Empowering 200 Awajun Youths to Prevent HIV

"Senchi manitkami juujata HIV-SIDA" is the message engraved on the mural made in the community of Villa Gonzalo. The idea of putting this message -which in spanish means "Fight against HIV-AIDS"- was made by young people, who also suggested that the representative image should be, as seen in the image, a tiger, as a representation of the strength of their culture to fight against the disease.

This was just one of the activities executed between February 21^st and March 1^st in the community of Villa Gonzalo and Puerto Galilea, both located in the district of Rio Santiago (Amazonas Region), where there were other activities, such as:

• Radio workshops, in which young people learned locution-animation techniques and elaboration of wedges and radio spots associated with the prevention and control of HIV. This process ended, in the case of both communities, with the broadcast of a live radio program.
• Theater workshops, in which techniques of expressiveness and improvisation were used to strengthen social skills. This was reflected in two presentations -one for each community- that addressed the myths and truths about HIV. Both were set in sceneries elaborated by the young people of the communities, in collaboration with the team of Salud Sin Limites, Peru.

Before the beginning of each activity, young people were given informative talks on the four pillars on which our intervention was based - "HIV / AIDS is a different disease", "Infection", "Detection" and "Treatment" - and participated in parades that aimed at strengthening their indigenous identity through the relationship between space and their cosmology, establishing the analogy “care of their territory / care of their body”.