HIV/AIDS Education and Prevention and HIV&ME

Prevention is a word that draws considerable controversy among AIDS experts. Billions of dollars have been poured into treatment programs and vaccine research, but prevention strategies - such as condoms, education, and clean needle exchanges - rarely receive comparable attention.

Prevention does not require vast research capabilities. Its success is not dependent on feats of technical ingenuity such as refrigeration in remote, off-grid villages. As epidemiologist and AIDS expert Elizabeth Pisani puts it, "The more effective our prevention programs are, the less treatment we need. But the more effective our treatment programs are, the longer people live with their infections, the healthier and more sexually active they are, the more prevention we will need."

Each year, there are more and more new HIV infections which shows that people either aren't learning the message about the dangers of HIV, or are unable or unwilling to act on it. Many people are dangerously ignorant about the virus, with surveys around the world showing alarmingly low levels of awareness and understanding about HIV amongst many groups. Furthermore, the availability of new biomedical HIV prevention modalities, such as vaccines and microbicides, is still many years away. Even when these tools finally emerge, human behavior will remain critical. This points to one conclusion -education and a wider delivery of effective behaviour change strategies is central to reversing the global HIV epidemic.

School based HIV education programmes are effective tools for impacting learners' knowledge and behaviour as regards HIV/AIDS and their attitudes to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). There are at least three levels at which a school based response to addressing HIV/AIDS can be effective.

At the first level, relatively simple interventions in resource-poor environments can usefully address stigma and discrimination. The evidence is strong that schools can have an impact on stigma and discrimination within communities by increasing knowledge, dispelling myths, and developing life skills such as critical thinking and empathy. At the second level, strategic information or actionable knowledge can have important impacts while requiring a relatively manageable intervention by the education sector. For example, a recent study in Kenya gave girls information on relative HIV transmission rates by partner age range and was highly effective in changing girls' choice of sexual partners (Dupas, 2006). At the third and highest level of complexity, there is a clear and sound theoretical argument for providing an educational package that includes skills specifically aimed at HIV prevention, such as condom use and partner reduction (WHO & UNAIDS, 2004).

HIV&Me is a Regency Foundation Networx school based training programme designed to equip educators with the language and tools to more effectively deal with the issues of HIV in their classrooms. It follows the methodology of experiential learning and works to mainstream HIV education across the outcome based education (OBE) structured school curriculum, with particular reference to Natural Sciences and Life Skills. The programme focuses on the prevention of HIV/AIDS and strives to motivate young people to make responsible and informed choices about their health and sexual behaviour.

HIV&Me builds on the 3 levels of complexity referred to above, concentrating on stigma and discrimination reduction by increasing the HIV knowledge base of the target audience - grade 8 learners and educators.

Together with a learner-centric approach to knowledge dissemination, HIV&Me focuses on developing negotiation and communication skills that lead to actionable knowledge, especially in the ability of young women to protect their bodies and build their self esteem by learning to say 'No' clearly and confidently.

Sensitive to circumstance and reality, it also follows a model of inclusivity by promoting condom usage, abstinence and partner reduction. In addition, the programme deals with the issues of living positively and addresses the topics of care and support. Emphasis is placed on the importance of ‘knowing your status’ and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is encouraged.

During 2008, the programme was successfully implemented in various schools across the Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the North West Province. Dedicated to promoting sustainability within schools by working more closely with the Department of Education’s (DOE) existing HIV/AIDS and Curriculum framework, 2009 will commence with training Secunda and Sasolburg DOE branches, with specific focus on monitoring the quality of lesson delivery and assessing areas for growth and enhancement.

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