HIV/AIDS Prevention & Reproductive Health Project

the National HIV and AIDS Strategy.
Young people in Nepal are becoming
more vulnerable to HIV and AIDS
because of an increase in pre-marital
sexual intercourse. Moreover, young
people also tend to make up a large
proportion of particular high-risk subgroups
such as migrants, female sex
workers, injecting drug users, and men
who have sex with men. Vulnerability is
further fuelled by gaps in access to
Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH)
knowledge, and skills and services. For
young people to reduce their risk and
vulnerability to HIV, they need a set of
protective skills and to have access to
appropriate services and products. They
must also perceive their environments to
be supportive of changing or maintaining
safe behaviours. On their journey from
childhood to adulthood youth are eager
and perceptive to learn about SRH and
thus bear high potential to apply
protective skills and adapt their
behaviour. Society-wide change is
nevertheless a slow process. Changes
achieved through Behaviour Change and
Communication (BCC) will not be seen
overnight. This is especially true when it
comes to addressing HIV and AIDS
which requires national and community
discussions on sex and sexuality, risk, risk
settings and risk behaviours and forces
them to confront cultural ideals and the
practices that clash with them.
The NRCS started to address HIV and
AIDS prevention for Youth in 1994 as one
of the first main actors in this field in
Nepal. The HIV and AIDS Prevention and
Reproductive Health Project, funded
through SDC, has adopted
comprehensive approaches to address
SRH education at schools. Today, NRCS
promotes SRH at schools in 19 districts in
Nepal, with support from SDC,
Norwegian Red Cross (Norcross) and the
UNDP. Altogether, the NRCS covers 54
districts through HIV prevention
activities. The programmes are
implemented through the educational
institutions which are closely linked with
the NRCS network and reach down to the
community level. The SRH youth
programmes of the NRCS are embedded
in the community development work of
the NRCS; they are multi-sectoral in
nature and contribute to a coordinated
response through involvement of
community members, leaders and other
organizations. The programmes
essentially built on the participation of
youth, involvement of teachers and
outreach to the community. Measures to
address gender balance and social equity
are an integral part of all programmes.
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CAPITALIZATION STUDY
HIV/AIDS Prevention and Reproductive Health Project
NRCS/SDC 2000-2007