India Barbers Provide AIDS Awareness Tuesday, December 27, 2005
[excerpt] NEW DELHI - Along with the usual hair lotions and creams, Ganga Ram, a barber who does business in the shade of banyan tree, also has the latest tools of his trade - a small pile of condoms and booklets on AIDS prevention. When men settle into Ram's barber chair in New Delhi's Lajpat Nagar market they become captive to what Ram calls his "real mission" - to help them avoid the deadly virus that has infected 5.13 million people in this country of a billion people. India may be the birthplace of Kama Sutra, the 6th century sex manual, but it is also a deeply conservative society, and discussing sexual matters is usually taboo. That makes India's chatty, itinerant barbers a valuable means of spreading the AIDS message. A unique prevention program has trained Ram and more than 10,000 barbers in sterilizing their razors and scissors and has also tutored them to promote condom use, recognize the symptoms of AIDS and answer commonly asked questions about the illness. "Sometimes men find it awkward to discuss their sexual habits. Then I wait till their faces are covered with shaving foam, or I've started cutting their hair, before broaching the topic," says Ram with a wry laugh. "They can't run away then." Indian barbers have a history of offering more than just cutting hair. Traditionally they would travel from village to far-flung village, giving haircuts to regular customers. As they became familiar figures, they often would serve as matchmakers for their customers' families, and spread news of births, deaths or gossip. Today, all over India, the barbershop - often little more than a chair, a mirror and a pair of scissors - is where men gather each day, reading the newspaper and chatting as they await their turn. It is where Swiss-based Association Francois-Xavier Bagnoud http://www.fxb.org/ , a health-centered aid agency, saw an opportunity to get the men's attention. [full story] http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,179837,00.html See also Delhi barbers leads AIDS campaign Barbers in India's capital are part of a unique project aimed at increasing AIDS awareness.. (Read more) http://www.fxb.org/Dec05/DehliBarbersDec16_05.htm ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/uTGrlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -- This is ZESTGlobal. Post articles on international affairs to [email protected] If you got this mail as a forward, subscribe to ZESTGlobal by sending a blank mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR, if you have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/join/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
