TIPI dreams: HIV AIDS prevention tool
he Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) launches TIPI dreams: a new HIV AIDS prevention tool for Aboriginal AIDS Awareness Week takes place December 1-5, 2012.
TIPI dreams is a 12 minute video composed of short scenes that tell the story of two First Nations 15 year old girls in the child welfare system, and a mother living with AIDS who has children in care. Different themes are addressed – from HIV /AIDS stigma and discrimination, condom negotiation, safe /unsafe sex, going for testing; and the role of youth in becoming allies against discrimination.
The toolkit was developed in response to what we heard in engagement sessions held across the country with young Aboriginal women and girls. We found that many young Aboriginal women and girls living with AIDS today had spent time in care as youth. After speaking with girls in care, and the staff who worked with them, NWAC found many girls still lacked knowledge about how HIV and STIs are transmitted and how these infections are preventable.
The toolkit includes a video, a “cinema forum” facilitator’s guide, and a tipi making kit. Cinema forum is an action oriented teaching tool that gets youth to actively think about how to do things differently. The project received an extension grant from the Public Health Agency of Canada, will soon run training workshops in cinema forum facilitation, in partnership with Aboriginal Service Organizations and Mis Au Jeu, a popular education/forum theatre company, to extend its reach to youth across Canada.
For additional information on this tool, please contact:
Erin Corston, Director of Health
Toll free 1-800-461-4043
Tel.: 613-722-3033 x. 224
Email: ecorston@nwac.ca
