Mandate: To reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS and the stigma associated with the disease.

Objectives: To increase awareness and knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention among teenagers, factory workers, and the poor who currently lack access to HIV/AIDS education. To demonstrate and teach compassion and understanding for those living with AIDS.

Current Reach: Greater Bangkok

Strategies and Activities:The Education-Outreach Program is implemented in schools and community centers. The courses consist of small group discussions, case studies, lectures, workshops, games, and question and answer sessions, based on the target group. A two-member team conducts each course. One member of each teaching team is a person living with AIDS. The HDF continuously monitors, evaluates, and modifies each course based on tests, interviews, and surveys to course participants.

Target Groups
i) Youth - Government high schools, youth detention centers, the children in our care, neighborhood children.

ii) HDF-Mercy Centre Staff, Community leaders, and Mercy School Teachers: - we train these groups in workshops.

iii) Parents - The parents and extended family of the children enrolled in our 22 preschools throughout Bangkok's poorest neighborhoods.

Total Reach/Year
Over 10,000 high-risk men, women, and youth.

Program Origins/History 
We opened and operated the city's first and largest free AIDS hospice from 1993 until 2003. Even before the hospice opened, HDF began conducting education programs in the Klong Toey neighborhood, reaching poor neighbors house by house and family by family. We formalized our Education Program in 1999 and began reaching out to specific high-risk groups throughout Bangkok.

Prison Outreach
Our outreach teams work inside several Bangkok prisons, providing information and counsel to hundreds of inmates, both male and female, including many living with AIDS. Many former inmates continue to seek and receive our support upon release from prison.

 
Related Mercy Centre HIV/AIDS Programs: