a sourcebook of hiv/aids prevention programs volume 2

Programa de Educación Afectivo Sexual (PEAS), the Dominican Republic 7ObjectivesThe PEAS objectives include the following:• Promote healthy sexual behaviors and facilitate informed decisionmaking by children and youth.• Increase young people’s knowledge about sexual and reproductive health.• Develop positive attitudes concerning self-esteem, self-awareness, confidence,and respect and values for self and others.• Combat the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.• Decrease the number of sexual partners.• Delay the age of sexual initiation.• Prevent HIV/AIDS, other STIs, and teenage pregnancies.• Promote public health policy.StrategiesThe program’s main strategy is to teach sex education, with a strong STIand HIV/AIDS component, to all students in all four years of secondaryschool. The program promotes sexual abstinence, safe sex, and condom use;discourages teenage pregnancies; and encourages communication betweenyoung adults and their parents.On the basis of the results of a survey carried out in 2004 (describedbelow), the PEAS program developed a strategic plan. The plan outlines theaims and implementation strategies of the program and provides teacherguidelines. On the basis of the survey, a number of recommendations weremade for strengthening the program:• Set up a peer education component aimed at providing peer supportand counseling.• Involve parents and caregivers in the program.• Integrate income-generating activities.• Create supportive environments.• Support community action for health change, community outreach,and mobilization.• Promote and conserve positive cultural and traditional arts and modes ofcommunication.• Increase the capacity of NGO staff to deal with HIV/AIDS and sexualhealth issues in their own programs.(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank