Back in 2010, I made a research study for my post graduate studies entitled HIV-AIDS KNOWLEDGE AND RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS OF ADULTS IN NAGA CITY. It was a challenge for me to pursue the research knowing that I am enrolled in a Vincentian Catholic School run by the Daughters of Charity. After a few discussions and revisions of my title, they allowed me to do it because the school supports the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations (Now it is called Sustainable Development Goals) and that includes MDG 6 – To halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. For a very long time, I was an advocate for people living with HIV/AIDS and I was driven to disseminate information in order to protect the vulnerable groups such as the people in prostitution, Injecting drug users, males having sex with males and partners of people with multiple sexual encounters. This year, I want to reignite my advocacy to fight HIV/AIDS because the number of people who gets infected back home is increasing. I want to help in my own little way thru this platform.
So, one of the creative things I did to help spread the information and not the virus is to collaborate with my friend @tolindoydrawings. I told him that my study showed that the adults in our city, despite having average knowledge on HIV-AIDS, are at risk of acquiring the infection because of their sexual behaviours. Meaning to say, there is a significant correlation between the level of knowledge of Adults to their HIV/AIDS Risky Sexual Behaviours. Instead of giving out condoms, I wanted to give them the first line of defense – Knowledge about the disease. It is also one of my ways to eradicate the HIV/AIDS stigma. I didn’t want the “information dissemination” to be very common so I told my friend that we will create a comic book called IMMUN (Immune System). I wrote the story and my friend illustrated it. We made it this way so non-medical residents of our city can easily understand how the virus attacks our immune system. It is written in Filipino but maybe we will have an english version in the future.
May I present to you PART 1 of our comic book. I hope you like it.
Handover Sheets by Nikko 