Together for HIV and AIDS prevention

of men, then your teachings about sexual abstinence and being faithful will not be credible. By
providing a good example, what you say holds more weight, and at the same time you are
protecting yourself from infection.
This toolkit aims to give you the information to protect yourself, those you love as well as sexual
partners from HIV infection. By being safe you can continue to coach, train and manage the
current and future generations of children, young people and sports people who need your support.
“As an athlete, I played hard on the field, but I don’t play with my life
or the life of others. Protect yourself from HIV/AIDS.”
Frank Fredericks, Namibia, Track and Field Quadruple Olympic Silver Medallist.
2.3 Educate young people
Today’s young generation, which is the largest in history, has never known a world without AIDS. Young
people between the ages of 15 and 24 are both the most threatened by AIDS – accounting for
half of all new cases of HIV or 6,000 new infections per day – and the greatest hope for turning the
tide against the HIV epidemic. 50% of HIV infections occur in young people with many of them
contracting HIV before their 20th birthday. Most young people become sexually active in their teens,
many before their fifteenth birthday and yet millions of young people have not even heard of HIV.
Box 3: Young people and HIV and AIDS
A few of the reasons why young people are at risk of HIV infection:
Section2
● Nearly 90% of all HIV-positive people worldwide do not know they have the virus, though
they can transmit it to others;
● Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are most frequent in young people aged 15-24. STIs help
the transmission of HIV;
● Young adults are particularly vulnerable to STIs and most know very little about them. Young
people who become sexually active at a young age are more likely to change sexual partners
and risk greater exposure to STIs;
● Young people may be more reluctant to seek help from health services, because they do not
know they have an infection, because they are embarrassed or ashamed, or because they can
not afford services. In many places, health services do not exist for young people, and where
they do, often they do not cater for young people. Some services may be judgemental
towards young people who are sexually active;
● Being young is often synonymous with risk taking and experimenting. This can lead to unsafe
sex or experimenting with drugs, including injecting; and
● Many young men are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection because, when they socialize, they
often drink to the point of intoxication and experiment with sex. Drinking alcohol often leads to
unsafe sex as it becomes more difficult to say no to sex, to use condoms and to practise safer sex.
Together for HIV and AIDS prevention 21