Meeting their needs? Discussing young people’s sexual health

More than six thousand people aged 16-25 become infected with HIV every day worldwide. But the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of young people are often neglected. The Safe Passages to Adulthood Programme, funded by DFID, held a meeting of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from many countries. They considered the potential of education to protect young people against HIV.

Education has a key role to play both in preventing HIV/AIDS and in mitigating its effects on individuals and communities. It can provide children and young people with the knowledge and understanding to protect themselves and others, with skills to communicate and negotiate for safer sex and drug use and with attitudes and values that foster respect and support for people living with HIV/AIDS.

If young people have access to accurate information and the opportunity to discuss SRH issues, they can and will change their behaviour to reduce their risk of disease. Workshop participants discussed a number of projects that work with young people in several different countries. They focused on three settings: in school, out of school and in higher education.

Examples of each include:

• A school-based prevention project in Sichuan Province, China, has established a network of teachers trained in life skills and HIV/AIDS education. As a result, HIV/AIDS awareness has increased amongst local education officials, students, parents and the media. There are plans to scale up this work.
• The Youth Zone Project in the Philippines provides a safe space for young people to learn about HIV/AIDS through a variety of innovative strategies. It provides services, including medical care, to around 20-25 young people each day, including particularly vulnerable groups.
• The Centre for the Study of AIDS at South Africa’s University of Pretoria developed a series of activities to address the needs of students and their friends. This has raised HIV/AIDS awareness and increased debate on campus. Curricula have changed to address the impact of the disease and requests for condoms have increased.

The many projects differ greatly, both geographically and in their activities and goals, but they provide some common lessons. They show that successful work needs the active involvement of young people and depends on:

• partnerships between international agencies, governments, civil society, young people and the broader community and commitment from political and community leaders
• ongoing consultation and feedback rather than one-off research activities
• strategies to tackle the negative values held by some adults about adolescents
• support for teachers in their new roles and flexible approaches for children and teachers with responsibility for sick relatives
• planning from the outset for local ownership of projects
• gender-sensitive approaches and awareness of the needs of vulnerable groups
• consideration of the social, political, financial and cultural contexts of young people’s lives.

Source(s):
‘The role of education in promoting young people’s sexual and reproductive health’, Safe Passages to Adulthood Programme, Southampton, UK, by I. Warwick and P. Aggleton, 2002 Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 19 September 2002

Further Information:
Safe Passages to Adulthood
Thomas Coram Research Unit
Institute of Education
University of London
27-28 Woburn Square
LONDON WC1H 0AA
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 207 612 6957
Fax: +44 (0) 207 612 6927
Contact the contributor: tcru@ioe.ac.uk

Institute of Education, University of London, UK

University of Southampton

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK

Other related links:
'Clearing up confusion: peer-led AIDS education in Zambia'

'Learning from experience - sex education for young women'

'Knowledge is power - AIDS education for Ugandan schoolchildren'

'Having their say – young people and sexual health in Nicaragua'

'Selling safe sex to young people - does youth-targeted social marketing work?'

See id21's collection of links relevant to sexual and reproductive health.