AUGUST 23.2008 • Quotes I 3
A modem AIDS epidemic
from page I
the average number of sexual partners,
according to an AP report.
“Who conducted the interviews? Who
wrote up the results? If it was the same folks
handing out the gift cards I wouldn’t put
much stock in those reported reductions in
rates of unsafe sex and reductions numbers of
sexual partners,” Savage wrote in an Aug. 11
post at TheStranger.com’s SLOG blog. “It’s pos
sible that the 300 men enrolled in the program
were telling the gift-card-givers what they
wanted to hear in order to keep the gift cards
coming. Or, if the gift-card-givers had a stake
in the success of the program, it’s possible the
gift-card-givers were inclined to read good
results into inconclusive data.”'
Johnson told Q-Notes that MAP also gives
gift cards to men who complete their risk
reduction training sessions “as a way to
compensate them for their time and energy,”
but he stressed that he believes the program
is working.
“I think programs like D-UP! are effective,”
he said. “It is important for people to know as
much as they can about how the virus is
affecting our community. We are encouraging
people to have conversations about HIV and
risk reduction tools and techniques.”
When people come into the trainings,
Johnson said, many of them have no idea how
to protect themselves against HIV AIDS
activists have long believed that education and
frank discussion of the issues will dramatical-
■
ly improve HIV-infection rates. .V
Johnson added that HIV testing is a major ■'
portion of MAP’s and D-UP!’s programming
and they provide free HIV testing at the gay%
nightclubs they visit in and around Charlotte.
He also said that approximately 100 young
men had been trained as pqpular opinion
leaders in 2008 alone.
Greg Varnum, the acting executive director
of the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, told
Q-Notes that his organization “doesn’t think
the gift card program is that bad of an idea.”
“The gift cards are a way of engaging
young people and bringing them to the table,”
he said. “Social marketing campaigns are suc
cessful and they do work. Offering incentives
for youth leaders to participate in them is not
unusual and is a pretty common practice.”
Only 25 years old himself, Varnum relates to
a youth culture that never experienced the hor
rors of the first wave of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“We have dialogue with younger people
who’ve never experienced the original AIDS
epidemic,” he said, “but we also have a' modern
AIDS epidemic we are experiencing in a dif
ferent wayT
And like the risqud D-UP! “Prevention is
Sexy” media campaigns, Varnum doesn’t see a
problem in using sex to sell prevention of a
health crisis that is inextricably intertwined
with sex.
“We can talk to any marketing expert today.
and they will tell you that sex sells,”Varnum said.
We ihay not like it but unfortunately we don’t get
to create the environment we work in. If we want
to attract the interest of young people, we have to
keep in mind tliat we’re competing with multi-
milion dollar organizations who are using sex.”
Akil Campbell, the executive director and
founder of Rdeigh’s Men United for HIV/AIDS
Awareness (MUFHA) also believes, like Varnum,
that a more holistic approach needs to be taken
when addressing education and prevention.
“The key to reaching these at-risk persons
is determining where they are, their habits
outside of sexual activities, and when they
would be more likely to receive health infor
mation,” Campbell told Q-Notes. That means
taking outreach and prevention measures to
schools, colleges, nightclubs, the internet and
even retail stores.
Campbell’s organization also believes
incentives work to engage people who’d other
wise likely not care and completely miss any
messages for how to keep themselves safe.
Varnum also thinks abstinence-only sex edu
cation needs to go. “Our stand is that abstinence-
only sex education does not work,” he said. “We
believe it is harmful in regard to safe-sex prac
tices and stopping4he HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
If education and prevention programs are
going to be successful, Varnum explained,
they’ll need to be developed by the same
young people they’re meant to serve.
“Programming not developed by young peo
ple, for young people doesn’t work.” I
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