Ms Julia Matthews is a Senior Coordinator of Reproductive Health Project in Women’s Commission for Refugees and Children. She is currently working on the project of HIV / AIDS prevention and Control.

AWN recently conducted an interview with her about the current training on HIV / AIDS Prevention and Control that was implemented in May, 2005, Peshawar by AWN.

Giving a brief introduction about Women’s Commission she said; The Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children founded in 1989 is an independent affiliate of the International Rescue Committee. The Commission works for protection of refugee and displaced women, children and adolescents, encourage their participation ensures their access to education, health services and livelihood opportunities

She said that our 4th training of HIV / AIDS Prevention and Control was conducted in June, 2004 in Islamabad.

What was the purpose and objective of the Training?
The purpose of this training was to pilot test the coming training in Thailand, Kenya, Syralon and Pakistan. The objective was to train humanitarian workers to deepen their individual understanding of the complexities of HIV/AIDS and to equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to improve HIV/AIDS programme design and implementation in their communities.

How was the feedback of this training?
The feed back was very good; the participants were very active and most belonged to NGOs. They took keen interest in each day of training.

How was your experience of conducting the training in this region in contrast to the trainings you provided in other regions?
We experienced to test it in a different culture. Although the feedback was very good but some courses did not work very well in an environment with men and women together, e.g. condom, orases, naming different products of body.

We hold test in Asia, Africa in conflict settings. Doctors and highly specialized old educated people have odd attitude and I think this will not change until people have change of attitude.

Will Afghan refugees also benefit from these training?
Yes, Afghan Refugees will also benefit from the training, Training could allow in controlling and early detection.

How do you collect the feedback from participants?
A Short report of the activity and indicators is collected at the end of each day of training and after complete training.

What output do you expect from the current training ?

And what would you expect form the participants of this training generally and AWN specifically? Each participant has the objective to know that they will be in constat work in future and they will train their staff. AWN deals a lot of these issues and is capable of doing more. I believe it will continue to raise awareness and build capacity in providing further trainings.

Thank you very much Julia for giving us time. It was nice meeting you.
Thank you too Saeed.

http://www.afghanwomensnetwork.org/
Official website of Afghan Women's Network

Author: Tahir Saeed