EFAIDS Programme Branches Out!
EI, the EDC and WHO have developed two new toolkits which will be the basis of training sessions carried out by teachers’ unions participating in the EFAIDS Programme over the coming months.
What is the impact of gender relations on school goers? What is the link between gender, HIV & AIDS and EFA? How can schools be made more gender-friendly? These and other questions are addressed in new materials developed by EI, EDC and the WHO for teachers’ unions.
‘Building a Gender-Friendly School Environment’ is a training toolkit which aims to help teacher unions to create a healthy, safe environment in schools for learners of all ages. The kit will support teachers and their unions in the following areas:
- understanding fully concepts like gender, gender relations, gender identity and safety and their relevance in the context of EFA and HIV/AIDS - assessing critically their own school environment with this in mind - working with colleagues to change this environment, making it gender friendly.
Building a Gender-Friendly School Environment will feature strongly in the training of teachers and union leaders in the context of the EFAIDS programme in 42 countries around the world.
In response to a need to foster discussion in the unions about the greater integration of people living with HIV and AIDS in policies and programmes, EI, EDC and the WHO have developed a second toolkit entitled ‘Inclusion is the Answer: Unions Involving and Supporting Educators living with HIV’. This resource looks toward facilitating unions in reaching out to groups of People Living With HIV and AIDS (PLWHA). With an emphasis on the importance of understanding and catering for the needs of PLWHA, the toolkit explains how engaging with PLWHA can be of benefit both to the union in implementing its HIV/AIDS education activities and to the individual in allowing them to use their knowledge and experience to make a valuable contribution to halting the spread of HIV.
These toolkits are available to download on Education International's EFAIDS website at http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids/en/documentation_ei.php.
