Current UNAIDS statistics report that only 1 in 3 young men and 1 in 5 young women have knowledge of how to prevent HIV transmission. There is need to address the knowledge gap through providing young people with the information and skills they need to protect themselves from HIV. Various perspectives have emerged on the effectiveness of different communication approaches in reaching out to the youth with HIV and AIDS prevention messages.

1. Despite notable successes by mass media campaigns such as the Soul City multi media campaign in South Africa, there is need to improve on a number of areas:

• Much of what is written on HIV is technical and abstract, saying little about the personal experiences of people struggling with the disease. Such information does not seem relevant to young people, so they ignore it.
• Young people hear the word AIDS pretty often. They also hear about sex, condoms and the need for safer sex, yet there is a lot of confusion and misinformation surrounding these issues. As a result, young people are one of the most vulnerable groups with regard to HIV and have one of the highest rates of new infections.
• Talking about sex and sexuality is difficult. These subjects are treated with suspicion and mistrust by parents and teachers as though talking about them will make children more likely to explore their sexual feelings. But embarrassment and ignorance go hand in hand and many young people end up knowing little about sex, sexuality and HIV/AIDS. What they do know often turns out to be dangerously inaccurate.

2. The school is an effective and acceptable channel for providing young people with life saving information. But more than 113 million children and young people in developing countries do not attend school. Experience shows that peer education, which involves training representatives among out-of-school youth to convey information, is one of the most effective strategies. Why peer education?

• Young people are more likely to understand each other’s realities, trust each other’s judgements, and respect each other’s opinions.
• Peer education can give girls legitimacy to talk about sex without the risk of being stigmatised as sexually promiscuous (particularly when peer-led activities take place in single-sex groups)

What is the role of the media?
Nearly all countries in southern Africa have groups of very effective peer educators. The mass media should report on their activities in order to promote HIV prevention efforts among the youth. The highly successful Stepping-Stones peer education programmes in Namibia and Zimbabwe, and the youth life peer education initiatives in Botswana and South Africa are good examples.

3. Another effective strategy is the use of entertainment such as street theatre, music and puppetry, which draws people in and provides a focus, as well as an alternative pastime to risky activities. The media can also report on the activities carried out by theatre groups such as Soul Buddyz (South Africa), Patsime Edutainment Trust (Zimbabwe) and Kamoto Theatre Arts in Zambia.

4. The most effective communication programme would be one that involves both mass media and face-to-face communication, such as peer education in small groups.

Sources:
1. Youth coalition website: http://www.youthcoalition.org
2. Publications on HIV/AIDS and young people: http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub06/JC785-YoungPeople_en.pdf
http://library,unesco-iicba.org/English/HIV_AIDS/cdrom%20materials/PDFfiles/99sandy1.pdf –
www.unfpa.org/upload/lib_pub_file/316_filename_UNFPA_Crossroads.pdf
3. Publication on peer education and HIV/AIDS: http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/files/PeerEducationUNAIDS.pdf

For More Information contact:
Amos Mwale
Regional Focal Point - Southern Africa
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA)
amos@youthaidscoalition.org

Nombuso Dlamini
Senior Journalist/Information Co-ordinator
Soul Beat Africa: A project for Soul City and the Communication Initiative
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27 (0)11 484 2798
Fax: +27 (0)11 643 6253
ndlamini@comminit.com

Ana Milicevic
Information and Dissemination Management Officer
“Right to Know” Initiative
UNICEF
Tel: 212 303 7951
Fax: 212 735 4418
amilicevic@unicef.org