Sexual+Health+Awareness

=Sexual Health Awareness=
 * By Gemma McDowell

Introduction** Today’s youth are at risk, previous campaigns for prevention of HIV and Aids have been fantastic with numbers of new cases dropping, but many other sexually transmitted infections are still on the increase, Chlamydia for example, 389 men and 653 women between July-December 2008 in the northern territory were reported as being infected. (Department of health and families) The problem with Chlamydia is that people do not show symptoms for many years if any at all so they may contract this particular infection when in their youth but not find out about it till well into their adult years. Another is Gonorrhoea in 2008 in the northern territory a total of 1566 cases were recorded of these 770 were males and 793 were females.( Department of health and families) In approximately 10-20% of women the infection spreads to the fallopian tubes they call this “salpingitis” Salpingitis is a form of PID (Pelvic Inflammatory Disease) Women who have had PID need to be especially careful not to come in contact with gonorrhoea (gonorrhoea) as the risk of infertility increases greatly with renewed inflammation. ( www.gonorrhea-symptoms.info )

Gonorrhoea can also cause infertility in men, But these are just two infections there are many more. The aim is to raise awareness about staying safe, showing youth what is available to them, what services they can access; the aim is also to give young people enough information to empower them to make healthy choices. We will do this using the help of service providers in the area providing handouts advice and information on the day. Also to involve youth in the setting up and running of the event to give them ownership, I will be involved to help support them in the process any way I am needed but the organisation will be up to them. If we can get youth to engage other youths in this event it will have a better chance of success rather than adults preaching the same stories that they have probably heard already.

I approached the local middle and high school in my area which was Darwin middle and high school, spoke to the principle and put forward my idea, he encouraged me to put my idea together for an assembly. I did this and asked the young people if they would be interested in helping to set up and run an event to raise awareness, the response was more than I ever expected and from those volunteers we chose a board of 10 people and they were going to organise and delegate other jobs between the other volunteers .The group will meet at Darwin middle school.
 * Consultation**

We brainstormed ideas about what would attract young people to our event so we could get information to as many as possible, the young group decided to write a letter to Michael Long the afl player and coach for team thunder, he responded quickly and offered his time and some of his teams time to help us. Then our group of excited young people contacted the local news paper to tell them about our event. We also contacted
 * Networking and Event**
 * · clinic 34
 * · Darwin council (venue)
 * · Salvation army
 * · Local butchers
 * · Bakery
 * · Bunning’s warehouse
 * · Corrugated iron
 * · City library
 * · Local community centre



The event was going to be a few short talks by the group about sexual health and safe sex including some fun workshop type activities based around risk taking assessments, with the local footy players giving us their thoughts on safe sex and sexual health, followed by some ball skills being demonstrated and the chance for young people to get involved, Bunning’s will donate the use of their BBQ and also some big plywood panels and paint for graffiti art to be done, the local butcher will donate sausages, the bakery the bread, salvation army will provided drinks and sauces and information, Corrugated iron is happy to provide some entertainment in the form of some dancers with opportunity to let young people try it and get involved. The next jobs the group had to do was fill out a permit from the council for the use of the botanical gardens, decide a time and date and advertise the event, they designed some posters and placed them up at school, the local community centre and school bus stops. Then they had to delegate jobs on the day each taking turns with cooking the sausages and handing out information, setting up tables and chairs for the volunteers on the day for clinic 34, salvos etc, who were providing lots of handouts and information. Some would come early for set up and others would come later and stay for pack up. The graffiti art was going to need preparing and the boards were going to be titled “ what does safe sex mean to you” with space for youth to put up their ideas, which was then going to be displayed firstly in both schools then the local library and community centre.

· On the day we could hand out feedback forms and ask people what the thought of the information provided.
 * Evaluation**
 * · We could gauge the success of the event by the number of young people that attended,
 * ·  How many information leaflets were taken,
 * ·  How many approached and asked for information about things concerning them.