HIV/AIDS Prevention & Reproductive Health Project

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A BOX TO ENCOURAGE QUESTIONS FROM YOUTH A tool that is often used to conduct discussions are questions submitted by the youth anonymously to a Query Box. Query boxes are put up at schools for youth to submit any questions they have regarding adolescence and sexuality. With a couple of questions being normally submitted per week, query boxes present a continuing demand and a tool to shape sessions. Questions submitted are looked at jointly by PEs and teachers who contribute to the cooperation between teachers and PEs. Answers may be published at school notice boards or discussed in classes or other discussion sessions. If PEs and teachers have difficulties to answer the questions, they are forwarded to the NRCS Headquarters in Kathmandu, which answers and publishes them in its quarterly newsletter, Yuva Chautari. Some schools noted a decrease in queries submitted to the query box which was mainly attributed to an increased openness of students to ask questions directly during sessions. EDUTAINMENT WITH STREET DRAMA Youth receive a four-day training on street drama as performers and facilitators. The drama teams usually perform during festivals and public gatherings, attracting masses of around 500 people. One district has performed around 20 sessions, one team around 4 in one year. Performances are interactive; a moderator involves the public with questions during the play. Street drama teams are also mobilized by a range of other institutions and organizations such as the military service, other district offices as well as private companies including Coca Cola - Nepal, Nebico Biscuits, etc. One team received substantial support in terms of equipment through another agency that was impressed by its performance. NATIONAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN PEs In 2005 for the first time a three day PE conference was organized in Bhaktapur. Four PEs and one teacher from each district were invited. The PEs were asked to submit abstracts according to a list of topics based on which some were selected for presentations. Youth were the main actors throughout the conference, to the point that teachers complained they felt neglected. Participation in the conference was stated by several youth as a highlight within their work as PEs. It gave them the opportunity to share and learn form others on practical issues related to the work as a PE. A major challenge for the sustainability of PE approaches is that the turn over of PEs is usually high. Young people grow up, have rapidly changing interests and environments and often find themselves on the look out for opportunities to generate income - in part due to sheer financial necessity. The more active PEs are often the older ones and when they leave school the younger PEs are required to take up the initiative. This project reduced the risk of low sustainability by using the J/YRCC as a continuing institutional base that provides its own incentives. In the majority of districts reference teachers of the J/YRCCs are involved in supporting the continuity of activities and providing guidance to younger PEs. In other districts voices were less optimistic stating that "the training has just made us stand, we need more to help us make the move." Furthermore, it needs to be kept in mind that reaching out to the community and changing behaviour is a longer process. "If we critically analyse the questions in the query box we find most of the questions coming from students indicate that they are still shy." The general statement was that to keep the same level of activity it will need a minimum level of external support mainly in terms of further trainings and provision of IEC materials. Small incentives have a high effect but their reliability and continuity needs to be assured. Youth are discouraged if, despite their initiative, support in terms of answered questions and provision of IEC materials is lacking. To increase the capacities of PEs an option may be to provide further training and some additional incentives to a selection of active PEs (2-4 per schools) which in turn have to initiate a certain set of activities. Ideally, these PEs are selected by the other youth/PEs and thus have the mandate and trustworthiness of youth to function as their representatives, counsellors and role models. CAPITALIZATION STUDY HIV/AIDS Prevention and Reproductive Health Project NRCS/SDC 2000-2007 7
Lessons learnt Adolescents have many questions and doubts about what happens to them when they grow up and mature, about their sexual feelings and sexual life. Prevention of HIV infection might be one area of interest, but it is neither the only nor the most important one. Perceptions about physical development and relationships, normality and abnormality, pregnancy, disease prevention, among others, all influence how girls and boys perceive their roles and options and influence how they behave. Initiatives therefore need to involve young people and take a broader perspective of their concerns related to reproductive health and sexuality instead of an HIV perspective only. Prevention information must be coupled with everyday skills to increase the likelihood that individuals will translate their knowledge into action. Life skills based approaches are designed to do this by developing young people's abilities such as negotiation, assertiveness, and ability to cope with peer pressure; attitudes such as compassion, selfesteem, and tolerance; and knowledge about HIV transmission. When implemented with community involvement and support, these programmes foster a positive social environment. For the community environment to be conducive to safe sexual choices, coordinated interventions are needed that target parents, community leaders, teachers, and others with positive messages about HIV prevention. Youth involvement is an essential approach to foster life skills. Youth involvement refers to the degree of empowerment and decisionmaking that youth are able to assume. It needs both adequate training and supervision to increase youths' decisionmaking skills and proficiency in carrying out their responsibilities. Youth-adult partnerships constitute an advanced stage of youth involvement which in itself is a success story. However it usually needs adult staff members to initiate and facilitate the process supporting direct youth involvement, open communication, trustworthiness and mutual respect. An important factor to motivate youth to become involved is the camaraderie and friendship developed in a youth group. A shared vision and commitment to the programme and its goals are strong motivators to join, be active, and remain in a programme. The cooperation through group activities significantly contributes to the selfesteem and social skills of involved youth. Lessons learnt from the project: • Peer education is effective to increase communication between peers. Face-to-face exchange mostly takes place between close peers. Dissemination of information to other youth mainly takes place indirectly through public IEC events. • Peer education does not contribute significantly to increase communication between youth and parents or other adults in the community. • An institutional base such as the youth volunteer circles decreases the usually high level of fluctuation of PEs. • Trained teachers and PEs support and complement each other. • Youth bear a high potential of motivation and creativity to implement IEC activities. • Continuous support and incentives are required. Important incentives include: training; IEC materials, HIV prevention tools; belonging to a group of peers and a broader movement. • For a majority of students the school classes on Reproductive Health are among their favourite classes at school. Youth are eager to learn about reproductive health and thus there is high potential to convey messages on HIV prevention. • HIV alone however does not suffice to keep the interest of youth; it needs integration with other issues of their concern. 8 CAPITALIZATION STUDY HIV/AIDS Prevention and Reproductive Health Project NRCS/SDC 2000-2007
Page 1 and 2: HIV/AIDS Prevention & Reproductive
Page 3 and 4: Contents List of Abbreviations III
Page 5 and 6: Study Methodology This capitalizati
Page 7 and 8: the National HIV and AIDS Strategy.
Page 9 and 10: Life skills development of Youth Pr
Page 11: community. Sessions now include dis
Page 15 and 16: national system for distributing IE
Page 17 and 18: forbade his sister to be involved i
Page 19 and 20: PEs disseminate messages related to
Page 21 and 22: increased. "We were accused of bein
Page 23 and 24: Adults furthermore tend not to be v
Page 25 and 26: is not encouraged or allowed at all
Page 27 and 28: female PEs further contributes to r
Page 29 and 30: for Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Ma
Page 31 and 32: Summary of Recommendations • Peer
Page 33 and 34: Annex I Newspaper extracts Advising
Page 35 and 36: Under the initiation of District Re
Page 37 and 38: support.) Do you think there is a y
Page 39 and 40: information materials used? Who dec
Page 41 and 42: III Project documents and consulted

HIV/AIDS Prevention & Reproductive Health Project

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?