Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS & Mitigating its Impact through the Involvement of Youth in HIV/AIDS
The Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS project aims to reduce the spread and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS among young South Africans by encouraging them to participate in the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes for HIV/AIDS prevention. Officially endorsed by the government in March 2003, the project focuses on empowering young people to adopt responsible and healthy behaviours.
This project is part of the Southern African Youth (SAY) Initiative. SAY is a sub-regional HIV and AIDS initiative through which the United Nations Foundation (UNF), the United Nations Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), and UNAIDS seek to support and scale up HIV/AIDS interventions among young people in southern Africa. South African project objectives include:
At the heart of this programme is a deliberate effort to involve youth directly in the fight against the epidemic. The programme seeks to involve young people as agents of change who assess, analyse, and propose appropriateactions to address the vulnerability of youth to HIV/AIDS. The project also involves parents, teachers and caregivers, faith-based leaders, and other key stakeholders in society in an effort to encourage behaviour change. This strategy is based on the premise that families and communities are profoundly affected by HIV/AIDS.
Project activities include:
HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Youth.
This project is part of the Southern African Youth (SAY) Initiative. SAY is a sub-regional HIV and AIDS initiative through which the United Nations Foundation (UNF), the United Nations Fund for International Partnership (UNFIP), and UNAIDS seek to support and scale up HIV/AIDS interventions among young people in southern Africa. South African project objectives include:
- strengthening community home-based careinitiatives using young people as caregivers
- mainstreaming HIV/AIDS care and support,life skills, and sexual reproductive health into existing youth programmes
- facilitating partnerships and mobilising the community around care and support for people living with HIV and AIDS
- training HIV-positive youth to enhance theirpotential for employment
- involving youth, in and out of school, in the development of effective life-skills programmes for HIV prevention.
At the heart of this programme is a deliberate effort to involve youth directly in the fight against the epidemic. The programme seeks to involve young people as agents of change who assess, analyse, and propose appropriateactions to address the vulnerability of youth to HIV/AIDS. The project also involves parents, teachers and caregivers, faith-based leaders, and other key stakeholders in society in an effort to encourage behaviour change. This strategy is based on the premise that families and communities are profoundly affected by HIV/AIDS.
Project activities include:
- Participation by youth, both in and out of school, in a social audit designed to elicit youth views, attitudes, and knowledge on sexuality, HIV risk, and sexual violence. A key aim here is getting young people involved in planning effective life-skills programmes.
- Equipping HIV-positive youth with personal and professional skills - such as psychosocial care training - to enable them to better manage their status, to be positive role models, and to enhance their potential for employment.
- Youth models that apply the Greater Involvement of People with AIDS (GIPA) principle
- Community mobilisation and advocacy.
HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health, Youth.
Key Points
Organisers explain that "For young people to adopt responsible and healthy behaviours, the root causes of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS must be addressed. Some of these are: the lack of economic opportunities (unemployment); lack of recreational activities; substance abuse; misconceptions and myths around sexuality; sexual roles, sexual inequalities and related sexual violence; and stigma."
SAY comprises 9 independent projects located in 8 of southern Africa's most severely affected countries, as well as a sub-regional technical support project (Telling the Story). Through the work of UN country teams, SAY aims to catalyse innovative and expanded national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to meet the needs of youth in southern Africa, especially girls, who are most vulnerable to HIV infection.
SAY comprises 9 independent projects located in 8 of southern Africa's most severely affected countries, as well as a sub-regional technical support project (Telling the Story). Through the work of UN country teams, SAY aims to catalyse innovative and expanded national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to meet the needs of youth in southern Africa, especially girls, who are most vulnerable to HIV infection.
Partners
UNF/UNAIDS
Sources
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