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Title: Teens Against SEX HIV/AIDS and DRUGS
Location:
Global
Categories: Education
Health
Media
Substance Abuse
Sexuality
Status:
In Progress
Timeline:
January 1 02 to January 1 08
Description:
the project involves educating youth and teens of my country on the disease called HIV/AIDS through various methods e.g lectures,acting, role play, media etc it is currrently in 33 primary schools and 14 high schools with no pay to run the programme it is quite difficult though we cannot sit and wait for our youth and brothers and sisters to die so when the times are hard we get tougher. Educating them has proven to be a so called "VACCINE"and they talk to there peers as well as parents openly about sexuallity education and they find it easy to communicate.These are our priority areas.
Background:
Giving HIV/AID Battling HIV/AIDS Through Education
Since the summer of 1998, the members of Volunteer Kenya, working alongside their partner organizations and volunteers from the US , Canada , Switzerland , Australia , the UK , Japan , and Spain have reached over 200,000 Kenyans with their HIV/AIDS awareness campaign. At schools, community centers, bars, nightclubs, churches, and women's groups, the Volunteer Kenya team presents two to three hour HIV/AIDS programs. Discussions at these programs center on transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other STIs. We supply facts about HIV/AIDS that assist in dispelling the multitude of rumors and myths concerning the disease that are rampant in Estlands part of Nairobi Kenya within the 35 schools the projects is in Kenya and elsewhere. HIV/AIDS awareness films such as Silent Epidemic and Facing the Challenge (from Ace Communications) and Understanding the Disease (from Glaxo Welcome) are effectively used as teaching tools.
Drama is incorporated into the programs in the form of a skit about how the virus attacks the white blood cells. Over 15,000 condoms have been distributed throughout the Nairobi and in Siaya. Where permitted, demonstrations of proper condom use are performed. Each presentation concludes with an intensive question and answer session. The open forum style allows those in attendance to feel free to ask even the most sensitive of questions. Our team is always welcomed with enthusiasm and bid farewell with a plea to return. The students and community members we speak with are eager for information about the disease that is killing their loved ones. In many cases, we are the first to bring education about HIV/AIDS to the churches, communities and schools that we visit.
In April of 2003, a program for Peer Education called EMPOWER was developed and implemented by the Volunteer Kenya team. The goal of EMPOWER is to train high school students and/or community groups such that they can be a resource for others within their schools and/or communities. It is the hope that the information supplied within the EMPOWER manual will be a reference that can be used in answering questions posed by their peers and that, following training, they will be comfortable giving a presentation about HIV/AIDS to a group. In a high school environment, students with questions and concerns relating to sex and STIs are not likely to ask teachers and guidance counselors for information. Having a peer to supply facts and guidance will increase the comfort level and facilitate the acquisition of knowledge by those who most need it. Community-based training sessions also provide trained, knowledgeable individuals within rural areas. The participants attend six training sessions (2-2.5 hours each) covering a range of topics including information about HIV/AIDS and the Immune System, Mother to Child Transmission, Sexual Decision making (including a demonstration of proper condom use), Guidelines for Living Positively with HIV/AIDS, Details of Cultural Practices and Social Structures which affect the spread, and tips for Counseling of HIV-infected and affected individuals. Videos, group discussions, games, worksheets, and role-plays have all been incorporated into the EMPOWER curriculum to facilitate active learning. Participants are given the opportunity to practice giving a presentation about HIV/AIDS. The final session involves the formulation of an Action Plan. The participants decide what to do with the knowledge they have gained from the program and how it can best benefit their communities and/or schools. With some input from Volunteer Kenya, they will come up with ideas as to distribution of this knowledge and are offered our advice and/or help for any programs they wish to begin. Participants are continuously encouraged to ask questions and make suggestions which can enhance the EMPOWER program. As of January 2006, over 1,000 students and adults have undergone EMPOWER training.
We have realized, through our community involvement that a high level of ignorance still exists about the origin, transmission, and prevention of HIV/AIDS in many communities in Kenya . This is often noticed during the question and answer sessions of presentations done by volunteers. Based on past questions, we have discovered that some Kenyans in the Bungoma, Siaya, Busia, Mumias and Mt Elgon Districts believe that mosquitoes can spread HIV and that condoms have tiny holes through which the virus can pass. Since they believe these myths to be true, the population does not practiceproper, consistent use of condoms, which is essential in arresting the rapid spread of the virus.
Another common and dangerous belief is that people infected the HIV can rid themselves of the virus by passing the virus on to as many people as possible through repeated unprotected intercourse. Misconceptions such as these must be dispelled and replaced with facts about the virus. The provision of education, not only to increase knowledge but also to break the silence and stigma surrounding this disease, is essential to stop the continued devastation of society.
Despite the deteriorating circumstances in the whole of Kenya and moreso within the rural areas, the situation is not irreparable. With appropriate and adequate responses, the epidemic and its effects can still be alleviated. Our programs have proven to be effective in working towards this. Hence, we continue with our campaign. volunteers working hand in hand with local community members continue to visit as many communities, schools, and groups as possible to bring awareness and resources to the people. We continue to provide training through the EMPOWER program and are constantly enhancing the program through input from the participants. With the help of donors and volunteers, Volunteer Kenya will continue its HIV/AIDS programs and its fight against the silence and the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS
S information
Objectives:
To make a complete change in our youth through behavioral change and communication and try the best we can to make sure teens understand what AIDS is at a young age.The overall objective is to delay the onset of sex and to impart behaviour change in teens.
Milestones:
Since 1998, we have been implementing and supporting community development programs in the rural villages of Nyanza Province in particular Siaya Kenya , where large international aid programs rarely venture. Our unique partnership between international volunteers and our on-the-ground crew in Kenya allows us to reach those people in the interior villages who most desperately need our help. It also facilitates maintaining our running costs at a minimum.
We have no international overhead, fundraising, or marketing costs. All of those activities are run by our International Coordination Staff, who are all unpaid past volunteers working via an email network. Since all of our on-the-ground work is done in Nairobi Kenya and run by local Kenyans and overseas volunteers, we have no need for big, expensive offices in Nairobi or Washington D.C.
As a result of this, we are able to run community development, education, and healthcare programs that reach hundreds of thousands of Kenyans in the very remote and rural villages on a budget of around $50,000 USD per year.
HIV/AIDS Education has been our main area of focus since 1998. We have sensitized more than 200,000 Kenyans about the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS. Over the past few years the number of international volunteers working with us in Kenya has grown dramatically and as a result we now reach over 75,000 rural Kenyans each year. In April of 2003, an intensive HIV/AIDS peer training program, EMPOWER, was launched. In the first 18 months of this “training of trainers” program, almost 1,000 Kenyans were trained to teach about HIV/AIDS. Through the EMPOWER program we now have over 1,000 local Kenyans acting as HIV/AIDS education trainers in local secondary schools and communities.
Due to these local trainers, the amount of people who now have access to the right information about HIV/AIDS is growing exponentially. UNAIDS/Word Health Organization (WHO), in the 2005 AIDS Epidemic Update, indicated that the national adult HIV prevalence in urban areas declined over the past four years. We believe that this is due, in large part, to the accessibility of information in city centers. If is our strong belief that continued provision of factual information in rural areas will encourage a similar decline in the interior areas. Already, there has been a decline in the number of pregnant women infected with HIV from 1997-2004 in all surveyed areas (WHO, 2005).
Through our Healthcare Program, we operate TASHAD councelling Center of Karapul ) as well as mobile clinic services. Our mobile clinic program is done on a rotating basis through very rural village centers, churches, and homes in the Nyanza Province. The program is most active during the summer months (May-August) when overseas medical students are on the ground. During these periods we treat anywhere from 20 to 100 patients a day. Most of these patients would have no access to quality healthcare without visits from our mobile clinic teams.
Through our Education Program, we run a Primary school that has a pre-school class and Grades 1 through 4. The school, Epico Jahns Academy , currently has over 300 students enrolled and is run by a staff of local Kenyan teachers and overseas volunteers. The school has consistently received the highest marks in the area in terms of the quality of education and student development. Due to this high quality education, the school has an overwhelming demand for additional student enrollment and each year we regrettably have to turn down new students. The school also provides lunch to the students, which for many is the only guaranteed meal each day. The goal is to add on one additional grade each year until a complete primary school has been built (i.e., pre-school through Grade 8). Many children come from families that cannot afford to send them to school. To help alleviate this problem, we have created a “Sponsor a Child’s Education” program, through which victims of extreme poverty, orphans, etc, can be supported by overseas donors and will therefore be able to attend school.
Recognizing that Kenyan women in rural areas often lack access to capital and the ability to generate income, we assist rural “Self-Help” groups, made up predominately of women, to start small-scale income-generating activities through our Microenterprise Development Program. Since 2001, we have provided start-up technology, capital, and other resources to over 30 women’s groups for the implementation of projects such as sewing and tailoring shops, bee-keeping projects, horticulture projects, and fisheries. We have also built a network of over 100 rural microenterprise groups to whom we provide project advice and guidance, as well as assist in facilitating knowledge and resource sharing between the groups.
Budget:
2000USD$
Needs:
Materials like books on HIV/AIDS ,skits and plays ,a knowledge on HIV/AIDS and the way to communicate and make the youth and children realize that the disease can be stopped if not prevented.It also needs alot of assertiveness ,patience and commitment!
Contact Name: Moses akwiri Okoth
Contact Email Address: mosadee2002@yahoo.com
Contact Phone Number: 020782964
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