John Chittick, or Dr John, as he likes to be called, is an HIV/AIDS educator and, in his own words, „a kind of motivational speaker". The 55-year-old man has visited over 60 countries on a series of educational world tours supported by Teen AIDS-PeerCorps, a non-profit organisation that he founded in 1997. His primary goal, he says, is to empower adolescents to teach other members of their generation about HIV. Spreading information in this way, Dr John's educational programme attempts to copy the disease it hopes to stop. „HIV is growing exponentially among the 13 to 25 age group, and I hope that the message I deliver to these young people will spread from one friend to another in a similar way. Adolescents talk to each other all the time and they spread the message much better than I can," said Dr John.
He delivers lectures to schools, takes youth with him for training stints lasting as long as two weeks, and conducts brief conversations at random with youth in the street. He estimates that, not including those in the street, he has met 150,000 youth, give or take 20,000. Dr John and his agenda are not always welcome. In Cuba he was jailed, and in China he was tailed by police. Before coming to Slovakia he was in Egypt, travelling on a tourist visa and without contact with the government.
„I very much prefer to work with private education groups or with schools directly," he said, adding that to set up lectures he often calls schools or even shows up at their doors, offering his immediate service. His visit to Slovakia was completely unplanned and lasted only a few days. Yet, on the day of this interview, he had already visited the Dunajská, Hubeného, and Palackého high schools, and was getting ready for a night on the town at the Duna nightclub with some students he had befriended earlier.
The success of Dr John's work is difficult to quantify, as are the results of many education and empowerment programmes. His ability to spread the communicative virus can be seen, however, in his repeated visits to countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Austria - first at the request of those he has trained, then at the request of their younger brothers and sisters. Dr John intends to write a book about the global spread of HIV among youth, drawing on his travel experiences and his research on the epidemic at Harvard University. After finishing his degree he became convinced that the problem required a more active approach and he invested all he had in TeenAIDS and his first tour.
Leading a one-man show, though, has worn him out. „My website makes it look like I have a whole organisation, but actually it's just me," he explained, „I'm going to end my travelling soon."
By Eric Smillie,
Spectator staff
