Department to reach out for help from professionals in other areas.

This week, for the first time in Bermuda, the department is holding a Train the Trainers HIV/AIDS instructors course.

And if the workshop, which ends today, is as successful as organisers believe it will be, it will mean Bermuda will have an increasing pool of people equipped to spread the message of prevention and sensitised to those impacted by the disease.

"People have a lot of fears in their workplace,'' said public health charge nurse Mrs. Gaylia Landry. "This type of training course is unique in that it gets them in touch with actual `what if' situations and gets them in touch with their feelings.'' Noting that she and nurse epidemiologist Ms Rhonda Daniels handle the bulk of AIDS education in the community, Mrs. Landry said: "We are not the only experts here (at the workshop). We have several levels of expertise in Bermuda and what we've done is try to pull from each one of them their expertise.'' Among those participating in the workshop are clergy, Police officers, fire fighters, a prison administrator, education officer, and staff from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Members of the Island's two AIDS support groups, STAR and the Allan Vincent Smith Foundation, are also taking part in the workshops sponsored by the Pan American World Health Organisation and the Health Department.

Through lectures, role playing and other group activities, participants have let down their guards and have become 100 percent involved in the workshops, said visiting project director of Alabama's African-American Consultant Training on AIDS programme, Ms Alyce Vyann Howell who is helping the Health Department with the workshops.

Bermuda is no different from anywhere else when it comes to working with AIDS, Ms Howell added.

Mrs. Landry said she believed participants were surprised by their own level of creativity.

"With workshops like this I think you find resources within yourself which you never knew you had.'' Education officer Mr. Ray Latter said: "We all came in with different levels of knowledge. But the facilitators have used tremendous skills and qualities to make us feel comfortable. They have really capitalised on the whole group.

"Everybody has grown, not just in knowledge, but we also created a network so that if I'm going to speak to a particular group, I know I can call on one of them.'' Mr. Latter stressed that every effort should be made to ensure that the network does not disappear.

This, he said, would complement AIDS education worldwide.

AIDS AWARENESS -- Public health charge nurse Mrs. Gaylia Landry (left), nurse epidemiologist Ms Rhonda Daniels, and visiting AIDS educator Ms Alyce Vyann Howell look over literature used in Bermuda's first Train the Trainers HIV/AIDS instructors course.