On a dangerous mission By Marisa Donelan
From the Fitchburg Sentinel, December 17th, 2005
FITCHBURG -- John B. Chittick said he had just finished watching a soccer game in Panama City on Dec. 11 when he was robbed and hit by a car.
The international volunteer had recently traveled to Central America for his nonprofit mission, TeenAIDS, which counsels teens on the dangers of AIDS.
The 57-year-old Fitchburg resident attended the Dec. 11 game to meet some of these teens, and spend about 5-10 minutes giving what he calls "AIDS attacks," quick introductions and encouragement to spread knowledge about the disease.
"Sunday is the day that everybody turns out," he said Thursday. "It's like a festival. I knew there would be a lot of kids there."
Before the game started, he met with five young men and talked to them about HIV and AIDS. He remembered one of them told him he was 29 years old and the father of four children.
After the game, the 29-year-old was sitting in a dark green car and whispered to Chittick.
"I'm sick," he said in Spanish.
Chittick said he assumed the man had been too embarrassed to ask questions in front of his younger friends, so he approached him, carrying his video camera in his right hand.
"I went over to talk to him, and the next thing I knew, he grabbed the camera from my hand," he said. "I think he was surprised when he realized the strap was around my arm. I reached around to try to punch him, but he put his foot on the gas to take off."
Chittick said he was able to run with the car for about 4 feet, but then he fell and was hit by a wheel. He suffered cuts, bruises, ripped tendons and a chipped elbow from being dragged by the car. Four days after the attack, he could not use his right arm and had deep cuts on his hands.
"So, I'm gonna live, that's not the question," he said. "It was more just the shock that the guy hurt me and took off. Something like that had never happened before." Still, Chittick said he has been arrested, pickpocketed, followed by foreign secret service agents and threatened with kidnapping. He said in some countries, authorities perceive his message as unnecessary or dangerous.
But he said last week's assault would not stop him from future trips.
To Chittick, the needs are simply too great.
Over six years, he's traveled to 72 countries spreading his message.
He spent much of the two-and-a-half week trip to Central America in malls, schools and universities.
But on weekends during missions, Chittick prefers to visit the poorest neighborhoods in a city, where children cannot afford to attend school and must work to support their families. The volunteer, who always travels alone, is often warned to stay away.
"People told me not to go; they said it was too dangerous," Chittick said. "A lot of kids in poor areas overseas cannot go to school. They can't pay for books, they can't pay for their teachers. Even though there are public systems, it's not like here."
Man on a mission
The international headquarters for TeenAIDS is the basement of Chittick's Fitchburg home. Among computers and file cabinets, he has pictures of teenagers he's met on his journeys and toys for his "favorite buddy," a Labrador retriever named Jazz.
Chittick, who received a doctorate degree in human development and psychology from Harvard in 1994, founded TeenAIDS in 1996 because he predicted that teen HIV and AIDS rates would grow. He said the United Nations released statistics showing that half of all new AIDS cases worldwide occur in teenagers and young adults.
"The number of new AIDS cases is 25 percent among 13 to 19-year-olds in the United States alone," he said. "These are unbelievable numbers."
Chittick's missions are assisted by volunteers and private donations. He refuses to be affiliated with any church or government program that would influence his message. His method of outreach is simple. In areas as nearby as Fitchburg and as far away as Vietnam, he approaches teenagers asking for their help. He tells them in order to save lives, they must tell their friends to be aware of the disease's dangers.
"I always ask them what they want to be. I tell them, 'If you want to be a teacher, if you want to own a business, it's important that you don't get AIDS so you can have a life,'" he said. "A lot of kids don't make the connection between having sex now and getting AIDS later in life."
He said he has no difficulty approaching teenagers and getting their attention. He said he uses jokes and stories. "I use humor to relate to them. I wear Hawaiian shirts always. I am a fat guy," he said. "I look very strange when I'm walking down the street, especially when I tell them I'm a doctor working with AIDS."
When he's not traveling, Chittick keeps busy writing and drawing. He is working on a book about TeenAIDS, titled "Teens, Sex and AIDS: The Global Walk of Dr. John." He is also finishing an 80-page book about Fitchburg he illustrated himself. Because of his injury, however, he will not be able to finish it before Christmas.
Fitchburg teenagers have played an active role in TeenAIDS by helping with his Web site, www.teenaids.org, and local outreach, he said.
"My philosophy is that we can stop HIV among teenagers if we get them to talk to their friends," he said. "But it's not going to work if that message is only coming from adults. I want to start this army of teens going around the world to talk to others about AIDS."