RSSHIV/AIDS Prevention
:: Introduction ::
Education is more than reading, writing and arithmetic. An important component in any school should be health education. Health education is more than transmitting basic knowledge. Health education deals with influencing or changing attitudes and behaviour, with life skills. Such education is promoted by teachers’ unions at national level, but also requires international support and initiatives.
Since 1994, Education International (EI) works in close cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the field of health education and more specifically on HIV/AIDS prevention. Recognizing the urgency for a broad, strong school health response to HIV/AIDS, EI and WHO joined by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) work hand in hand with EI affiliates to prevent the further spread of the disease. This partnership led to the launch in 2001 of the EI/WHO/EDC Teachers Training Programme on HIV/AIDS prevention in schools. The programme is currently being implemented in 10 Anglophone countries, i.e: Botswana, Guyana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and 7 francophone countries, i.e: Burkina-Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Haiti, Mali, Rwanda and Senegal.
The main objective of the 17 national projects run by the EI teachers’ unions affiliates is to provide teachers with the skills necessary to prevent HIV infection for themselves, their colleagues and students. The programme also enables teachers to advocate for the role of schools in preventing HIV infection and to raise awareness on a number of HIV related issues including ARV therapy, voluntary testing, stigma and discrimination etc. The main goal of the programme is to have in each school of the countries involved, a trained teacher with valuable expertise in HIV/AIDS.
Owing to its dedication to combating HIV/AIDS, to the involvement of its affiliates on the ground as well as to the unique partnership with WHO and EDC consolidated throughout the years, the EI/WHO/EDC teacher training programme on HIV/AIDS prevention in schools is now being successfully implemented in 17 countries and looking to further expand in the months and years to come. To date over 133, 000 teachers have been trained on HIV/AIDS prevention in more than 25, 000 schools.
Together teachers make a difference!
For more information, please visit our EFAIDS website: www.ei-ie.org/efaids