HIV/AIDS
AWARENESS CREATION PROJECT PROOFS SUCCESS UN NOTICED
Aids education programme in
Tanzania began in 1983 five years after the diagnosis of AIDS in the Tanzania
in 1993, the HIV and AIDS awareness creation programme has been conceived as a
pilot programme aimed at enhancing the implementation of the Ministry of
Education and Vocational training (MOEVT) Guidelines for implementation
HIV/AIDS and life skills Education programme to primary schools.
I have gone through the
activities of the project that are presently taking place in the country
Districts and seen its objectives and how it has succeeded its implementation.
This project is entitled “HIV/AIDS Awareness Creation Programme targeting youth
and adolescence in primary schools in Dar es salaam and four selected district in Tanzania
The intervention
HIV/AIDS awareness creation programme targeting youth and adolescents in
primary schools in Dar es Salaam
The General objective of this
project is to contribute towards decreasing morbidity and mortality rate due to
AIDS and other Sexual and productive health problem and specifically to empower
youth to practice behavior that protects their sexual and productive health in Tanzania
Districts selected for the implementation
of the programme are, from Dar es Salaam
The beneficiary of this programme are in-school
youth and the members of school communities including School Heads, Teachers,
School Guardians and Counselors, members of School Counseling and AIDS Education
Committee. The indirect beneficiary are the parents and out of school youth in
the communities surrounding the selected schools.
The programme through improved access
to information and skills about HIV/AIDS and Adolescence Sexual and
Reproductive Health (ASRH) provided by teachers, counsellors, the school peer
educators, arts and sports teachers and pupils have been adequately trained in
the schools are also expected to organize annual ASRH/AIDS sensitization events
to which the community can be invited to learn and share experiences. Teachers,
school guardians/ councilors have been trained and skilled in HIV/AIDS and life
skills education and refreshed each year of improved information and skills.
In each school the programme is
supported by a School Counseling and AIDS Education Committee (SCAEC), its
members are (17) in total, represented by the HIV/AIDS teachers, Opinion
leaders from the community around the schools, the peer educators, the religious leaders and
the opinion makers from the community. The SCAEC were established according to
the guidelines and regulations of the MoEVT. Their role is to plan, coordinate,
harmonize and advise on the implementation of the HIV/AIDS, STI and life skills
education activities in the schools and the surrounding community.
The annual report and
backstopping report of this project shows that the project has been positively
accepted and appreciated by direct and in-direct beneficiaries.
Before the training of teachers,
most of the science teachers who were supposed to teach the HIV/AIDS topics
were not doing so for lack of confidence. They were not courageous to mention
words related to sex as is considered a taboo in most of societies. Pupils were
also afraid to any information about
their thoughts and engagement in sexual life thinking that they will be
criticized as having bad manners.
Although there are policies
guidelines and books produced by the MoEVT which were send to school to implement
the HIV/AIDS education programme they were not been used neither by teacher nor
pupils, the peer education training have been conducted and become very
substantial.
Books for pupils in peer
education have been reproduced by this project. It has been distributed to all
project schools. Every pupil in the project schools have a peer education guide,
HIV/AIDS books for class use, a guide for training teachers on use of sports
and arts as a means of transmitting ASRH, HIV and AIDS education and skills has
been developed and is been used, a guide for counselling a guide for training
peer education and a guide for training SCAEC members. The national arts
council Officers, officers of the MoEVT, Districts Focal Persons and Inspectors
was engaged as consultants.
Another step taken by the head
of schools of each district, they have chosen a day or two for peer education
for all schools in the districts. They have also invited the medial experts to
trainings for scientific subjects like VCT, CD4, and administering ARVs.
More knowledge and skills
created more understanding and curiosity and questions were vital. During
training peer educators are made free to talk and express themselves about
anything that they know and that they do not understand and time becomes short
as every question has to be answered and therefore they have recommended to be
given more time for peer education as it is an extra curriculum.
National Project Coordinator
Mrs. H. Musaroche has said that after this programme started to be implemented
the youth have been open to their teachers and have shown all signs of shaping their behavior in future
towards prevention of HIV/AIDS and STIs.
She also said “there is a need for extending or scaling up the programme
to other districts so as to insure that the youths are given this vital
education and skills about HIV/AIDS/ASRH and STIs which have been successful in
the project.
Apart from the training being
conducted, there were some of astonishing behaviors within the communities that
were taking place but soon after the programme was put on feat signs of changes
has been experienced in a wide range. These unnoticed behaviors were explored
by these pupils during their discussions with peer educators and the Teachers. Example in Mkuranga young girls were used as
source of income they were sent to shopping centers (Mnadani), there they mate
man who slept with them for money and in Karatu there were some villages which
young boys gathered in places near dumps and get to have sex with dogs during
evening time.
Up to now the role of the
school cancelling and AIDS education committee (SCAEC) has been of success.
Several religious leaders have testified that HIV/AIDS is now included in their
prayers sessions, some publicly declared that they have decided to set an
example to the community and went for testing and other (SCAEC) members were no
longer afraid to declare themselves as a people being infected with HIV. Community had also taken measures to close
“sex movie bars” which they considered to be a result of the programme, example
in Karatu.
Facilitators have found out
that people don’t believe that a person who had not gone to a medical school
can have enough knowledge concerning care and treatment. Likewise pupils would
like a medical practitioner to tell them about ARVs, CD4, and VCT, they do
believe and understand better this way.
As such the project trained Health Officers around the schools to visit
schools.
This programme is facing a
geographical challenge. The geographical dispersion over the seven districts
scattered all over the country is probably one of the major handicaps for
increasing the efficiency and the cost effectiveness of the programme.
More over other governmental
activities like health campaigns, political campaigns, workshops, missions,
meeting, the supervision of examinations etc. receive higher priority and
therefore affects the smooth implementation of project activities by the
District Focal Persons..
This project is expected to end
in 31st November 2012 and up to now there are no signs of extending
the program to other districts. The government should make sure it takes over
from where the Development Partner- Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC) has
reached. It should not ignore the success of this essential programme to end up
like it has not happened. Using the MoEVT HIV/AIDS guide has contributed much
to the success of the project.
Prepared by Arnold
0 comments:
Post a Comment