On the website for the TeenAIDS-PeerCorps, a nonprofit founded by John Chittick ’70 to train young volunteers to provide peers with information on HIV, readers can see letters sent to Chittick by those he has worked with. “Dear John,” writes a peer-education coordinator from Vietnam, ”How are you now? Are you still in Africa?”
“Hi Dr. John,” writes a 23-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Thanks for your remembering me.”
An HIV and AIDS youth activist, Chittick has “walked” — reaching out to teens on the streets with educational materials — in 86 countries since he began his work in the field. And he will soon add Austria, Ukraine, Moldova, Iran, Algeria, Niger and Ivory Coast to his list.
“He goes places where most people would never travel,” said Peter Kardon ’70, a former classmate and current TeenAIDS-PeerCorps board member. “He just keeps on walking.”
Chittick’s interest in creating Global AIDS Walks started when he wrote his doctoral thesis at Harvard University, which he completed in 1994, he said. At the time, Chittick said, he predicted that in the span of 10 to 20 years there would be a large wave of young people contracting HIV.
“Unfortunately, my thesis was right,” he said.
That same year, Chittick launched an online educational website aimed at promoting accurate information on HIV and AIDS, which would grow into TeenAIDS-PeerCorps by 1997.
He has always tried to be open-minded, truthful and approachable when working with teenagers, he said.
“Young people make the best messengers because they are the ones that talk to young people,” Chittick said. “And with that, the word gets spread.”
Chittick noted the importance of hosting a walk in Iran, as some Middle Eastern countries tend to hide the severity of HIV due to various social and cultural expectations.
Chittick said that this cultural stigma makes it harder for the youth of these countries to prevent HIV contraction.
“You can’t stop the maturation process. It is a human right to have sex, and in some cultures, that puts me in odds with the government and religious officials,” Chittick said. “There was even one time Chinese officials confiscated my things.”
Chittick will lead a “Webathon” to raise awareness for Teenaids.org. Approximately 890,000 people have pledged to spread information through this technique for HIV prevention, Chittick said.
Chittick’s now aims to set a world record for “most youth self-testing for HIV simultaneously and in public,” according to a press release. On July 23 in Norfolk, Virginia, Chittick will seek to break the previous record of 14 teenagers simultaneously testing.
Reached by email due to a hectic work schedule, TeenAIDS-PeerCorps board member Larson Bullock wrote that Chittick’s research and global travel have brought a unique understanding of the magnitude of the ongoing threat of HIV in youth. Bullock said that although he has not travelled with Chittick, he organized a candlelight vigil and balloon release in Moldova in one of the TeenAIDS-PeerCorps Global Webcasts held annually on World AIDS Day.
“It was inspiring to work with Dr. John and see his visionary grassroots prevention model benefit a previously underserved demographic,” Bullock wrote.
James Kircher ’10 and Samantha Monkman ’10 have traveled with Chittick for the Global AIDS Walks.
Kircher called the Global AIDS walk a “worthwhile opportunity.” During the walk, he said, he raised AIDS awareness and collaborated with several NGOs to engage the community in the topic of HIV prevention.
