Training tribal leaders in Thailand
Rowe, L.
Aids Health Promotion Exchange 2: 3-6
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 1013-7785 PMID: 12318834 Document Number: 285051
More than 500,000 hill tribe people with distinct languages and cultures live in Thailand. Extensive reforestation reducing the amount of land which they are entitled to cultivate and a ban on opium production have resulted in increased trafficking of opium and heroin from neighboring countries as well as a higher level of prostitution. The frequent injection of heroin with shared needles, turnaround migration between urban and rural areas, tourism, extensive body tattooing, infant ear piercing under unsterile conditions, and unsterile injection practices by barefoot doctors in the context of prostitution and heroin use bode ill for the prevention of widespread HIV transmission. The government has distributed AIDS information, but most tribal people cannot understand the materials. High illiteracy rates and less than mainstream Thai impede their understanding of explanations about disease. The Health Project for Tribal People therefore developed an HIV/AIDS program which is culturally and linguistically relevant for the hill tribes. The training of village leaders as educators is an important component of the project. Teams of lay people were trained in basic techniques of surveying, pretesting materials, and teaching. Project start-up, the selection of educators, training methodologies, practice teaching, extra support, follow-up, successes and problems, and the next phase are described.