In 1994 a group of young people from Chiangrai, in Northern Thailand, formed an AIDS awareness group called Sang Fan Wan Mai Group, after we witnessed HIV-positive people in villages starting to show symptoms, or dying of AIDS. This was at a time when villagers and communities feared contracting the disease from positive people and held negative attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS: they despised them, including their relatives.

We participated in training for youth volunteers called "Motivation for Safer Sex" organised by Rak Thai Foundation (CARE International-Thailand). Not long after we started campaign activities to prevent the spread of HIV, we lost a friend who shared our ideal in HIV prevention work. Soon afterwards friends, relatives, villagers and people in surrounding communities became infected. More and more people turned symptomatic and died of AIDS, leaving behind children and the elderly who cared for the household in the midst of loads of responsibilities. Worse impacts followed on the death of parents, like the upsurge of orphans and social problems that tagged along. The whole situation could be compared with leaves falling off a tree, leaving only dry branches to await the approach of death.

Our first approach to educating people about the dangers of AIDS was to use puppets. The Puppet Show Youth Group of Sang Fan Wan Mai, whose tiny puppets move back and forth according to the rhythmic manipulation of the people behind the curtain, is well-known to many people. The Puppet Theatre attempts to communicate about AIDS – how it is spread and contracted, how to prevent infections, and how to live with positive people. Sang Fan members give performances in different villages to at least remind those wishing to play around and those who believe condoms are not needed unless having sex with a sex worker that they should be more careful and use condoms every time they have sex. We hope to bring about behaviour change and decrease the rate of visits to sex workers. We hope, we dream and are determined that the day would come when the locals and youth of Chiangrai would be free from AIDS.

Other Sang Fan Wan Mai activities

We soon realised that puppet shows alone could not possibly educate fellow youth to gain proper understanding about AIDS. Nor could they generate awareness among those who were capable of changing their behaviour. Youth is the time full of curiosity and eagerness to try something new. Our experiences showed that organising activities could attract other fellows to participate. We organised activities, including puppet shows, stage plays, youth training and workshops, youth camps, exhibition boards, village broadcasting, small group discussions, individual consultations, sports and competitions and radio programmes. In organising activities, we made an effort to integrate information on AIDS. We stressed the importance of participation of co-workers in the process from the beginning when we formed ideas, made plans, analysed situations, ran activities and summed up our work. Although our work is small-scale, we hope that working with perseverance and consistency will implant clear and well-rounded information in our friends, relatives, people in villages and communities: knowledge that will enable them to link AIDS to their daily life and to lead a safe life.

Nowadays many people visit us at our office. Some come to volunteer organising activities; some look for a friend to chat with; some seek sanctuary for their mind while others come to learn about the work. We are proud to have played a part in helping fellow youth come together to share dreams, share hopes and search for those who hold the same ideal.