T&T Red Cross health team in demand at Tobago Heritage Festival

“You cannot tell if someone has HIV from looking at their face”.

The Trinidad & Tobago Red Cross (TTRC) health team – HIV/AIDS Peer Educators and Community First Aid Educators – are currently working at the Tobago Heritage Festival (July 15 – August 1) to raise awareness in the general public of HIV/AIDS-prevention in line with the ABCDE approach. And the demand for knowledge and information is vast.

“People are really interested in knowing about HIV/AIDS. They are coming to our booths, requesting information and returning later – with friends – to know more,” says Ms. Akeisha Benjamin, TTRC Health Programme Officer.

She adds that most of the questions regard signs and symptoms of HIV and AIDS: “A lot of people ask us, how you get HIV and how you can tell if you or someone else carries the virus. Many people think that you can tell from having bumps on your face and that an HIV-positive person is really skinny, or that only certain races or types of people can get the virus. The truth is that you can’t tell – and that the safest thing to do is to protect yourself,” Ms Benjamin says.

By answering the questions and handing out information, the Health team aims to raise awareness in the general public of the health issue.

As an addition to this, the team also works as First Aid Educators – teaching the public at each event one or two basic First Aid Skills, such as how to deal with a choking victim or how to bandage a broken arm.

On at least one occasion the importance of First Aid were proven, when a person in the festival audience came to the Red Cross with an injury that needed First Aid attention.