Highlights

Issue 2 of the Wake Up Pune newsletter 'Postive Connections' is now available.
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Wake Up Pune in the news! National coverage in Indian Express...
News Story

MSM, transgender or lesbian/bisexual women's groups! Enter the UNAIDS Poster Competition for World AIDS Day...
News Story

Wake Up Pune announces multiple events running from now until World AIDS Day (1 December) and beyond...
Upcoming Events

Get a condom ringtone on your mobile phone! This has to be heard to be believed - spread awareness with this fantastic musical ringtone.
condomcondom.org

Young people! Have your say on sex education in India! Please visit the NACO website to give your feedback on their new materials for sex education.
NACO

Read Wake Up Pune vounteer Karen McReady's reports from the International AIDS Conference, Mexico.
Reports

'HIV POSITIVE' T-shirt Campaign - new initiative from Wake Up Pune
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HIV Bootcamp - free interactive HIV training sessions for young Puneites
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Thousands attend Wake Up Pune event for Global AIDS Week of Action
News Story

Wake Up Pune given award by UNAIDS
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'HIV Knowledge & Awareness Quiz' conducted on World AIDS Day
Report

 

Wake up Pune conducted a school awareness session on Wednesday the 22nd of April at  Bhojwani school, a private school on the outskirts of Pune. The students of one of the 10th standard classes were continuing their education about the risks and stigma that are associated with sexually transmitted infections especially in regards to HIV/AIDS.

 

On Friday 17th April ‘Wake Up Pune’ hosted a film festival at the Deep Griha Centre on Tadiwala Road in order to document and expend awareness of HIV and AIDS in the community.  The festival attracted a crowd of around forty men, women and children who gathered to watch both ‘My Brother Nikhil’ and ‘Ek Alag Mausaum’ (shown in Hindi and Marathi).

NEW DELHI: "If all Indians are bramhcharis, then how come 30% of all HIV infections at present are within the age group of 15-24 years?" 

This was the reaction of K Sujatah Rao, director-general of National Aids Control Organisation K Sujatha Rao, to Rajya Sabha's Committee on Petitions' argument slamming the HRD ministry's Adult Education Programme (AEP).

Comprising RS members and headed by BJP's Venkaiah Naidu, the committee has recommended that there should be no sex education in schools. According to the committee, AEP is a "cleverly used euphemism whose real objective was to impart sex education in schools and promote promiscuity".

The Times of India

 

India's Maharashtra state has banned the introduction of sex education in schools after protests from legislators who say it will corrupt young minds.

The move is being seen as a setback to central government efforts to introduce sex education in schools countrywide.

Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh states recently announced similar decisions.

India has the highest number of Aids patients in the world. However sex is still a taboo subject in many parts of the country.

The Maharashtra government also said it will not be introducing sex education books as part of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus.

Monica Chadha, BBC News

The AIDS epidemic is spreading faster than previously thought, even as the American public's concern about it declines. That dangerous disconnect underscores the urgency of a new campaign announced by the Obama administration to combat complacency about the disease and its potential to strike the unwary.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2006, 56,000 people around the country were newly infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, a hefty boost from previous estimates of 40,000.

The New York Times

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary committee has disfavoured introduction of sex education in schools and suggested inclusion of appropriate chapters in 
Biology syllabus, but not before plus two stage.

"Message should appropriately be given to school children that there should be no sex before marriage which is immoral, unethical and unhealthy," the committee on petitions of Rajya Sabha said in its latest report which said "there should be no sex education in schools".

The Times of India

"When it comes to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, there is an alarming complacency among Americans," a Washington Post editorial says. It adds, "Perhaps it's the success of antiretroviral drug treatments. In the eyes of many, those drugs have transformed the disease from one with no cure to a manageable ailment." It might be the "view that AIDS is more of a worry in Africa or Southeast Asia," the editorial says, adding, "But it's not just happening 'over there.' And the Obama administration took a first step last week to remind people that it's happening right here, right now."

Mbabane - Anecdotal evidence that entrenched cultural beliefs among Swazis actively encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS has been confirmed by a joint government and UN report.

The study by UN the Population Fund (UNFPA) and Swaziland's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare - The State of the Swaziland Population - echoes warnings by local NGOs that "AIDS cannot be stopped unless there is a change in people's sexual behaviour."

allafrica.com