European guidelines for youth AIDS peer education - University of ...

Besides, how could an outside expert understand the implicit values, norms, and language of sexuality anddrug use in a group they were not a part of? Citizen participation, community mobilisation and localempowerment was required to enable communities and groups to help themselves. Peer education was seenas one possible way of generating this process.As the majority of young people are in schools until they are 17–18 years old, the schools system had to beinvolved in HIV prevention, sex education and drug education. Conservative by nature, many school systemswere and still are reluctant to such proposals. Few teachers were trained in these subjects, and the use ofinteractive techniques was a far cry from the traditional didactic teacher-pupil role. The subject matter wascomplicated, personal and even embarrassing to work with. The advocates of peer education, however,suggested that a possible solution to these problems was to let the pupils tackle the issues themselves.Peer education was also seen as having the potential for reaching young people outside the schools setting.Europe also has an range of youth sub-groups who are outside the mainstream due to social circumstances,drug abuse, sexual orientation, poverty, lifestyle, and ethnic or religious background. Peer educationappeared to be a convenient and effective method to reach them.Today, AIDS peer education is a result of practical experience in HIV prevention, social science research,the changing nature of modern society and youth, and the health promotion movement. It is a movementin the sense that its supporters advocate change in current information hierarchies, increased youthparticipation, and the right of young people to have adequate information on health matters, includingsexuality and drug use.The term ‘AIDS peer education’ is currently used to describe a range of methods of educating young peopleabout HIV, STD and other pertinent health subjects. It is in a state of flux and those involved in it seek todefine it. These guidelines attempt to contribute to a definition by drawing on its historical context,examining its practical applications in Europe today, and sharing the knowledge and experience of expertsand young people from 14 European countries.Peer education in Europe todayWhen different people speak or write about ‘AIDS peer education’ they may not be discussing the samething. This is especially apparent when reading the results of various research evaluations that compare theeffects of various peer education projects or articles by practitioners who make generalised claims about theapproach. In AIDS peer education, there can be a wide variation between the demographics and culture ofeach target group, including the setting and social-economic context, the training and amount of selfdeterminationthe peer educators receive, the content and steps of the implementation program, and theproject aims and objectives.As a first step toward bringing some order to this situation, a categorisation of European AIDS peereducation is presented below. Each category is described in detail later in the guidelines. These categoriesare not analytical and are not offered as set of methods in themselves. They can be used in variouscombinations. They are based on the field interviews, the literature review, and the Europeer Expert Meeting.AIDS peer education can be roughly divided into these four sub-approaches:1 the pedagogical or educational approach2 the outreach approach3 the diffusional approach4 the peer-facilitated community mobilisation approach.Peer education and behavioural theoriesAnyone carrying out an intervention has a theory about what they are doing, why they think it will work andwhat the outcome will be. However, there is a difference between an assumption and a theory. We make anassumption when we take for granted that an intervention is effective without having an understanding of its10 European guidelines for youth AIDS peer education