LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA• 27
ACTIVITY TWO
If I am a Person Living with HIV/AIDS
Group Check In- Discuss how society discriminates for different reasons such as caste, community, being a girl
and by profession (such as sex worker, those who work in slaughter houses, who clean toilets).
Ask if anyone has experienced discrimination and how s/he felt. Did they think it was different
from the stigma of having HIV/AIDS?
A short role play can be conducted here if someone’s experience is clearly discriminatory. - Ask for a volunteer to be a person living with HIV, give them a sign that says, “I have HIV” and
make the person sit in the middle of the room. - Make four reaction cards and distribute them to four people.
Reaction Card 1: You start shaking the hand of the PLHA, read the sign, “I have HIV,” and quickly
pull your hand away. Run to a sink and wash your hands again.
Reaction Card 2: You go to the person with HIV, read the sign, and say, “You must be joking! You
have HIV! Then why have you come here to work/school/live?” Leave the room quickly.
Reaction Card 3: You go to the person, read the sign and say, “You must be a former injecting
drug user. You should be locked up somewhere where you cannot harm us.” Leave the room.
Reaction Card 4: You go to the person, read the sign and shake the PLHA’s hand and say, “It is
nice to meet you. My name is ........” Sit down next to him/her. - Remind the persons with the cards to act out the scene in slow motion. To make it dramatic,
they can freeze the acting like a picture while you ask the audience what is happening and then
continue with the scene. - Introduce the scene most relevant to the group: this is a village, these are the people who live
here or this is a street or this is a school. You can add or change the reaction cards, but
remember to have one reaction card that is positive.
Review- How did the person with the sign PLHA feel?
- What did the audience think of the different reactions? What would they have done?
- Do such situations occur and have they seen them? Ask them to share.
- If you were a person living with HIV, how would you like to be treated?