The intended audience for the DoSTi project is youth, both male and female. SACHET has carried out 25 awareness sessions in schools and colleges within its community development programme area. These sessions provide information about HIV/AIDS using slides and videos. SACHET also worked in collaboration with the government's National AIDS Programme and organised an awareness campaign from 2000 to 2002 to promote World AIDS Day.

DoSTi project activities operate on several different levels. At the community level the project uses mehfils (associations), which are meetings to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS in the commonly understood concepts of regional dialects between youth living in slums. In addition, SACHET teams visited four Men's colleges and two villages situated in the vicinities of district Rawalpindi and Islamabad to disseminate the World AIDS Day message that "Men make a difference."

At the district and national levels, SACHET prepared a television programme on Gender and AIDS, which went on air in September of 2000, and was watched widely across Pakistan. The programme was also aired abroad for expatriate Pakistani audiences through Prime Television UK. The project employed print media to disseminate information, including brochures, newsletters, calendars and their annual report.



One of DoSTi's ongoing project activities is a national AIDS poster contest. The aim of this activity is to involve young people in their campaign against AIDS. The activity provides a creative, awareness-raising forum for young people to explore the impact of AIDS on different aspects of national development. Young artists, (average age of 15) were invited to create posters about the dangers and impact of the epidemic in relation to various socio-cultural factors. Winners are awarded with the SACHET Certificate of Achievement in a special ceremony on World AIDS Day each year. The SACHET calendar of 2002 was the outcome of the award winning drawings of the national "AIDS Poster Competition".



SACHET also organised an NGO fair in July of 2002. About 40 non-government (NGO) and welfare organisations participated in the event. The aim of the activity was to exhibit the information resources of various organisations and locate areas of mutual concern. The SACHET stall displayed information material about HIV/AIDS and the DoSTi project.

HIV/AIDS, Health, Youth, Gender.

According to SACHET, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Pakistan is currently quite low (0.1% of the general population). However, the population is considered vulnerable due to risk factors like injected drug abuse, commercial sex, refugee problems and unsafe blood transfusion. The most vulnerable group has been identified as adolescents and youth. SACHET suggests that young people are more prone to indulge in high-risk activities due to ignorance, despondency marked by poverty, or "extra high spirit of age."

For the "Men make a difference" World AIDS Day campaign, pre and post-tests were conducted to assess the level of disribution and comprehension of information about HIV/AIDS. The researchers found that these visits were effective: 25 percent of the population had some information about AIDS before the session, with an increase to 83 percent afterwards.