Report: MUMBAI PORT TRUST - Refreshers Training Workshop

Introduction

A few years ago, MDACS collaborated with the Mumbai Port Trust and organised a HIV/AIDS workplace intervention wherein staff from various departments were trained as master trainers, i.e., they had the role and responsibility to interact with, and disseminate information about HIV/AIDS, HIV-transmission and other related topics to other staffers from MPT, by organising talks and events in their various subsidiary offices and sites.

The main agenda of this particular programme was to tackle workplace discrimination towards HIV-positive workers and to de-stigmatise workplace attitude towards HIV and AIDS, and in a broader context, safe, sexual behaviour.

The present workshop was a 2-day refresher course for the master trainers; to evaluate the on-going workplace intervention and strategize the plan for future interventions, and to also gauge feedback from regarding their experiences, grievances and suggestion.

Agenda of the current workshop included:

• Revision of HIV and testing of knowledge
• Behaviour Change Communication
• Medico-Legal aspects of HIV/ AIDS
• Sharing experiences through presentations by participants

Participants were from different departments from the company including Chief Mechanical Engineers, Civil Engineers, Medical, Accounts, Secretarial, and Finance. The trainees numbered at approx. 18-20 persons, with 6 women and the rest men.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WORKSHOP

1. The programme was very well planned with adequate breaks to ensure that the target audience never lost their attention. Games were also included to entertain the folks. The presentations were made very well with the right audio-visual equipment.
2. There was a lot of group interaction and discussion, making the session very lively and interesting.
3. The work environment was very conducive to learning and the rapport that the workers share was exceptional. The participants were very involved during the whole day and interacted extensively through questions, discussions and debates as well as the games organized for them. Their prior knowledge of HIV/AIDS was very good.
4. Both speakers explained technical terms and aspects and at the same time spoke about practical ways in which one can deal with a problem situation.
5. The first speaker spoke on BCC and had excellent skills of involving the audience throughout his presentation through relevant examples and asking for feedback constantly. He also managed to skillfully show them the errors they could make in judgement and in their usage of technical terms while explaining about the disease.
6. Second speaker Nitu Sandhya’s talk revolved around 3 important elements of informed consent, stigma and discrimination, and confidentiality. The speaker managed to generate healthy discussions without letting audience discussions get out of control.
7. This talk encouraged the trainees to bring out an important issue of how medical files of PLHAs were transported carelessly in the offices; even certain erroneous practices at BPT like writing someone’s status details on the covers, referral papers etc. were brought into light by the trainees. At the end of her session, Nitu Sandhya had a small discussion of remedial provisions which the master trainers could use for future interventions in and outside their workplace.
8. Both sessions included a lot of open discussion, role plays and situational analysis that increased learning. Revision and clarification of wrong terms and misconceptions was effective, useful and practical.
9. The situational questions and examples brought about an awareness of participants’ personal conflicting emotions. Eg: we can’t teach values but can only teach about protection although we strive to preserve our culture in other ways, peer educators can’t afford to be moralizing to conduct BCC.

IMPACT

• This intervention has gone beyond a volunteering task and is now a social responsibility for each of the trainers. They are educating peers in the workplace as well as their assigned community areas and even go beyond these boundaries by talking about HIV/AIDS to family members, friends.
• The event content, delivery by the trainers, question & answer sessions, audience participation, audience recall of key messages and the total organization of the event were all nothing short of excellent. This made the event a total success with the target audience taking back with them a whole lot of knowledge about HIV/AIDS and its prevention, testing and treatment.
• The future proceedings were also planned well in advance as the MDACS team sat together with the Mumbai Port Trust team and put together a plan of action.