Dance4Life initiative makes young people aware of HIV and Aids and helps them fight the spread of the disease, writes Gráinne Faller

It's difficult to convey the fear that HIV and Aids provoked in the 1980s and early 1990s. The first signs of a problem were in 1981, when a report about an unusual cluster of a certain form of pneumonia among five young homosexual men in Los Angeles became the first of many accounts of the condition. People knew very little to begin with. When it became apparent that the condition was fatal, and that it also affected heterosexuals and children, the panic increased. A lack of knowledge about how Aids was transmitted led to all sorts of difficulties for those infected. Fears of an epidemic were rife.

As the decade progressed, reports came through from sub-Saharan Africa about a disease called slim. Sufferers lost a large amount of weight before dying of various infections. Ugandans had been reporting this disease in great numbers since 1982, and it had begun to show up in neighbouring Tanzania. It turned out to be Aids by another name. The world had a major problem on its hands.

By the late 1980s the education and publicity campaigns had begun in earnest. Princess Diana was photographed shaking hands with Aids patients in a bid to shatter the taboos surrounding the illness. Antiretroviral drugs had begun to be produced, but the fear continued. A family from Florida whose three haemophiliac sons had tested HIV-positive could not find a school to take them. When they moved to Alabama, they were threatened and their house was razed.

Stories like this abound from the time, but the education measures were working, and people were listening. Abstinence or, at the very least, safer sex became the message from health educators. Blood-transfusion and medical services tightened their procedures, and efforts were made to minimise the risk for intravenous drug users. The death toll from Aids in the US and Europe was high, but the threatened epidemic in developed countries didn't happen. Drugs were improving, and HIV-positive people were living longer and healthier lives. Gradually, after 10 years of dominating current affairs, HIV and Aids began to fall off the agenda.

Of course, we all know that while the disease may not have taken hold here in the western world, the threatened pandemic happened all the same. It's just difficult to generate interest when it's happening to poor people thousands of kilometres away, in Africa and India. But sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise in Ireland again.

Our young people know how to protect themselves, though, don't they? "No, not at all," says Kayleigh Houlihan, a transition-year student at Ballincollig Community School, in Co Cork. "The information is there if you want to find it, but it should really be handed to you."

Kayleigh isn't the only teenager in this situation. Phil Corcoran, a sexual-health educator in Cork, says: "There is general confusion about what HIV is and how it is passed on. Young people seem to be under the impression that diseases discriminate and they are not at risk. Pregnancy is seen to be the main risk factor. An awful lot of clarity is needed, not just about HIV and Aids but about STIs in general."

Sexual-health education for teenagers in Ireland is patchy at best. Certainly, many adults believe that today's teens are much better informed than they were, but evidence would suggest this is not so. One survey, conducted in eight schools by the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA), found that 65 per cent of students didn't know what HIV was. A fifth believed that kissing was a risk factor for Aids, and there was general confusion about the distinction between condoms and other forms of contraception.

That survey was part of an innovative programme to raise awareness among teenagers about Aids and HIV, both in relation to their own sexual health and in a global context. Dance4Life is an international initiative, aimed at promoting awareness of HIV and Aids among young people while empowering them to help in the struggle against the spread of the disease and the taboos that surround it.

This year 14 countries are involved in Dance4Life. From Kenya to Russia and Vietnam to Brazil, teenagers are learning about Aids and HIV, and they are using dance to spread the message. It may not be the most obvious idea, especially for Irish transition-year students, but it's a tried-and-tested method.

Karen Griffin, the IFPA's Dance4Life co-ordinator, says: "We heard about this project from European colleagues, and it has proved very successful over there. We applied to do a pilot programme in Ireland, and once we got funding [ from Irish Aid and Durex] we were able to start." Eight schools agreed to try it out this year. "They took a leap of faith," says Griffin, "as teaching about HIV and Aids through dance is an unusual idea."

Dance4Life follows the same format from country to country. A school is visited by a Dance4Life team of educators, who teach students about Aids and HIV informally. They also teach a dance drill that has two functions. First, it's fun. Aids and HIV are serious topics, so breaking up the information with dance keeps people interested and engaged. The dance is more than that, though.

It is a way in which students can do something about the global crisis. Dance4Life doesn't just give them the information. It makes them a part of the worldwide effort to rid the world of HIV and Aids. But, still, dance? We Irish aren't the most expressive when it comes to dancing.

"I'm not a dancer," says Darryl Murray, who was a member of the Dance4Life team that travelled to schools. "I'm a martial artist. It's not a difficult dance. It's a movement that anyone can do."

Claudia Martin, a transition-year student at Sutton Park School in north Dublin, agrees: "Everyone took part when the team came around. We're a mixed school, and I didn't expect the boys to be as excited as they were."

The Dance4Life session generally takes two hours and is split between learning the drill and the HIV rap, and learning about HIV and Aids. A DVD about Dance4Life, complete with messages from Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general, and Desmond Tutu, the Nobel peace laureate, gave students an idea about the worldwide dimension of Dance4life.

Kayleigh says: "It was okay talking about Aids and HIV and all of that during the session, because we didn't know the people in the team. It would have been different if it had been a teacher, but they were just so friendly and funny that you didn't mind asking questions."

"I learned so much," says Claudia. "I definitely think it's important for people to be aware about how to avoid it and to know that there is treatment if they are infected with HIV."

"There was some level of shock among students about the information they were receiving in relation to STIs," says Corcoran. "There are a lot of old wives' tales out there." The dance drill and rap that students learn are the same from country to country, although each country has a freestyle section. The Irish freestyle mixes Irish and modern dancing. Claudia, a hip-hop dancer, made up the Irish freestyle part of the dance with some friends. The drill is learned with a view to performing it with students from all over the world.

On November 25th last - the Saturday before World Aids Day, which U2 frontman Bono supports - Irish students got together and danced at the same time as students from nine other countries. They were seeking to raise awareness about Aids and HIV and to express solidarity with the estimated 40 million people worldwide who are HIV-positive.

"The event was really, really good," says Kayleigh. "We did the drill at 4.45pm, and there was a screen on the wall, showing us all dancing. It was really amazing." "It was a huge novelty," says Corcoran. "The dance went brilliantly, and there was a huge energy about the place." The scale of what went on is evident on the Dance4Life website.

The year 2012 will be significant, as the aim of the project is to have a million young people taking part in the Dance4Life event. "We call the young people agents of change," says Murray. "The second I stepped into this project I knew we were going in to do something big." Griffin says: "We're certainly hoping to expand the project. We want to make the sessions longer and have more schools involved."

For now, they are well on their way and the schools are continuing the good work. "We had a no-uniform day for Dance4Life yesterday," says Kayleigh. "It's just so important to raise awareness. It wrecks my head that the information isn't out there. We're supposed to start learning about this in fifth year, but by that time it's way too late."

For more information see www.dance4life.nl. Dance4LifeIreland has a Bebo page at www.dance4lifeireland.bebo.com Teachers can e-mail Karen Griffin at kgriffin@ifpa.ie or call 01-8069444

The global picture

•More than 25 million people have died of Aids-related illnesses since 1981.

•An estimated 40 million people worldwide are HIV-positive. At the end of 2006, women accounted for 48 per cent of all HIV-positive adults worldwide and for 59 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa.

•Under-25s account for half of all new HIV-positive cases worldwide - about 6,000 every day.

•In developing and transitional countries, seven million people need life-saving drugs; only 1.65 million get them.

•In 2006 about four million adults and children became HIV-positive. Africa has 12 million Aids orphans.

•Last year about three million people died from Aids-related illnesses.

Statistics from www.avert.org