0.8 Building your hiv-aids program  (Page 2/3)

Zimbabwe : The AIDS Action Program for Schools, initiated by the Ministry of Education and Culture develops problem-solving,decision-making, and risk-averting skills. Strong involvement from both government and the church. Concerned about how teachers felt embarrassedteaching topics of sex and HIV, Zimbabwe developed the Auntie Stella health education pack for secondary school students in which the studentsthemselves participate in the materials and design problem-solving activities.

Caribbean : The Health and Family Life Education program focuses on behavioral change by providing students with both facts androle-playing of real-life situations in class.

India : The Better Life Options Program focuses on adolescent girls through a combination of life skills, including literacyand vocational training, support for entering and staying in formal school, family life education, and leadership training.

Peru : This skill-based program focused on empowering youth with knowledge about sexuality and AIDS, toleration of people with AIDS, and prevention behaviors. The program was facilitated by trained teachersand implemented over 7 weekly, two-hour sessions with homework promoting interaction with family, friends, and local health institutions.

Uganda : The education programs have focused on a skills-based approach. Initially, the poor success rate of their healtheducation program inspired innovative leaders to focus more on attitudes and behavioral change. The focus on teacher training (and ease with thematerial) helped to turn low results into high results.

Backgrounder

Suggested Reading: We STRONGLY suggest a re-reading of the website devoted to the successful and comprehensive program developed in Uganda . (Online only)

Part of the difficulty associated with HIV-AIDS and Sexually-Transmitted Disease curriculum is that the materialsthemselves seem foreign to the teacher and distant from students' experience. UNESCO recognizes this problem as well and has developed a wayto help teachers incorporate best practice and other resources into a program that makes sense on the local level. Here are the resources theyprovide:

Handbook for Curriculum Planners

There is increasing consensus about the need for AIDS education for young people. Studies have shown that sex and AIDS educationmay lead to a delay in the onset of sexual activity, and to the use of safer sex practices among those students who are sexually active. However,curriculum planners often lack examples of curricula, classroom activities and learning materials. This resource package has beencompiled to assist curriculum planners to design HIV/AIDS/STD education programmes for their own school systems, for students aged between 12 and16. The program presented in this package is based on participatory methods, as these have been shown to be particularly effective for theteaching of behavioral skills.

Introduction

Introduction

Designing the Program