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India: Children script film on HIV discrimination |
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Urgent issues
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“Got you!” tells the story of a smart, independent HIV-positive schoolgirl who plays a trick on her teacher.
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A group of Indian children have scripted and produced a short film on how stigma and discrimination affects people living with HIV and AIDS.
Twenty five children from World Vision's HIV and AIDS project in Chennai and child labour project in Vellore spent ten days at a camp learning about child rights and how to express their issues through media arts.
At the end of the camp the children created several short film scripts on various topics.
"We were struck by the fact that two of the four scripts created were on the issue of child abuse'" says Sriram Aiyer of Nalandaway Foundation, who provided the training.
This may reflect the high rates of violence against children in India; recent studies by the Government show that more than 40% of children below 15 years of age suffer some form of abuse.
"This was part of our initiative to help children learn about child rights and also voice their issues to a wider audience," says Reni Jacob, Director - Advocacy.
One of the scripts, possibly based on the experiences of an HIV-positive girl in the group, takes a very light-hearted look at a child's struggle for acceptance. It was made into a short film titled 'Got you!'
In the film, the girl who is HIV positive is a prankster - a mischievous child who is smart and independent. In one of her physical education classes she has a fall, gets hurt and starts to bleed. The physical education teacher comes to her help, but she refuses his help, telling him she is HIV positive.
The teacher's ignorance of HIV and AIDS transmission takes him through a torturous time, till the child teaches the "teacher" a lesson for life.
The happy-go-lucky portrayal of an HIV positive child belies the stereotype and reinforces the message that HIV positive children, orphans and vulnerable children are still just children.
"The ending, where the whole school's knowledge of HIV makes the ignorance of the teacher seem trivial brings home the need for us to understand, before we condemn," says Reni Jacob.
The film was released and screened at the World AIDS Day Global Vigil held at Delhi on November 30, 2007.
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