Sisters start newspaper about AIDS | |  | Issue: AIDS
Activity: Wordbuilding
Other: Links |
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| Trendsetters
In Zambia, two sisters, Cathy and Mary Phiri, have set up a newspaper to educate young people about AIDS. The paper is called Trendsetters and is now four years old.
| | | AIDS :
Vocabulary
Fact file
What is it?
How bad is it?
What causes it?
Prevalence?
AIDS (also Aids)
Aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) is a weakening of the immune system by the virus, HIV
HIV
HIV (human
immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that reduces people's resistance to illness destroying the immune system.
writing explicitly
saying exactly what things mean - it can involve the use of sexual words.
sexually transmitted diseases
often written as STDs in reports - these are diseases that are given to another person through sex.
condom
a rubber covering put on a penis and used during sexual intercourse to protect against infections and pregnancy.
devastating
something that is devastating severely damages or destroys something else.
epidemic
an occurence of a disease which spreads quickly and affects a large number of people.
Related words :
Syndrome
A group of illnesses that always occur together.
vaccine
a substance containing a harmless form of the germs that cause a disease.
treatment
all the things dome to make a sick person well again.
prevention
an action that stops something from happening.
spread
the spread of something is its increasing presence or occurence. |
  There was no media aimed at young people about HIV and AIDS. 
Cathy Phiri, Trendsetters | |
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10,000 copies sell out every month and there's also a special edition for secondary school pupils.
Breaking taboos
When the paper started it attracted a lot of criticism for writing explicitly about sex.The paper tries to encourage young women to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by being more assertive and asking their boyfriends to use condoms.
This is especially difficult for young women who are often treated as second-class citizens by older men. |
| At least they use the kind of language we also use.
Trendsetters reader | |
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Devastating effects |
 More than two thirds of the people who die from AIDS live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although their are signs that the devastatingepidemic may be stablising, the United Nations estimates that AIDS will kill more than one third of young adults in some parts of Africa. |
| Trendsetters is valued by readers because it gives clear information on how to have safe sexual relationships. It also deals with difficult subjects - for example, how to talk to a rape survivor.
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| It's very realistic. ...... It helped me realise that anyone can catch Aids and we must all be careful.
Trendsetters readers | |
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Funding the project
Initial funding for the paper came from the John Hopkins Center for Communication Programmes in the USA.Then it attracted the support of the British international development charity, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO).
Extra effort is now going into getting the paper out to young people in rural areas where the need for information on HIV and AIDS is greatest. And even though many young women in rural areas can not read, they find out about Trendsetters from friends, thanks to the tradition of sharing stories and information. |
| One copy will be read by 20 or 30 people who can share the information with their friends and colleagues.
Dolores Long, VSO | |
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