a sourcebook of hiv/aids prevention programs volume 2

The School Health Education Program (SHEP), Ghana 71the country. To ensure that all schools benefit from these activities, it worksin collaboration with various stakeholders, including relevant governmentalorganizations, NGOs, community-based organizations (CBOs), faith-basedorganizations (FBOs), and other development partners.The cooperation of such stakeholders—with all their energy, resources,creativity, and activity—is highly advantageous. Their presence enhancescapacity, enabling many more schools and students to be reached than wouldbe possible through government action alone. At the same time, the operationof so many different actors poses the threat that interventions deliveredcan be fragmented, uncoordinated, and, in the worst case, contradictory. Toprevent this from happening, SHEP coordinates the activities of differentpartners to provide clear and common direction for their work in schools.Aims, Objectives, and StrategiesThe aim of SHEP is to facilitate the creation of well-informed and healthystudents equipped with life skills that enable them to maintain healthybehaviors. The program objectives are to:• provide skills-based health education to students• provide students, teachers, and the school community with knowledgeand skills to make informed choices for healthy behaviors• improve the physical, social, and mental health and development ofschool-age children• promote a healthy and friendly learning environment, to enhance schoolretention and academic competence.The program seeks to achieve these objectives through the followingstrategies:• Delivery of HIV prevention education in schools by a range of stakeholders• Delivery of a range of additional school health interventions, includinginterventions on environmental health and sanitation, personal hygiene,physical education, adolescent reproductive health, safety and security,family life, drug and substance abuse, food and nutrition, and schoolhealth services• Coordination of delivery through the use of consistent messages and acommon model of implementation.(c) The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank