INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / JUNE 19, 1990

 

Call her the "Condom Granny"

athleen Smith has a mis-

sion. The Douglas College

Early Childhood Education
Instructor is determined to educate
people about AIDS prevention.

As Co-ordinator for the B.C.
Task Force — AIDS, Women and
Children, Smith’s specialty is
pediatric AIDS. And because she
hands out condoms wherever she
goes, friends and colleagues have
nicknamed her "the condom granny."

"AIDS is becoming more and
more a heterosexual disease," she
says. "A lot of women die from the
disease. One of the most common
ways a woman finds out she is
HIV positive is to give birth to an
infected baby."

According to the Federal
Centre for AIDS, as of April 1990,
there were 3,735 reported cases of
AIDS in Canada, 53 of them
pediatric cases. While there is no
known cure for the disease at this
time, preventative measures are
relatively easy to follow.

"If everyone took all the precau-
tions from this point onward, it is
conceivable that no one else would
contract AIDS," Smith says.

Of these precautions, the ad-
vice she gives most often to people
is simple — use condoms. "If

 

 

 

 

 

Cathleen Smith, a.k.a. the "Condom
Granny” hopes her efforts to ralde
A.I.D.S. awareness will encourage
people to use condoms.

 

someone asks me when to use one,
I tell them ‘always’," says Smith.
While encouraging people to
get used to handling and talking
about condoms, Smith passes
them out whenever she has the
chance. "Like many people of my

 

Grad placement ends

Mia Gordon, Director of Student Services and Developmental
Education regrets to announce that effective July 1, 1990 the Student
Placement Office can no longer handle graduate or full-time placement.

Requests for increased staffing have not been approved. In the face
of greatly increased demands by potential employers and students over
the past five years and as requests for increased staffing have not been
approved, we have had to prioritize services that can be provided by
our limited staff time. The Student Placement Office will continue to
handle part-time and summer placement including Student Assistant
positions, Challenge and B.C. Summer Employment Programs and
off-campus part-time and summer employment.

As of July 1, 1990 we will refer prospective employers offering

 

full-time positions to the appropriate field base for assistance. We
sincerely hope that an appropriate procedure will be developed by the
Directors / Chairpersons and field base personnel to deal with employer
requests for graduate/full-time placements. @

 

 

 

generation, I used to feel too in-
hibited to talk about condoms,"
she says. "When I was younger,
the topic of condoms was a dirty,
nasty one. Now, I talk about them
all the time."

"Some people are still timid
about discussing this issue," she
says, "but attitudes are changing as
people become more aware of the
risks associated with unsafe sex."

"| always check to make sure
condoms are readily available in
stores and public washrooms,"
says Smith. "It’s irresponsible for
any public place that could have
condom machines not to have
them."

Douglas College used to pro-
vide condom machines in both the
men’s and women’s washrooms,
but they were removed due to con-
stant vandalism, says Terry
Leonard, Director of Facilities Ser-
vices.

"The damage was severe,"
Leonard says. "From a building
maintenance perspective, it simply
wasn’t feasible to keep replacing
the machines every other day."

However, Leonard states that
he has kept an open mind about
the issue. "If a more vandal proof
installation were found, the Col-
lege would be interested in re-
evaluating the situation," he says.
"At the present time, condoms are
available in the cigarette machine
and through the Student Society
Office."

With the incidence of
HIV/AIDS rising rapidly, it’s not
likely that Smith will rest easy
until condoms are more accessible
and people are willing to use them.

As witness to the devastation
this illness is causing, Smith says
people must be educated about
AIDS prevention and encouraged
to use protection.

"If we could spare even one
person’s life from this misery," she
says, "it would be well worth the
effort." @