Exile Vol. II No. 2

SHORT STORIES The Jagged Edge by Marge Sessions 16-22 Friday Is a Lucky Day by Nil Muldur 28-33 Punk Days by Jim Gallant 37-41 ESSAYS A Re-examination of Faith by Barbara Haupt 23-27 A World Manifesto by Gordon Harper 34-36 SKETCH Tom Gordon: A Portrait by David L. Crook 6-15 POETRY Striving After Wind by Jesse Matlack 15 Quiet by E. B. Chaney 22 Faith or Flight by Marylyn Hull 36 Bernadette by Sally Falch 42-44 In this issue the editors of EXILE are proud to publish A Re-examination of Faith by Barbara Haupt. This story has been awarded the second Denison Book Store - EXILE Creative Writing Prize

Exile Vol. III No. 1

The Dreamer by Jesse Matlack 8-11 And Now a Response by John Kenower 12-16 Two Scenes from a Play by Robert Whitlatch 17-21 The Urgency of the Situation by Jim Gallant 22-23 James Branch Cabell by Robert Canary 24-29 Was Rasselt Im Stroh by Carol Dugle 30-31 Three Stops for an Artist by Nicos Stangos 32-36 POETRY Of Darkness by Burnell Chaney 16 Wolf in Sheep\u27s Clothing by Ellen Moore 21 Fresh Snow OR The Stars Have Fallen by Thomas Turnbull 29 When I Left Home by Yoko Kuyama 37 Standing Under a Tall Bare Tree by Yoko Kuyama 38 I Have Been Alone Too Long by Ellen Moore 40 Dirge: For Myself by Ellen Moore 40 In this issue the editors of EXILE are proud to publish Three Stops for an Artist by Nicos Stangos. This story has been awarded the semi-annual Denison Book Store - EXILE Creative Writing Prize

Evaluation of knowledge levels amongst village AIDS committees after undergoing HIV educational sessions: results from a pilot study in rural Tanzania

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Village AIDS committees (VAC) were formed by the Tanzanian government in 2003 to provide HIV education to their communities. However, their potential has not been realised due to their limited knowledge and misconceptions surrounding HIV, which could be addressed through training of VAC members. In an attempt to increase HIV knowledge levels and address common misconceptions amongst the VACs, an HIV curriculum was delivered to members in rural north western Tanzania. METHODS: An evaluation of HIV knowledge was conducted prior to and post-delivery of HIV training sessions, within members of three VACs in Kisesa ward. Quantitative surveys were used with several open-ended questions to identify local misconceptions and evaluate HIV knowledge levels. Short educational training sessions covering HIV transmission, prevention and treatment were conducted, with each VAC using quizzes, role-plays and participatory learning and action tools. Post-training surveys occurred up to seven days after the final training session. RESULTS: Before the training, "good" HIV knowledge was higher amongst men than women (p = 0.041), and among those with previous HIV education (p = 0.002). The trade-centre had a faster turn-over of VAC members, and proximity to the trade-centre was associated with a shorter time on the committee.Training improved HIV knowledge levels with more members achieving a "good" score in the post-training survey compared with the baseline survey (p = < 0.001). The training programme was popular, with 100% of participants requesting further HIV training in the future and 51.7% requesting training at three-monthly intervals. CONCLUSIONS: In this setting, a series of HIV training sessions for VACs demonstrated encouraging results, with increased HIV knowledge levels following short educational sessions. Further work is required to assess the success of VAC members in disseminating this HIV education to their communities, as well as up-scaling this pilot study to other regions in Tanzania with different misconceptions