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Brazil uses Native language in HIV/AIDS awareness campaign





The Brazilian government is using the Ticuna language in an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign.

The government created folders and pamphlets in Ticuna to inform women about sexually transmitted diseases. Recent testing showed infections of HIV and syphilis, the Associated Press reports.

“Indigenous groups have the right to this information in their own language,” Pedro Chequer, the director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS in Brazil, told the AP.

Ticuna is spoken in western Brazil, near the borders with Peru and Colombia. Prostitution and drug trafficking are common there, Dr. Adele Benzaken of UNAIDS told the AP.

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Brazilian government uses indigenous language for the first time in anti-AIDS campaign (AP 10/12)

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