18.02.2012National anti-AIDS campaign “Prezervatiraj!” (Use condom!!) in Veliko Tarnovo and Pavlikeni
The activities this year on February 14th in Veliko Tarnovo implemented by Center Amalipe and the volunteer’s Club K7 were traditionally organized and conducted in partnership with the Regional Health Inspection (RHI), the Municipality of Veliko Tarnovo, the Bulgarian Red Cross Youth, the Youth Center and the Local commission to fight anti-social behavior of minors and under age persons.
There were several initiatives which marked the February 14th campaign.
One of the objectives of the campaign was to popularize the HIV testing among young people. For this purpose Amalipe, RHI and volunteers promoted the testing at KABKIS. Traditionally, young volunteers organized one day of the campaign in front of the municipality where they exposed a big red heart and a big red ribbon under the motto “Getting to Zero” on it. There were questions in the shape of a heard sticked on the big heart which were related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH). When pedestrians answered correctly they received handmade gifts like valentine symbols, love messages or heart buttons made by Klub K7 volunteers. Thus, the pedestrians had the possibility to express their thoughts and messages about the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. All collected messages sent out positive signals. Some of them said “All you need is love”, “I love you Gosho”, “Be informed, not HIV-infected”, “I want to be you valentine” and others.
Several of the distributed brochures were made by volunteers at the end of the last year and have been adapted to the age group we are targeting.
Concerts organized by young people became a tradition for Klub K7 and Amalipe as well. The concert of young performers of songs and dances took place in the hall of the community center/ library “Iskra” at 7pm on February 14th, 2012. It included again a variety of different vocal and dance styles. Some of the artists on stage were Mladen Borisov with the ballet Fresh Air Crew, the Hip Hop artist Drunk, the ballet V-Dance, Mila – the vocalist of the group Kovu, Kalina Bozhkova, Kristiyan and Mariela and others. The volunteers continued to distribute condoms and educational material during the event.
As part of the national anti-AIDS campaign “Prezervatiraj se!” the mobile team of the Anonymous and Free Counseling and Testing of HIV/AIDS Unit visited the school “Nikolaj Katranov” in Svishtov with the aim to test all the young people there.
The Klub K7 - Veliko Tarnovo is involved in national efforts to help destitute areas in Southern Bulgaria. For this reason volunteers of the Bulgarian Red Cross Youth collected donations during the concert.
Another well established tradition is that volunteers of the Center Amalipe and of the Center for Community Development in the town of Pavlikeni participated in the anti-AIDS campaign. There the young people also distributed handmade valentine symbols and condoms as an appeal for safe sex.
Recent data on the prevalence rate of HIV in Bulgaria published just before February 14 by the Ministry of Health show that the total number of officially registered HIV-infected people is 1486. The number of newly reported seropositive patients since the beginning of 2012 is 13 – including 10 men and 3 women aged between 24 and 59 years.
