A Partnership with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to Combat HIV/AIDS

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Raising Awareness of our Intervention
1. My group members and I will  set up a meeting with the board members at both of the Ethiopian Orthodox Churches in Los Angeles and tell them about the significant impact they can have if they do workshops, raise awareness, and talk about prevention of HIV/AIDS in their churches. We will inform them about this low budget conference that we are planning and hope they will be willing to participate. [My dad is a board member of the church and thinks this is a great idea]
2. My friends and I will
pass out fliers with my website address (http://orthodoxchurchandhiv.weebly.com/) to inform them about this conference and motivate them that we MUST TAKE ACTION NOW.
3. Go to
restaurants in Little Ethiopia and see which places will donate food, drinks, and dessert. [Because we will be working with these churches, a non-profit, we will give these restaurants the church's tax ID so that they will receive tax breaks from their donations]
4. The first Sunday in July, my friends and I will
pass out a questionnaire after church (ensuring everyone that these surveys will be anonymous and that this will be used to help plan our conference; the questions will cover HIV prevalence, transmission modes, prevention activities, etc.
5. We will address the concerns and elements from the questionnaire at the conference.
The Conference
1. Panel discussion with
4 priests, 2 deacons, 2 board members from the church and 2 Ethiopian public health activists.
2. Conference will cover significant role of Ethiopian Orthodox Church (people's respect for the church and its power), HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia, knowledge of prevention activities, and elements from the questionnaire.
 
3. We will talk about why the church does not talk about condoms; their hesitation to promote the ideas of using condoms because it may lead to promiscuity.
4. We will discuss PEPFAR in Ethiopia; have the political activists discuss the importance of the church to
emphasize AB and not to forget to mention C.
5. Q&A

Pros of the Conference:
  • Leaders of the church will understand the significance of emphasizing prevention activities instead of ignoring the fact that people are having sex
  • Church members will understand that the church does not want to promote unfaithfulness or promiscuity.
  • Everyone will learn something knowledgeable at this conference.