People to People - New Mexico, USA
People to People is a peer education programme designed to prevent HIV/AIDS. It has been developed and implemented - mostly in New Mexico, USA to date - by Planet Poz, a non-profit organisation for the education, research, and rehabilitation of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people worldwide. As part of this programme, people living with HIV conduct presentations for the public on HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis, while also offering their own perspective on what it is like to live with one or both of these diseases. Audiences for People to People are schools, rehabilitation and substance abuse treatment centres, outpatient programmes (for both adults and youth), correctional facilities, community correction programmes, juvenile detention centres, and programmes reaching out to at-risk youth.
Communication Strategies
This programme is based on the idea that at-risk populations will more deeply reflect on and more fully absorb HIV and Hepatitis prevention information when it is provided by persons to whom they can relate. In addition, because organisers say that the rate of co-infection of Hepatitis and HIV is growing, the peer education model focusses on providing information about both diseases.
Peer educators are persons living with HIV/AIDS who may also be co-infected with Hepatitis. They are educated and trained in basic facts about HIV and Hepatitis and their means of transmission, as well as sexual negotiations, condom use, and basic harm reduction theory and practice. Educators are also prepared to share personal stories of what it is like to live with HIV/AIDS (and Hepatitis, if applicable).
At each venue, such as a school, 2 or more peer educators (preferably male and female) conduct 2-hour sessions. In addition to providing current information, educators offer referrals for testing, treatment, and syringe exchange programmes.
Peer educators are persons living with HIV/AIDS who may also be co-infected with Hepatitis. They are educated and trained in basic facts about HIV and Hepatitis and their means of transmission, as well as sexual negotiations, condom use, and basic harm reduction theory and practice. Educators are also prepared to share personal stories of what it is like to live with HIV/AIDS (and Hepatitis, if applicable).
At each venue, such as a school, 2 or more peer educators (preferably male and female) conduct 2-hour sessions. In addition to providing current information, educators offer referrals for testing, treatment, and syringe exchange programmes.
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS, Health.
Key Points
Organisers are in the process of developing a comprehensive education programme using cognitive reality practices for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and mental health. This programme will be taught and delivered by people who have lived with these challenges. It will be divided into 3 parts to adapt to the needs of particular audiences, cultures, and belief systems.
Organisers have implemented People to People in Kenya, Africa, and seek to expand the programme more broadly throughout the United States and the world.
Organisers have implemented People to People in Kenya, Africa, and seek to expand the programme more broadly throughout the United States and the world.
Partners
Departments of Education and the Red Cross.
Sources
Letters sent from Ingrid Kloet-Garrett to The Communication Initiative on September 29 2003 and from Wm. Steve Garrett on November 16 2003; and Planet Poz website.
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