http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/18/2574117.htm?section=entertainment
Every year over 10,000 Australians are diagnosed with Hepatitis C, therefore an art gallery in the inner city of Sydney held a photo exhibition trying to raise awareness of this issue.
As more than 200,000 Australians are affected by Hepatitis C, the biggest fear is that most young people are not aware and don’t understand the disease, therefore experts that represent Public Health are promoting and calling for a mass media campaign to change the situation.
For this photo exhibition, the artists were young people with high risk backgrounds, that were given a disposable camera to capture pictures of what they understood Hepatitis C was. Even if their experience in photography was very little, the whole point was to capture different points of view and what everyday people think of this disease.
“It was just what they saw. It was their everyday lives or realities that they took images of.” The artwork varied from teenagers kissing, a syringe on a dashboard, piercings, drugs, home-made tattoos, friends on a street and even images of clouds.
The whole point of this art exhibition, creating it and sharing with others is to raise the awareness of Hepatitis C and to comfront the lack of awareness. “We’re trying to make them think about anything that may put them at risk of Hepatitis C, so risky tattooing, unsterile piercing and drug use,” said Ms. Kalsi, Project Officer Education & Development.
It is very common that teenagers who can’t afford to go to professional body modification parlors to pierce themselves and many times they do it at unsanitary environments. After taking part in the Art Exhibiton, the information they learnt hopefully will help them and they may be prepared to change their behaviour. Hepatitis Australia vice-president Stuart Loveday is pleased these young people have got the message.
This past Tuesday May 19, was World Hepatitis Day, which was a great opportunity for experts to raise awarness and inform Australians about one of the most common health conditions.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/18/2574117.htm?section=entertainment
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/news/local/news/general/getting-hip-to-hep/1516320.aspx
http://www.efarming.com.au/News/general/18/05/2009/55215/photo-exhibit-boosts-hep-c-awareness.html
