HIV/AIDS Awareness and Life Skills

This section looks at HIV/AIDS education for orphans and other vulnerable children. This includes raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and practical training in life skills. Other sections focus in general on education and school age children . Other sections cover issues regarding access to education and the role of schools .

Key points about HIV/AIDS awareness and life skills for orphans and other vulnerable children are:

1. Education about HIV/AIDS may take place in schools in several ways. It may be included in the curriculum or in extra-curricular activities, such as AIDS prevention clubs.

2. Information about HIV/AIDS is useful to children and young people. However, information alone is not enough to overcome the risk of HIV infection. Children and young people need to gain certain skills as well. These are called life skills.

3. Life skills training in schools can be seen as part of a range of activities which promote the health of children and young people.

4. A wide range of other activities may be used in schools to reduce vulnerability to HIV infection. Some of these reduce vulnerability indirectly.

HIV/AIDS Education in Schools

Education about HIV/AIDS may take place in schools in several ways. It may be included in the curriculum or in extra-curricular activities, such as AIDS prevention clubs. This education needs to start before children become sexually active. This means that it needs to start in primary school. Such education needs to be appropriate for the age of the child. It should also be sensitive to social and religious norms. This may mean that the approach used may need to be adapted to different types of schools . Teachers require training in order to provide this education. This training needs to include use of participatory methods. Children and young people also learn a great deal from each other. Approaches which use 'peer education' methods are based on this fact.

Life Skills

Information about HIV/AIDS is useful to children and young people. However, information alone is not enough to overcome the risk of HIV infection. Children and young people need to gain certain skills as well. These are called life skills. Training in life skills usually involves participatory ways of learning, such as using games. The aim of such training is to modify behaviour, not just to give knowledge. Areas covered in life skills training include negotiation skills, assertiveness, coping with peer pressure, compassion, self-esteem, tolerance and social norms. Practical skills may also be included, such as sewing clothes, thatching huts, personal hygiene and household agriculture.

Health Promotion

Life skills training in schools can be seen as part of a range of activities which promote the health of children and young people. These include provision of health services, policy on health, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, teaching and learning and a focus on using the school to promote health within the wider community.

School health promotion is defined as all means a school uses to become healthier and to spread health to those who attend and work in it and to their families and communities. It includes health education but is more than just this. It also includes:

A safe and healthy environment
Good nutrition practices
Good school health services
Joint health action between the school and the community

Other Measures

A wide range of other activities may be used in schools to reduce vulnerability to HIV infection. Some of these reduce vulnerability indirectly. These activities include:

Education itself. Children and young people who receive at least nine years of education are less vulnerable to sexual exploitation and HIV infection.
Ensuring the quality of education and that it is relevant to local needs.
Ensuring that girls have the same educational opportunities as boys.
Making counselling available to children and young people. Such counselling should be broader than HIV/AIDS and sexual health. It should include issues relating to problems in families and finding employment.
Providing recreational and social services.
Establishing monitoring systems to detect problems within schools. These problems include sexual abuse and the coercion of children and young people into exploitative sexual activities.
Developing supportive policies, such as those which promote children's rights .

Resources

Street Children and HIV/AIDS. A Methodological Guide for Facilitators (Eng)

This methodological guide aims to put forward ideas and propose action to the facilitators working with and for street children. It offers practical information on the understanding of the characterisitics of street children and information about HIV/AIDS and the means of preventing infection or obtaining treatment.
UNESCO P.A.U Education 2006, PDF, 58 pages

Street Children, Drugs and HIV/AIDS: The Response of Preventative Education (Eng)

This publication highlights the problems faced by street children such as the risks of HIV infection and drug abuse. It also offers a solution to reduce the risks faced by these children, that is preventative education which aims to improve children's awareness and understanding of the daily risks they face and how to improve life conditions and aquire personal skills.
UNESCO, PDF, 42 pages

HIV Prevention with Especially Vulnerable Young People (Eng)

This publication offers a straightforward guide to priority setting, outlining five core principles underpinning effective HIV/AIDS prevention programming with young people.
WHO, DFID, Centre for Sexual Health Research University of Southampton, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London, centre for Population Studies, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Authors: Kate Wood, Claire Maxwell, Peter Aggleton, Paul Tyrer, Cesar Infante, Kim Rivers and Ian Warwick, 2006, 43 pages

Girl Power: The impact of girls' education on HIV and sexual behaviour (Eng)

This paper addresses the new challenge that is how to empower women to assert their sexual and reproductive rights. Of the possible solutions giving girls an education is widely recognised as the best way to provide this girl power.
Action Aid International. James Hargreaves and Tania Boler (2006)

FHI Focus on Interventions with Youth (Eng)

This document presents HIV/AIDS-related interventions for youth.
FHI, 2003, PDF, 2 pages, 186 kb.

Integrating HIV/STD Prevention in the School Setting: A Position Paper (Eng)

This is a short and quite general position paper which argues that schools have a key role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention education because many young people are affected by HIV/AIDS and schools provide unrivalled opportunity to reach young people.
UNAIDS, 1997, PDF, 4 pages, 74 kb.

Reaching Out-of-School Youth with Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Information and Services (Eng)

This issues paper discusses methodologies for reaching out-of-school youth with reproductive health and HIV/AIDS information and services and illustrates these with case studies
Burns, A. A., Ruland, C. D. & Finger, W. with Murphy-Graham, E., McCarney, R. & Schueller, J. YouthNet Program, FHI. 2004, PDF, 338kb, 34 pages

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Tips for Developing Life Skills Curricula for HIV Prevention Among African Youth: A Synthesis of Emerging Lessons (Eng)

Section 1 of this document gives background information on life skills and HIV/AIDS. Section 2 is particularly useful as it is structured around practical tips for four different groups of people.
USAID, 2002, PDF, 29 pages, 571 kb.

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Games for Adolescent Reproductive Health (Eng)

This publication focuses on the use of games in work on reproductive health and sexuality.
Hendrix-Jenkins, A., Clark, S., Gerber, W., Le Fevre, J. and Quiroga, R., PATH, 2002, PDF, 69 pages, 624 kb.

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Suggestions facilitant la mise au point des programmes d'études au compétences de développement personnel, telles qu'elles se rapportent à la prévention du VIH chez les jeunes Africains: Une synthèse des leçons qui commencent à se faire jour (Fr)

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Intégration de la Prévention de l'Infection à VIH et des MST en Milieu Scolaire : Note d'Information (Fr)

This is a short and quite general position paper which argues that schools have a key role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention education because many young people are affected by HIV/AIDS and schools provide unrvialled opportunity to reach young people.
UNAIDS, 1997, PDF, 4 pages, 73 kb.

Integración de la Prevención del VIH y de las ETS en el Medio Escolar (Sp)

This is a short and quite general position paper which argues that schools have a key role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention education because many young people are affected by HIV/AIDS and schools provide unrvialled opportunity to reach young people.
UNAIDS, 1997, application/pdf, 4 pages, 74201 kb.

Integrating HIV/STD Prevention in the School Setting: A Position Paper (Rus)

This is a short and quite general position paper which argues that schools have a key role to play in HIV/AIDS prevention education because many young people are affected by HIV/AIDS and schools provide unrvialled opportunity to reach young people.
UNAIDS, 1997, PDF, 3 pages, 190 kb.

Lessons for Life: HIV/AIDS and Lifeskills Education for Schools (Eng)

This publication aims to provide guidance to someone seeking to develop a national lifeskills programme for schools.
Casey, M., Thorn, A., Fransen, L. and Willot, C., EU, 1999, PDF, 58 pages, 467 kb.

The Impact of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic on the Education Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (Eng)

This is a detailed and comprehensive report of a research study carried out in 41 schools in three countries, Botswana, Malawi and Uganda. It looked at a wide range of issues relating to HIV/AIDS and education.
Bennell, P., Hyde, K. and Swainson, N., Centre for International Education, University of Sussex, 2002, PDF, 129 pages, 550 kb.