Ugandan youth show courage in tackling AIDS
-18/11/06
Justin Moresco, a freelance write
Ugandan youth show courage in tackling AIDS
-18/11/06
Justin Moresco, a freelance writer from Ghana, describes an important youth initiative to combat AIDS in Uganda – backed by peace church aid agency Mennonite Central Comittee, along with others.
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“AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, the greatest human destroyer,” says a girl, alone in front of an audience of about 50 adults and students. She’s dropped to her knees, is on the verge of wailing and stares, with arms stretched up towards the sky.
Drama is not on short supply as 30 students at Bugabula Secondary School perform songs, speeches, dramatic monologues, a mock news report and a skit to bring awareness about AIDS.
In a country with a seven-percent adult HIV prevalence rate, HIV prevention is profoundly important. Among teenagers, such as those at Bugabula Secondary School, it is even more important, since it is during the late teens when most Ugandans become sexually active.
With support from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a Ugandan organization, AIDS Education Group for Youth (AEGY) is training hundreds of young people to serve as “peer educators” at high schools in the rural Kamuli District in eastern Uganda.
AEGY puts peer educators, including those at Bugabula Secondary School, through a five-day training course. The organization also trains teachers to be club advisers and provides materials such as flipcharts and handouts.
In the process, students learn how to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases and gain important life skills such as self-esteem, negotiation and assertiveness.
The trained students then perform monthly at schools, health clinics, village centers, and anywhere else they can gather a crowd willing to listen. The peer educators are also encouraged to take their message about the dangers of AIDS to other young people in informal settings.
“A fundamental change has happened in people’s behavior and attitudes because of the student’s work,” says Bugabula deputy headmaster Robert Johnson Waiswa.
The peer educators, aged between 12 and 20, are courageous and proud to be part of their clubs. Sixteen-year-old Lydia Kisuuto has organized meetings in her village that have attracted up to 35 adults.
“I wasn’t nervous in front of all those people because I’ve been educated to talk about HIV/AIDS,” Kisuuto says.
Twelve-year-old Aidah Namwase, who was recently trained as a peer educator, says that the life skills have been especially helpful.
“There was a certain boy who asked me to be his girlfriend. Without fear I told him, ‘No, I am still young,'” Namwase says. “I was able to do that because of the training.”
Namwase has already spoken up at a village meeting about HIV/AIDS and tells adults she knows to be faithful to their partners and to get tested.
Another peer educator, Eve Munwemoko, believes many of her peers are now abstaining or using condoms because of what her club has taught them.
Charles Balyegisawa, the school’s music teacher, serves as an adviser to the peer educators’ club and composes songs about AIDS for their performances. He says it is sometimes challenging to take the club’s message to the community because of competing needs.
“Parents often ask their children to do domestic work even when we have planned a performance or when we are supposed to be meeting,” Balyegisawa says. “Sometimes the kids just don’t show up because the parents need them.”
But he’s extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished.
“Very few community-based groups fighting against HIV/AIDS have risen to the level that we have,” Balyegisawa says. “AEGY needs to continue its work.”
—
For more information on Mennonite Central Committee, go to: http://www.mcc.org/
Ugandan youth show courage in tackling AIDS
-18/11/06
Justin Moresco, a freelance writer from Ghana, describes an important youth initiative to combat AIDS in Uganda – backed by peace church aid agency Mennonite Central Comittee, along with others.
—
“AIDS, AIDS, AIDS, the greatest human destroyer,” says a girl, alone in front of an audience of about 50 adults and students. She’s dropped to her knees, is on the verge of wailing and stares, with arms stretched up towards the sky.
Drama is not on short supply as 30 students at Bugabula Secondary School perform songs, speeches, dramatic monologues, a mock news report and a skit to bring awareness about AIDS.
In a country with a seven-percent adult HIV prevalence rate, HIV prevention is profoundly important. Among teenagers, such as those at Bugabula Secondary School, it is even more important, since it is during the late teens when most Ugandans become sexually active.
With support from Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a Ugandan organization, AIDS Education Group for Youth (AEGY) is training hundreds of young people to serve as “peer educators” at high schools in the rural Kamuli District in eastern Uganda.
AEGY puts peer educators, including those at Bugabula Secondary School, through a five-day training course. The organization also trains teachers to be club advisers and provides materials such as flipcharts and handouts.
In the process, students learn how to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases and gain important life skills such as self-esteem, negotiation and assertiveness.
The trained students then perform monthly at schools, health clinics, village centers, and anywhere else they can gather a crowd willing to listen. The peer educators are also encouraged to take their message about the dangers of AIDS to other young people in informal settings.
“A fundamental change has happened in people’s behavior and attitudes because of the student’s work,” says Bugabula deputy headmaster Robert Johnson Waiswa.
The peer educators, aged between 12 and 20, are courageous and proud to be part of their clubs. Sixteen-year-old Lydia Kisuuto has organized meetings in her village that have attracted up to 35 adults.
“I wasn’t nervous in front of all those people because I’ve been educated to talk about HIV/AIDS,” Kisuuto says.
Twelve-year-old Aidah Namwase, who was recently trained as a peer educator, says that the life skills have been especially helpful.
“There was a certain boy who asked me to be his girlfriend. Without fear I told him, ‘No, I am still young,'” Namwase says. “I was able to do that because of the training.”
Namwase has already spoken up at a village meeting about HIV/AIDS and tells adults she knows to be faithful to their partners and to get tested.
Another peer educator, Eve Munwemoko, believes many of her peers are now abstaining or using condoms because of what her club has taught them.
Charles Balyegisawa, the school’s music teacher, serves as an adviser to the peer educators’ club and composes songs about AIDS for their performances. He says it is sometimes challenging to take the club’s message to the community because of competing needs.
“Parents often ask their children to do domestic work even when we have planned a performance or when we are supposed to be meeting,” Balyegisawa says. “Sometimes the kids just don’t show up because the parents need them.”
But he’s extremely proud of what they’ve accomplished.
“Very few community-based groups fighting against HIV/AIDS have risen to the level that we have,” Balyegisawa says. “AEGY needs to continue its work.”
—
For more information on Mennonite Central Committee, go to: http://www.mcc.org/