Afghan youths go house-to-house raising HIV awareness

HIV/AIDS is the focus of a door-to-door campaign carried out by young people in the south-eastern province of Nangarhar.

Youth groups have recently conducted nearly 400 awareness-raising sessions across six districts, including the provincial capital, Jalalabad.

Azizullah Noor, UNICEF's child protection office who works to support this initiative of the Department of Youth and the Department of Public Health, said that the campaign had been conducted in Momandara, Durbaba, Lalpura, Kama, Surkhrod and Behsud districts.

In the Kampoona neighbourhood of Jalalabad city youth educators met people in the streets and shared information about the HIV virus and AIDS, handing out flyers and pasting posters on walls.

Nur Agha Zwak, director of the Nangarhar Department of Youth said his department trained young people to conduct this community-based awareness-raising.

"The message was conveyed, and people who were covered by the campaign are now aware of the danger of HIV and the safeguards needed to protect themselves from its infection," he said.

According to Afghanistan's National AIDS Control Programme, 504 individuals have been documented as HIV-positive as of November 2008. But UNAIDS has reported that the actual number of cases is likely significantly higher.

Low levels of surveillance and testing – and a heightened sense of taboo and stigma – has made it almost impossible to document the reality of the epidemic, said UNICEF in its website, adding that it has been working since 2003 with the Ministry of Public Health to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and its contributing factors and risks.