Author: Caitlin O’Grady, First Year, Undeclared

Amount Requested: $1180

 

This project is focused on the growing HIV/AIDS pandemic of the Russian Federation. The goal is to increase AIDS awareness in the country’s youth because this is the area of the population which has been hit the hardest.  Teens will be assembled in focus groups to come up with ways to reach their peers either through the media or through school. There are two sub goals involved: to increase awareness of the tuberculosis epidemic and the growing injecting drug problem.

 

The audience for this project will be the society but more specifically the Russian Health Ministry. The results will be presented to the Minister of Health after the ideas created by the focus groups have been recorded. The results will contribute to a public awareness campaign in Russia.

 

The general method being used to conduct this project will be gathering volunteers from high schools and colleges into several test groups to see how much they understand about HIV/AIDS by giving them a questionnaire to answer. Then they will be asked which ways would be most effective in allowing information to reach their peers. These results will then be compiled into a report, and both an English copy and a Russian copy will be delivered to the Ministry of Health.