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

These professionals created a resolution document urging all governments in Europe to adopt the concept ofthe ‘Health Promoting School’ and to create conditions for 10 different principals to put into practice. Oneof the principals, ‘Empowerment and Action Competence’, established that a health promoting schoolimproves young people’s ability to take action and generate change, and that pupils working together withteachers and others on health promotion can gain a sense of achievement and an ability to influence theirlives and living conditions. Lastly, they recommended that this be achieved through policies and practicesthat give opportunities for young people to participate in critical decision making.AIDS and embarrassmentSchool staff, parents and other gatekeepers can be especially shy about AIDS peer education. The subjects takenup are sensitive and perhaps embarrassing for some adults. The combination of subject matter, change in pupilroles, and interactive techniques may be unnerving to some. Another reason for opposition can be that it cutsinto valuable curriculum time. However, peer education can be used in the context of subjects such as health,sex and drug education or conducted outside the curriculum or during other school events. There are manyexamples of peer education projects working in these ways throughout Europe.Policy making can contribute by informing schools and educational systems about peer education and healthpromotion. School personnel can be trained in new methods such as peer education, and can collaborate withexperienced personnel from other schools. Pilot projects and feasibility studies can be designed andsponsored. A great deal can be accomplished by facilitating intersectoral co-operation and collaboration atEuropean, national, regional and local levels. This is especially the case with Ministries of Health, Educationand Youth, where parallel systems reach from the national to the individual school level.Peer education outside school settingsPeer education is especially valuable for those who want to reach young people outside the school setting. Itcan do this through:1 formal structures such as sports clubs, penal institutions, boarding houses, or youth centres and2 youth groups outside specific organisational frameworks.Only the latter will be focused on here. This area includes a wide range of groups vulnerable to HIV,including migrants, ethnic youth, gay, lesbian and bi-sexual youth, intravenous drug users (IDUs), thoseengaged in prostitution, street youth and other socially disadvantaged groups.Young people outside organisational frameworks usually have a sub-culture that lies far from the world oftraditional experts and social marketing messages. It can be very difficult to gain access to these groupsunless you are ‘one of them’. In addition, these groups are wise to attempts by outsiders to send in proxies orto include them as tokens in decision-making.Peer education can encourage these groups to create, initiate and own their own HIV initiatives. This is notsimply a matter of prevention – it may provide a programme that contributes to increased self-esteem andsocial responsibility for the young people involved.The community agencies, outreach programmes and NGOs in contact with these people often have arelationship of trust with them. These organisations can be encouraged to try peer education by spreadinginformation about successful projects. In addition, the valuable experience and knowledge that already existsamong ongoing peer education projects can be shared by networking between these and newly interestedgroups at European, national, regional, and local levels.18 European guidelines for youth AIDS peer education