Teacher: Drug and alcohol addiction, AIDS and HIV are burning problems of the youth and that's why vital today. An addict sinks rapidly into degradation and is inevitably lost to society. His family suffers. It's a tragedy. The more so if the addict is a teenager. Drug and alcohol abuse is tragically distinctive. They ruin youngsters' health, produce insensibility, apathy, frustration and goodness knows what else! All human values lose their significance. It may lead to crime and suicide. But why do we talk so much about drug-users and alcoholics. Just let them drink and take drugs themselves to death - they deserve no better. It's their own business, after all! Do you agree with me?

Pupils try to point out the key problems of the text: There has been a frightening increase in the number of suicidal teens in recent decades. Obviously, the pressures facing teenagers are too much for many of them to bear. Broken families, the availability of drugs and alcohol are creating circumstances so difficult to face that young people instead choose to end their lives. The situation will only grow worse if there are no substantial changes made in our society. So we see that it's not a purely medical or individual problem. Many young people turn into desperate good-for-nothing creatures. They are often doomed to die from an overdose or be killed in drug wars. In order to buy the stuff they may steal or rob-which is also a social crime. Drug-users belong to the so- called high risk-group for catching AIDS. They help spread AIDS through dirty syringes. The abbreviation AIDS means Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. It is caused by a virus that weakens people so much that they become sick. The name of the virus is HIV-Human Immunodeficiency Virus. AIDS is often called the plague of our century. It is a global epidemic. According to scientific data AIDS spreads through sexual contact, using dirty needles to take drugs, receiving blood from a person who has HIV, from an infected mother to her child through the exchange of body fluids. AIDS is not believed to spread through touch ways: handshakes, mosquitoes, cats, sweat or saliva. Special associations are founded in order to organize education, prevention and treatment, testing people for AIDS. But in any case each person should be cautious. It's necessary to avoid casual love-affairs. Parents, teachers, young people themselves should cultivate a sense of responsibility for their actions, healthy way of life. For the most part your health is up to you. Activity, pleasurable exercises, outings, sports can help you cope with the problems and have more energy for your work, studies, family and friends.

Arrange the information on these lines: Problems - causes - solutions Do the following AIDS Quiz; choose one of the answers: yes - no - may be. Can you get HIV by:

Being in the same room as the AIDS patient? Breathing after the patient coughs? Holding a patient's hand? Giving a patient some pills? Touching a patient's blood? Touching the sheets on his/her bed? Touching his/her tears? Taking his temperature? Giving him an injection? Breathing into his mouth in an emergency? Having sex? Helping a bleeding person after an accident? Using someone's spoon? Kissing someone? Pricking your finger with an infected needle? Injecting drugs with a friend? Shaking someone's hand? Getting bitten by a fly? Being injected at hospital? Getting a mosquito bite? Going to the dentist?

Sometimes words can have positive and negative meanings. Words have positive meanings when they make you think of or feel something good or positive. Words have negative meanings when they make you think of or feel something bad or negative. Work in pairs. Look at the words in the list below. Divide the words into two groups. One will go under the heading "Positive". The other one go under the heading "Negative". You must have a reason for putting the words in each group, and you must use all the words in the list.

"Positive/ "Negative" AIDS, cure, infected, protective, blood, virus, isolate, risk, breathe, bodily fluids, respect, needle, prick, touch, contact, HIV, ward, disease.

Discuss these questions in a small group: Can you tell by looking at someone if the person has AIDS or HIV? Why or why not? Would you take a job or volunteer to work with people who have AIDS? Why or why not? Many people do not feel sorry for AIDS patients. What do you think is the reason for this? Should parents teach their children about AIDS? Why or why not? Should there be AIDS education in schools? Why or why not? Which age groups should get this information?

Worksheet -Portfolio Who would the programme be for (adults, young adults, secondary school age, primary school age, etc.)? What kind of programme would it be (describe the programme) ? What topics would be covered? Where would the money for the programme come from?

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