Monday, March 24, 2008 @ 3:17 PM
Youth Aids Awareness
Over the weekend, I was invited along with some other bloggers from the Nuffnang community to attend a Youth Aids Awareness event hosted by the Health Promotion Board.
I must admit that I was hesistant about the event in the very beginning, since I haven't exactly fully recovered from the past weekend. I am of course, on the road to recovery. I am officially off the medications and I've also been cutting down on cigarettes. I just need to start focusing and surrounding myself with positive energy. ^^
Anyway, I'm pretty glad that I actually made the effort to attend the event. It might sound weird, but it actually interests me to read/listen/watch stories of real life accounts.
The screening of a short film titled August 29, was held in the preview lounge of Cathay Cineleisure.
There are two videos available on youtube, but I'm gonna just gonna show you guys one.
The short film basically outlines how an Aids Carrier spends her last moments with her boyfriend, and how they cope with the limited time she has left.
I must admit that I was hesistant about the event in the very beginning, since I haven't exactly fully recovered from the past weekend. I am of course, on the road to recovery. I am officially off the medications and I've also been cutting down on cigarettes. I just need to start focusing and surrounding myself with positive energy. ^^
Anyway, I'm pretty glad that I actually made the effort to attend the event. It might sound weird, but it actually interests me to read/listen/watch stories of real life accounts.
The screening of a short film titled August 29, was held in the preview lounge of Cathay Cineleisure.
There are two videos available on youtube, but I'm gonna just gonna show you guys one.
The short film basically outlines how an Aids Carrier spends her last moments with her boyfriend, and how they cope with the limited time she has left.
If I hadn't known that I was attending an Aids Awareness Event, I would have assumed that I was watching a typical love story. Scenes from the short film showed the couple in their happy moments etcetera, and these scenes tugged at my heart with familiarity. Don't you spend time cooking, taking random walks and even falling asleep in the arms of that special someone?
The only difference was of course, the character in the short film was dying of Aids.
One of the representatives of the Health Promotion Board (HPB) explained that in Singapore, the topic of Aids still seems unacceptable and frowned upon despite the growing number of youths contracting the disease. It almost seems like the topic of Aids, is swept under the rug. You see the rug, but you don't see the collecting dust beneath.
Growing up in Singapore, I often had the perception that I was living in one of the safest countries and that we didn't face major problems such as drugs, rape etcetera. Even if we did, it was probably one or two cases that would have already been under microscopic rectification. That of course, was not true.
Youths these days are getting more freedom and of course, are exposed to all kinds of situations including alchohol, drugs, glue sniffing, underage smoking, promiscuity as well as underage pregnancy. I didn't believe that drugs were available in Singapore, until I witnessed a drug bust right at my door step. Believe me, my whole body was trembling in fear while I walked around the house trying to collect my thoughts together. However, there has been efforts to promote drug awareness through dance competitions like DanceWorks organised by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) on a yearly basis.
So of course, the next step would be creating awareness towards Youth Aids. As we move into the future whereby us Singaporeans become more so called "open minded", we need to make the effort to be a little more understanding towards the increase of existing problems affecting the youths these days.
Randomly hopping around the internet, I came across threads on a particular forum that discussed promiscuity and unwanted pregnancies. In this case of course, some netizens were merely taking the opportunity to brag about their promiscuity while some others, seeked for help regarding unwanted pregnancies. Of course if there is promiscuity and unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases would definitely surface right?
It is not about deciding between what is right and what is wrong. After all, different people make different choices. More importantly, this is about addressing the problem in order to prevent regret.
This is where everyone can play a part; by creating awareness about Aids amongst youths. It doesn't matter if your friends are not facing such situations, it is more important to be aware of the problems and equipped with the right knowledge.
With that, I urge all of you to spend a minute fraction of your weekend to head down to Orchard Cineleisure's Foyer to attend the Youth Aids Awareness Events, organised by the Health Promotion Board (HPB). The timings will be as follow,
28th March - 5pm
30th March - 2pm & 3pm
Spread the word! For more information, visit http://www.openyourheart.com.sg/
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