Miami teacher leads way for AIDS education in schoolsSt. Brendan High School’s Ainhoa Tollinche takes her message to attendees of the Southeastern Conference of Catholic AIDS Ministers near Atlanta. Posted: 08.26.08  Ainhoa Tollinche participates in a group discussion at the Southeastern Conference of Catholic AIDS Ministers in Norcross, Ga., Aug. 14. Tollinche, a theology teacher at St. Brendan High School in Miami, established an HIV/AIDS education program at her school eight years ago when four students approached her about starting an AIDS ministry group. NORCROSS, GA. (CNS) | Education still remains the strongest prevention method in the fight against AIDS and the learning must also take place in Catholic schools, a Miami Catholic educator told those attending the Southeastern Conference of Catholic AIDS Ministers near Atlanta. The HIV/AIDS education program Ainhoa Tollinche established at St. Brendan’s Catholic High School in Miami eight years ago came about when four students approached the theology teacher about starting an extracurricular AIDS ministry group, she said during the Aug. 11–15 conference. The program begins in freshman year and extends through senior year. The curriculum covers the history of the disease, transmission, prevention, statistics, treatment options, myths and realities, activities that range from prayer to role playing, and discussions on responsible decision–making and the moral and emotional repercussions of premarital sex, she said. In addition to reaching students, Tollinche also travels to church communities to give her basic freshman presentation to help raise awareness among those who know little or nothing about the disease. Tollinche told the crowd that she is sharing this information so others can use it. The best place to get information and strategies on how to help spread the awareness message is “right here” with all the AIDS ministers from throughout the country, she said. “Anybody here can do this work,” she said. “All it really takes is a desire to serve and love.” Statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer show that black and Latino communities face an HIV/AIDS crisis in numbers that mirror the early years of the disease. Leaders at the conference said they must reshape prevention and education programs with new techniques for different cultures. In 2007 the National Black Catholic Congress adopted a new teaching curriculum on HIV and AIDS, which is currently being used in the archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington, and it is up for consideration as a national model. Martha Carter–Bailey, director of the Office of African–Ancestry Ministry and Evangelization in the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., said the program recognizes many young people are living in single–family homes or being raised with grandparents. It urges adults to talk to young people about the disease. The program also recommends that sex be discussed openly within a faith setting, she said. “It’s important that we teach our students about HIV/AIDS in our (Catholic) schools,” she said. “Where else would you want it talked about?” Leaders at the conference said the Catholic Church should be a leader in education by including HIV studies in the science classroom, as well as lessons about society’s response to the disease in theology studies, she said. According to the CDC, black Americans in 2005 accounted for close to 50 percent of the estimated 37,331 new HIV or AIDS diagnoses in the U.S., and nearly 70 percent of Georgians living with the disease are black. The church office surveyed 75 black women in Clark County, N.C., and 35 reported they got the disease from a partner released from prison, Carter–Bailey said. AIDS was the fourth–leading cause of death for Latino men and women ages 35 to 44 in 2005, according to the CDC. They account for 18 percent of the new diagnoses of HIV or AIDS reported to the Atlanta–based federal agency. Irene Miranda, director of the Atlanta archdiocesan HIV/AIDS ministry office, said the services developed in the 1980s during the early years of the disease have to be revised for new groups of people. She said it doesn’t do any good if an AIDS ministry in a parish cannot communicate with Latinos on sensitive sex–related issues. Another challenge is developing new methods for parents to talk to their children about prevention. Carter–Bailey said children of African immigrants are often not given parental consent to hear the frank talk she has with black American teens. She said these parents tell her these conversations are not part of their culture. This obstacle forces her to find new ways to ensure that immigrant children get the message in a way that is sensitive to African cultures, she said. Tollinche said Latino parents she encounters also set different standards for their children, where the girls are expected to remain chaste and boys are encouraged to have sex. “The message is completely different,” she said. “What they are doing is contributing to spreading the disease.” Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
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