Rebekah Jamir
Dimapur | March 5
A study conducted on Northeast India by a Melbourne based group has come out with the finding that 68% of those prone to getting HIV/AIDS are school drop-outs living with their parents and that 84% of them get money from their parents. Moreover, what is disturbing is that these groups of young people were not worried about getting infected by HIV/AIDS. Michelle Kermode of the Australian International Health Institute (AIHI) suggested that “to overcome these problems, the communities like Churches etc should help out and not depend only on the Organizations who are involved in these issues.”
It may be mentioned that in view of the alarming cases of HIV/AIDS in North East India, the Australian International Health Institute (AIHI), University of Melbourne, together with Dr B Langkham and Dr Rebecca Sinate (Emanuel Hospital Association, India/Project ORCHID) and a range of local partners of Nagaland and Manipur organized one day HIV-Prevention Research Dissemination meeting today at Hotel Saramati, Dimapur.
During the meeting, Michelle Kermode of AIHI while presenting the contextual factors associated with first initiation into injecting drug use in Manipur and Nagaland said that according to their survey, the ‘users’ or ‘participants’ at their time of initiation were in the average age of 19-25 years where 66% were single and 16% were married and also found out that 47% of them were influenced to use drugs out of curiosity, to get ‘High’ for pleasure while others gave in to peer pressure.
Speaking with The Morung Express, Michelle said that North-East has more serious problems than other places and when comparing the two states, she said Manipur has more heroin users than Nagaland.
Looking at the other issues during the meeting, the Organizers also focused on participatory intervention to promote the mental health of widows of IDUs (Injecting Drug Use) in Manipur and Nagaland. They projected on how widows are affected in the society and how various programmes like Participatory Action Groups (PAGs) in the States are being conducted to help them.
Two widows who attended programmes like the PAGs also boldly spoke on their difficulties faced and emphasized that they have mainly financial constraints as they are unemployed.
The meeting was also attended by Bethesda, CAD Foundation, DAN, Kripa Foundation, etc.
Morung Express News
