How to Teach AIDS Awareness

Since its official diagnosis in the 1980s, AIDS has exploded across the globe. AIDS.org reports that, by the year 2000, the disease killed more than 20 million people and infected more than 30 million. Although recent studies and developments have helped make the symptoms of AIDS relatively more manageable since the 1980s, the disease is still not curable. In the case of AIDS, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. Therefore, spreading public awareness of the disease is vital to keep it from spreading -- what you don't know can, in fact, kill you.

Things You'll Need

• Computer with Internet access
• Slide show software
• Projector
• Large white screen

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Instructions

• 1

  Raise awareness in your local community. You don't have to be a community leader to do this. Furthermore, AIDS is a global issue which is not limited to a specific geographic region or ethnicity. Use your local community center, church, synagogue or other publicly-available and supportive organization. Make phonecalls, put up fliers and send emails. If your community has an online networking site, use that to disseminate information.

• 2

  Research your topic. There is a lot of information out there on AIDS, some of it more reliable than others. Use credible sources such as those from the National Library of Medicine or the Centers for Disease Control. Once you have your information, create a syllabus for teaching that flows well and include some basic AIDS history, facts, and possible preventative measures. Create a slideshow or use other visual aids for your presentation. If you do create a slideshow, make sure that you have a projector that you can hook up to your computer and a white screen on which to project.

• 3

  Tailor the presentation for specific audiences. For example, whereas an older crowd of adults, teenagers, or even middle-schoolers may understand that you can contract AIDS via sexual contact, smaller children may not. Therefore, you may want to warn younger children about touching blood or hypodermic needles, as opposed to sexual contact. Also, while children should understand the detrimental effect of AIDS on the human body, there is no reason to expose them to the extreme effects that AIDS can take in a victim. Adults, however, should be exposed to any and all information regarding AIDS about what it can do to the human body, and how to prevent contact with it.