Blog#6: ABC Policy
I recently watched the "Age of AIDS" documentry created by Frontline. This documentry shows the political, ecomnoic, and medical struggles created by AIDS. I of the policies I took notice of during the documentry was the ABC policy. The ABC stands for "Abstinence, Be Faithfull, and Condom Use." This policy was set in place by the Ugandan President Museveni during the outbreak of AIDS in his country. This policy gets straight to the point on the three best techniques of prevnting AIDS, known today. Museveni stated that one should be abstinent, if you have sex then be faithfull, if can not do these two then finally use a condom Frontline 2006). Hearing these words come from the Presidents mouth made a huge impact on how the message was recieved. It took away from the ebarrasment some people associate with when talking about sex education. Also, the president would pass out condoms himself when sending his message of the ABC policy. If this policy helped reduce the transmission of HIV in Uganda then why not try it in the US? Well this is a simple question without a simple answer. With so many political and religious views regarding contraception this policy may never find roots in the US. Its funny how we Americans regard ourselves as well educated (smarter than say a third world counrty to say the least) yet when it comes to sexual education there are a thousand different policies to prevent it.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/aids/view/
DYK: HIV Education in New York
In this article it states that the city of New York requires certian HIV education measure be taken throught grade school. After reading these policies they look to be a very well planned cirriculum to educate our youth about STD's and HIV. However, the cirriculum becomes fualty when the guidlines are not being met. The statistics are startling low on the percentage of schools following up with the cirriculum, using qualified teachers, and facilities able for students use. No matter how well an plan is set in place if the proper actions are not taking place then the goal will not be met. The problem here is that the students are not the ones at fault but are the ones that are suffering do to the lack of emplimenting the HIV education plan in New York.
http://www.thebody.com/content/art50770.html
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I actually thought about the same thing about the ABC policy when I watched the movie. It is so easy to implement policies and give advice to other people but so hard to do it. After taking this class, I feel like even as a biology major, I did not know a lot about the social aspect of HIV. I can only imagine how some of the people think about it.
ReplyDeleteThis country, for all its technological advances, is still a puritan country at heart. We don't know how to talk about sex, even though we use it to sell everything. We let religion run the country when it should take a back seat and shut up. Our wealth will not save our children.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that nowadays people still feel that these topics are a bit of a taboo. I think that there needs to be more outspoken leaders. I also like when celebrities pick up certain causes and raise money, because as shallow as it might be people will join just because famous people do.
ReplyDeleteSo true Teach, I would not knock religion but when it comes to sex education times have changed and the abstience message has failed. So we can not let religion deem how we teach in our public school system.
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