Workshops

Using "role play" dynamics for engaging gay and MSM Latino community members in HIV safe sex discussions for empowerment and development individual's resilience.

Gerardo Betancourt, University of Toronto

A fotonovela (graphic novel) called "GUYS LIKE YOU/CHICOS COMO TU " was created in 2009 in Toronto, Ontario. The objective was to deliver relevant messages and information related to HIV/STI prevention to Latino gay and MSM immigrants in Canada. The project started as a very small idea, and soon it became the first Latino HIV/STI national campaign.

The fotonovela has been used in educational activities with gay/MSM groups where participants read and role play the plot-story, and then they engaged in a community discussion related to the issues they have read in the fotonovela, and how they are similar or not to their lives. The project has been so succesful that Queen's University (Kingston) too the fotonovela to use it in educational community events in Cali, Colombia.