The
clips featuring Elton John himself and England football star David Beckham have
been aired on television channels since the summer of 2003. The message itself
is simple: to use condoms and other safe sex techniques.
The celebrity route to the message is catching on after the reported success of
these clips. The Russian pop group Chai Vdvoem has joined the campaign against
AIDS following the Western stars.
The campaign under the slogan 'Life Is Wonderful, When Protected', was launched
first as a pilot project by the Russian non-governmental organisation
Focus-Media and the international group AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW) that
is fighting AIDS in Russia and the former Soviet republics.
A survey by Focus-Media and AFEW indicated that 74 percent were familiar with
the campaign. The campaign rolled out on ads on public transport and street
billboards as well as posters and leaflets.
The survey showed that women are noticeably more interested in obtaining
information about safe sex than men. "Russia is passing through an AIDS
epidemic, and our aim is to stop the spread of the deadly disease among the
youth," senior programme adviser with AFEW Tanja Grechukina told IPS. "The
practical aim is to get young people interested in music, and also sports fans
to learn to act carefully with their partners."
Grechukina believes that the campaign will also help people recognise that the
Russian federation has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics. According to
AFEW, there are currently 318,394 people living with HIV/AIDS in Russia. The
World Health Organisation puts the figure closer to a million, while unofficial
sources say it can be still higher.
The majority of the infected are under 30. Until 2001, the virus was
transmitted mainly through infected syringes, but now the number of cases of
sexual transmission is growing fast. "Preventive programmes, and especially
information campaigns, can be seen as vaccine against the disease," Grechukina
said. Information coordinator for Focus-Media Oksana Barkalova said the
percentage of people using condoms is reported to have risen from 20 percent in
1997 to 45 percent in 2005. "But there is still much work to be done,"
Barkalova told IPS. "The use of condoms has yet to become routine among Russian
youth, and misconceptions about HIV infection still exist." Barkalova said a
study among young Muscovites showed that a significant proportion still thought
condoms necessary only when their partner was known to be infected, and that
many thought they were able to judge which people were safe.
Studies showed that 43 percent of the young people thought that AIDS/HIV can be
transmitted through saliva. But this overestimation of the risk of contracting
HIV through such contact could be influencing more young people to use condoms.
Senior researcher on epidemiology with AFEW Irina Berezhnova said earlier
campaigns targeted high-risk groups such as homosexuals, drug users and sex
workers. That approach merely stigmatised the disease and distanced average
Russians, lulling them into a false sense of security. "For some there is
seemingly reluctance to recognise groups affected by the disease, and that is
why we need to provide good quality information," Focus-Media PR manager Yuliya
Molodyova told IPS. "We must unite and bring our community together to further
fight the disease. There must be enlightenment through the media and I think
we'll be reaching the entire population with the message."
Inter Press Service
