Teenagers trained to help halt spread of HIV/AIDS

Students learned skills to enable them to raise awareness on preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people at a workshop that concluded on Sunday. A total of 34 students were selected from five neighbourhoods in the Al-Sheikh Othman and Dar Sa’d districts of Aden to participate in the workshop and become pioneers in HIV/AIDS prevention. Participants – 17 young men and 17 young women – are expected to act as “peer educators” for the next five years, acting to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention and to impart life skills to children not attending school. Eight local experts participated in training the students on different aspects of the virus. “This is part of an initiative promoting lifesaving learning skills,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, head of information and communication for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen. “HIV/AIDS is a sensitive topic in countries such as Yemen, and our assessments show that these issues are better discussed within the same age groups, where participants can talk in an uninhibited manner.” According to Ur-Rehman, the programme was first launched in Aden because school authorities in the urban governorate were more receptive to the idea. In the initiative’s first phase in April, some 720 children in the governorate participated. Ur-Rehman pointed out that HIV/AIDS continues to represent a serious threat to the wellbeing of the country’s young people. “At this age, youth are curious and active,” he said. “It’s a good time to make them aware of the dangers.” The next phase of the programme – which was organised by the Social Affairs Office of Aden with support from UNICEF – is planned for next week, when 2,800 youths in the same governorate will undergo training. According to the latest health ministry figures, 1,821 people were infected with HIV/AIDS in Yemen between 1987 and 2000, some 60 percent of whom were men. MJ/SZ/AM