the most
  

We also had an hiv/aids quiz, and I scored 17 out of 17! (It was in Armenian, but I got it translated of course...)

One of the best activities we tried out, was an activity with 4 sheets of paper on the wall. We were divided into small groups of 3-4 participants, and we were told to fill out the sheets in turn with our ideas and opinions based on these 4 headlines:

1. Why do young people have sex?
2. What can you do instead of having sex?
3. What can be reasons for choosing not to have sex?
4. Why is it important to use condom?


After writing on the sheets, we discussed our opinions, and it was interesting to see how differently we answered. And also how different Latin letters are compared to Armenian letters... :)

New Newsletter!!

Armenian Red Cross Youth proudly present our new edition of our Newsletter "RED CROSSroads".

The edition was printed in January, 500 copies, which are now beeing given to the regions, cafees, NGOs and students in Universities. The edition is mostly about Beads for needs, the Norwegian Youth delegates (Kaja and me!) and hiv/aids. Above, you can see some of the regional youth leaders finding the Newsletter very interesting... :)

Emma is enjoying the Newsletter while showing the newest fashion from the Beads for needs group: accesories for bags and purses!

Trip 2 Tbilisi

During my Christmas holiday I visited Georgia for a little week with my dear Fouad from France. We had some wonderful days with his friends and discovered the interesting and beautiful city Tbilisi.

After 7 hours in a cold minibus we arrived the capital with the feeling of spring. + 4 celcius degrees in Tbilisi was a nice contrast to Yerevans - 13 degrees.... Another contrast to Yerevan is that Tbilisi still has an "Old town" with nice streets, restaurants and old castle ruins.

We visited several churches, some 10 maybe, and I almost felt as if I were on a Pilgrim journey... We also ate a lot of lavash (bread), shat hamova (very tasty)!

Tbilisi has a lot of natural warm sources in the underground, and we visited the Turkish bath a couple of evenings to enjoy the warm sulfat water, great!

Another nice experience was visiting the national theatre watching a ballet play for children. Many colourful and cute dances and costumes. And I rented some cool equipments...