HIV & AIDS awareness seminar for the Gypsy Community

26 April 2009

Due to the increasing number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), security zones, and poverty, HIV & AIDS is steadily becoming a major threat in Sri Lanka. ADT’s Project Positive team embarked on conducting an awareness programme for the ‘gypsy community’ in the ancient capital of Anuradhapura on the 26th of April, 2009.

This community consists of people displaced from the war zones. They are a community very vulnerable for contacting HIV/AIDS due to their lifestyle & also because they keep moving from place to place. Due to poverty their levels of education too are very low. ADT worked closely with this community. Topics such as, the basics of HIV & AIDS, how it spreads, and the dangers of the disease were taught in a manner which was very simple & easy to understand. 35 gypsies attended the seminar which was conducted in Tamil, the language they were familiar with.
ADT hopes to conduct similar seminars on HIV/AIDS, educating the gypsy communities living in the rest of the island.