Non-governmental organizations in the United States and specialists in the Stanford University microcosm have built connections to the Vietnamese community and developing countries this year by reaching out to victims of HIV/AIDS through recent technological advancements.

In Vietnam, there are more than 116,000 HIV-infected individuals, of which more than 20,000 have progressed to AIDS as reported by Ramsell International, a company of Ramsell Holding Corporation known for having over 30 years of experience in public health.

“There is a great deal of danger that we, as Americans, have become complacent about HIV/AIDS,” says Randall Stafford, an associate professor at Stanford School of Medicine.

“Even though HIV infection can be successfully managed and death rates from AIDS in the U.S. have dropped, HIV is a massive problem in many developing countries of the world.”

The Vietnamese government projects that by the year 2010, the country will have about 311,000 people with HIV. Although the population prevalence in Vietnam as a whole was less than half a percent in 2003, the prevalence of HIV is high among particular vulnerable populations, according to YouandAids, the HIV/AIDS portal for Asia Pacific. In an effort to develop and implement a sustainable education and prevention program, Ramsell International and Sojitz–one of the largest global trading firms in the world–formed a partnership to launch its Vietnam health care initiative to tackle the HIV/AIDS issue.

“The reluctance to discuss HIV/AIDS has diminished, in part, because so many people have recognized that HIV infection is preventable and that it has the potential to affect all the segments of the population,” Stafford says.

The two companies created a mobile health treatment initiative for Vietnamese awareness, technology and education to facilitate a mobile health care clinic project. The program is called MOTIVATE.
“It will reach out to at-risk individuals who cannot easily access services like outpatient clinics, voluntary counseling and testing centers,” says Tim Murrill, vice president of business development for Ramsell Holding Company.

The pilot program has not yet started, but MOTIVATE worked with the Ministry of Health to select provinces in the northern, southern and central regions of Vietnam.

“The core concept of the mobile health care unit is identical for each region, however the individual regions present different social and demographic factors in the implementation of the mobile health care unit program,” says Murrill.

Now that the memorandum of understanding has been signed, fundraising will begin in both the public and private sectors and the primary focus will be the U.S. and Japan.

In another attempt to offer a nonthreatening, educational tool about HIV/AIDS, Piya Sorcar, a Stanford University School of Education doctoral student, began work on her Interactive Teaching AIDS project two years ago. It began as a part of her master’s project with the learning, design and technology program.

Since then, she has created a 20-minute animation HIV/AIDS: The Silent Killer with a team of experts spanning the fields of education, medicine, biology, communication and human-computer interfaces. The animation, which is already being used in several countries, emphasizes the biology of HIV/AIDS with a story line of dialogue between a student and friendly yet authoritative doctor about its spread and prevention. Although she was born and raised in Colorado, Sorcar is passionate about establishing India—her family heritage—as a model for educational innovation.
“As a culturally diverse yet socially conservative country, India faces the challenge of educating its populace about HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment methods while avoiding the subject of sex—a topic considered taboo in open discussions,” Sorcar says.

“My challenge became: is there a way to teach about a taboo subject without talking about the taboo?” She informs that developing an Internet application was just the beginning. Now that her team of experts is receiving positive feedback, she hopes to develop versions for kiosks and mobile phones—which will be more widely available—and to build cartoon book versions of the curriculum for low-tech areas.

“This project shows that it is possible to do HIV/AIDS education in culturally sensitive ways, and that technology can be a real help,” asays Shelley Goldman, Sorcar’s doctoral advisor. “More support would be widespread use of this curriculum and programs like this one.”

This September, Sorcar conducted a study of the application in India with 423 students in private schools and colleges in Delhi, Haryyana and Punjab. More than 90 percent said they learned more about HIV/AIDS through the animated tutorial than any other communication method such as TV or school.

“Unlike in the United States, sexual practices cannot be openly discussed in India due to the social stigma attached to such topics, and even the provision of basic sex education is being reduced over time,” Sorcar says.
Although we are now more involved in global AIDS initiatives, Stafford believes more steps need to be taken in order to effectively combat the problem. “The stigma attached to HIV infection still creates many barriers in the developing world,” says Stafford.

“We need to work to strike a balance between being sensitive to cultural norms while still trying to make sure that accurate information gets across to the populations that most need it.”