Azedine Kirenga (right) and his classmates.
Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) sensitized students from IPRC Kicukiro, raising awareness to overcome AIDS. On Wednesday May 10, 2023, about 759 students at the school including 203 girls and 556 boys in the afternoon met to hear the message.
The means used by RBC in this tour remain a very instructive and attractive theatrical performance, performed in public, as well as messages by RBC officials. A public competition is also organized on knowledge on the fight against AIDS. Winners receive T-shirts, umbrellas, hats, juice, notebooks and pens.
Christian Sentore, 21, in the 6th year Construction Section has the general knowledge to deal with AIDS, namely abstain and faithfulness, use of condoms, avoid using the same metal instruments to cut nails and hair (razor blade, scissors, nail clippers, needles, etc…). The same needle should not be used to inject medicine into different people.
An infected mother can transmit her virus to her child at birth. This is why infected mothers, pregnant or breastfeeding, are put on ARV regimes so as not to transmit the virus during birth or during breastfeeding.
Sentore and his colleagues, including Azedine Kirenga, 18, in 6th year Road Construction, has this knowledge. Unfortunately, some chose to ignore that in case of rape or unprotected relations, one must go to the Health Center to benefit from an appropriate treatment.
In case of seropositivity, one is subjected to the regime of ARVs. Even if you test negative, since you have been exposed to a possible infection, you receive medication to take in 29 days. Then we come back for another test.
“The presence of RBC is considered useful to the IPRC Kicukiro, because it raises the level in young people to face HIV/AIDS”, specifies Sentore and Kirenga.
Sentore tested negative in 2022. He is determined to practice continence to devote himself to his studies and prepare for his future.
“Prostitution is on the rise in the capital. It is visible at night. I don’t know the prices. Only those who venture into these risks are informed,” he says.
Kirenga also wants to finish high school and go on to university.
“When I decide to have sex, I will use a condom to protect myself. I know young girls whose partners are married men who offer them money and various gifts. Their relationships are not protected. This is a serious risk to the lives of many people in such a chain. These married men cheat on their wives. This young girl also exposes the life of her friends of the same age who has sex with her,” Kirenga points out.
Prostitution, as the oldest profession in the world is rampant at night as can be visible on some streets in the Kigali. The solution for this group is to avail condoms and conduct tests to find out their status.
The Director Gahama S. François
François Sibomana Gahama, the Director of IPRC Kicukiro says that, since 2011, his school has had an anti-AIDS club, which gathers students to meet every Wednesday afternoon.
“All our students are day students, except those at the University. Parents look after them to ensure they are circumcised and we don’t have any ARV cases. We have not yet organized voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS but our students have sufficient knowledge thanks to the anti-AIDS clubs which are always active and useful in our school. This meets our objective of protecting our youth,” notes Director Gahama.
Young people from the market at the Gahanga Center in Kicukiro district where the campaign preceded on Tuesday expressed the wish to have a condom kiosk that distributes condoms uninterrupted and free of charge.
This is because, often, these condoms are lacking and their price is high. Unanimously, the youth of Gahanga resort to unsafe relationships. (END)