Many factors have contributed to the explosive spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa; sadly some of these Bolivia shares. The macho/patriarchal and heavily religious elements which enjoy such power in Bolivian society contribute heavily to the lack of sexual education. Moreover, goods are transported throughout the country by land – creating a large cadre of (overwhelmingly male) workers who work far from home. Sex and sexual education are still taboo topics here, which unfortunately escalates the danger of Bolivia having a more serious problem with the virus.
However, there are some communities who are taking steps to educate themselves and their youth about the disease. Susan Grunstrom’s site, La Mamora, is one such community. 
The classic ‘PC’ way to run a “taller” (pronounced, tie-y-er) is to find local professionals who can help us run things. Pictured above are the town Dr. and her two assistants who are more or less in a form of residency for medical school at the moment.
We try to mix up giving information with educational games to move folks around and 
hopefully get them thinking. The picture above and to the right
are of a dynamic game a few Santa Cruz volunteers invented. Susan (the very tall Gringa) is in the middle as herself and the Bolivians surrounding her are her immune system. They hold hands and ‘defend’ Susan while other Bolivians, representing viruses and diseases try to break through and make her ill. 
As we know humans do not die specifically from HIV/AIDS but rather from other ailments as the virus destroys their immune systems.
Another game towards the end of the taller had everyone pair up and start dancing, when the music stopped we all had to change partners. After about 5 minutes we stopped – and only one pair had not changed partners. The idea was to show that only through partner loyalty are sexually active partners safe. 
Much of what we went over in this taller would be considered boring overkill by most US fifth graders but almost all of the information was new to this community.
Food for thought :
Two short anecdotes: A few weeks ago a former Dutch exchange student came back to San Lorenzo to visit my host family (the Antelo’s). Clara’s good friend (Sofie) from the exchange program was visiting as well. During her stay here Sofie’s Bolivian mother repeatedly told her that she would get cancer if she had pre-marital sex. Not so shocking perhaps in a culture that fights so thoroughly against education however, this host mother was not only a nurse but taught (and to my knowledge still teaches) in the local nursing school in the city.
On another note, there are Bolivians who are trying to spread HIV/AIDS education around the country. One such organization is called SidAccion and is based in the city of Cochabamba. SidAccion provided our HIV/AIDS training in October ‘06.
They recounted that when they first started teaching about proper condom use they used the ends of brooms to demonstrate. But a few months later when they were conducting follow-up interviews they learned that some couples were putting condoms on their brooms and heading off to their bedrooms – thinking they were perfectly safe.
Needless to say, there are all sorts of hidden obstacles to teaching in extremely rural and uneducated areas.
Hasta luego !
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