In_A_Life_Access_to_Information by IPPF

IN A LIFE ACCESS TO INFORMATION

IPPF IN A LIFE

Our Vision IPPF envisages a world in which all women, men and young people have access to the information and services they need; a world in which sexuality is recognized both as a natural and precious aspect of life and as a fundamental human right; a world in which choices are fully respected and where stigma and discrimination have no place.

Our Mission • IPPF aims to improve the quality of life of individuals by campaigning for sexual and reproductive health and rights through advocacy and services, especially for poor and vulnerable people. • We defend the right of all young people to enjoy their sexual lives free from ill-health, unwanted pregnancy, violence and discrimination. • We support a woman’s right to choose to terminate her pregnancy legally and safely. • We strive to eliminate STIs and reduce the spread and impact of HIV/AIDS.

Our core values • IPPF believes that sexual and reproductive rights should be guaranteed for everyone because they are internationally recognized basic human rights. • We are committed to gender equality, and to eliminating the discrimination which threatens individual well-being and leads to the widespread violation of health and human rights, particularly those of young women. • We value diversity and especially emphasize the participation of young people and people living with HIV/AIDS in our governance and in our programmes. • We consider the spirit of volunteerism to be central to achieving our mandate and advancing our cause. • We are committed to working in partnership with communities, governments, other organizations and donors.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION Introduction The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and its Member Associations work to mainstream HIV/AIDS into its sexual and reproductive health policies, programmes and practices. Following a rights-based approach, we work to remove the barriers that make people vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, reduce societal and individual stigma and discrimination, and provide access to information and prevention and care services. Access to information and education is a basic human right. The HIV/AIDS epidemic makes it clear why we cannot let this right be violated: in a person’s life, access to information about HIV/AIDS can mean the difference between health and sickness, and living and dying. IPPF works to provide universal access to information, with a direct focus on the marginalized, vulnerable and sociallyexcluded, including ethnic minorities, refugees, sex workers, people living with HIV and AIDS, young people and women. Providing access to complete and accurate information about HIV/AIDS empowers people to make informed choices about their sexual and reproductive health. The choice to prevent HIV or seek care for AIDS depends on knowledge about what HIV/AIDS is and what people’s options are. Equally important is the knowledge that all persons, including the young and the marginalized, have a right to access sexual and reproductive health information and services. As the triple combination of ignorance, prejudice, and fear create the fertile breeding ground for HIV’s continued spread, so openness, acceptance, and services are the keys to its containment. The roots of AIDS-related stigma and discrimination run deep. Uprooting stigma and discrimination means facing head on and talking openly about issues like sexuality, drug use, poverty and gender inequity. These and other barriers keep information from getting to the people who need it, even when we think we have put the information out there. War and poverty put people on the move, for instance, compelling us to find innovative ways of bringing information to people rather than waiting for people to come to the information.

Photo: IPPF/Philip Wolmuth/Dominican Republic

We can only reach the UNGASS targets of giving 90 per cent of young men and women access to information and education by 2005, and 95 per cent by 2010 if we develop means to circumvent these obstacles and target information to people’s circumstances. Access to information is the foundation for all of IPPF’s HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health initiatives. IPPF Member Associations provide complete and accurate information to support people’s choices, use information to fight stigma and discrimination and target information to meet people’s needs. The following pages tell how our Member Associations have brought access to information into the lives of women, men and young people. From giving information to Lebanon’s youth via the HIV/AIDS Hotline to training Asen, a refugee in Kyrgyzstan, to be able to advocate for access to sexual and reproductive health services, IPPF is providing access to information that is indeed ‘access to life.’ 1

IPPF IN A LIFE

INFORMATION FOR INFORMED CHOICE

Photo: IPPF/Maryse Hodgson/Vietnam

“Talking about condoms with my husband and family is much easier now – especially because I have the support of my community.”

Demystifying the Condom Family Planning Association of Sri Lanka (FPASL) Anushika has heard about HIV/AIDS and knows about condoms, but she would never think of buying one, let alone talk about using one with her husband. She’s seen the shops where they sell condoms, and if she went into any of those places people would think she was a sex worker. If she talked with her husband about using condoms, he would think she had been unfaithful – although the truth is probably the other way around. For many women and men in Sri Lanka, there is still some reluctance to use condoms because of stigma and misconceptions. The Family Planning Association of

Sri Lanka (FPASL) recently launched an innovative campaign to promote condom use. The Member Association hopes that this campaign will encourage more people to use condoms and decrease the incidence of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The campaign aims to overcome the inhibitions and barriers preventing the purchase and use of condoms. One of the primary focuses of this campaign is to promote the condom as the best protection against HIV/AIDS. The campaign takes a multi-pronged approach and has been delivered in two phases. During the first phase, a generic campaign on condoms was initiated stressing the fact that condoms are the best protection against contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Although condoms are easily available, public attitudes indicate that people still have some reservations about them. The campaign aims to ‘demystify’ the condom, and make it a part of every adult’s life: in effect, changing social attitudes and behaviour towards condoms. There are many social stigmas attached to condom usage. Women are hesitant to go to a shop and purchase a condom, and discussion between two people about using condoms is not easily initiated. People need to be comfortable with the concept of condoms in their daily lives. There are popular misconceptions that only males who have sex with males and sex workers need to use condoms on a regular basis, but the partners of these persons – and their partners’ partners and so on – are also at risk. One of the key elements of the campaign uses print and electronic media to popularize the condom among groups that are especially vulnerable to acquiring a sexually transmitted infection. These include sex workers, beach boys, officers of the armed forces, males who have sex with males and migrant workers. As part of the campaign, a mobile publicity services company works with 30 community-based organizations in rural areas to carry out events in 105 towns, covering 19 districts throughout the country. The events include activities such as interactive games and night film shows. Banners are displayed in prominent places in the towns where the events are held, and educational materials, gifts and souvenirs are distributed as well. The incidence of HIV/AIDS in Sri Lanka is still relatively low, compared with other South Asian countries. Mass education campaigns can keep HIV rates low by giving Anushika and the people in her community accurate information about condoms that helps them make informed choices.

IN BRIEF: Youth-Friendly Centres in Swaziland Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) The Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) has two Youth-Friendly Centres in its main cities, Mbabane and Manzini, that offer recreational activities as well as education. Twice a week there are games and health education talks conducted by trained peer educators on sexual and reproductive health, sexually transmitted infections, HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence. FLAS uses media channels and special events to bring information to young people so they can make choices to protect themselves from HIV. There is a radio programme where youth air their views on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health issues, a newspaper column whose main contributors are young people, a newsletter that lets youth write about issues affecting them, and a website offering information on these issues. FLAS produces ‘Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Days,’ and youth perform drama plays to sensitize young people on sexual and reproductive rights. In rural communities, youth reach their peers through group and individual talks, house visits, school activities and community meetings, and distribute condoms as well.

Empowering Young Men and Women to Exercise their Rights Federation of Family Planning Associations of Malaysia (FFPAM) Women and men will only demand HIV/AIDS services and sexual and reproductive health care if they know they have a right to such services and care. Until recently, the young women living in Selangor/Wilayah Persekutuan State in Malaysia were unfamiliar with sexual and reproductive rights. The Federation of Family Planning Associations of Malaysia, (FFPAM) educated women in these under-served communities to recognize their sexual and reproductive rights and demand appropriate services promoting health and HIV prevention. By advocating to local governments, strengthening the ability of Family Planning Associations and other institutions to do rights-based work, and empowering communities to expect high quality sexual and reproductive health care, FFPAM gives young women access to information that changes their ideas of what it means to be healthy. FFPAM works with young women living in a marginalized plantation community in Selangor/Wilayah Persekutuan state, including displaced estate workers staying in

IPPF IN A LIFE

‘longhouses,’ or temporary settlements outside the estate. Baseline research showed that the majority of women had little or no awareness of reproductive health conventions or national legislation recognizing sexual and reproductive rights as human rights. FFPAM responded by identifying and training nine young women, called the ‘HER (Healthy, Empowered and Responsible) Educators’ in recognition of their role as catalysts mobilizing the community. FFPAM offers a supportive environment for the work of the HER Educators by building consensus among both governmental and non-governmental partners. HER Educators say that the project “offered an opportunity for them to learn about lots of women’s rights.” They are important vehicles for transferring knowledge to the larger community and increasing the sustainability of the project in the long term. Women in the community have come to project workers saying they have benefited from the project, and are now able to talk to their husbands about their problems. For example, they now feel able to tell their husbands that they have some kind of pelvic pain and that they need help. This increased confidence went beyond their sexual and reproductive well-being to discussing other issues in their lives as well.

Photo: IPPF/Jenny Matthews/Nepal

The HER Educators strategy is essential for the success of the project, and is valuable for FFPAM’s overall work in HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health. The HER educators regularly share experiences with each other, helping improve their skills for reaching other women. When asked why women of such young age were talking about sexual and reproductive health and rights, they said that they were learning about family planning to share the information, not necessarily to practice it. The success of the HER strategy also raised the question of whether FFPAM should train young men in sexual and reproductive health and rights, too. The Ministry of Education recognized the youth materials developed by FFPAM as an effective way of advancing rights, and they are now being used in schools across Malaysia. FFPAM has proved the hypothesis that if individual women and men are educated about their sexual and reproductive rights, they will be empowered to demand the necessary services to ensure that those rights are respected, protected and fulfilled.

FIGHTING STIGMA WITH INFORMATION

Photo: IPPF/Chole Hall/India

“People living with HIV/AIDS should not be viewed and treated as bad people and social outcasts. Instead, they need our support and care for they are our kin, our friends, our own people and our own responsibility.”

Sensitizing Communities to HIV/AIDS Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) Shafqatunnisa has lived through a struggle that not many women go through. “I had no friends and no relatives to support me after we were stigmatized when my husband, who worked in Dubai, was sent back after testing positive for HIV. We faced rejection and ridicule all around.” She stares blankly as she tells how she lost her husband to AIDS. “This was tortuous. My husband’s brothers and sisters did not accept him. My relatives advised me to leave him and many doctors refused to treat him when his condition worsened.” Impact studies on the effect of HIV/AIDS on poverty and income distribution describe how households, which lose primary income earners to HIV/AIDS, cope by drawing on

IPPF IN A LIFE

savings and selling assets to pay the cost of care and funerals and to meet daily needs. “I had to sell off my house and jewellery for my husband’s treatment. Nobody was ready to bathe his body when he died. And when I got up to do it myself, someone from out of our area was called in for. Now, my four children and I live in a one-room rented house in Chakwal. We are socially outcast for no crime of ours,” says Shafqatunnisa wiping away tears. “The stress caused by the stigma and public rejection is a bigger killer than the virus itself,” she explains and questions the clergy as to why have they not created awareness about the disease among the people. The clergy did know that engaging in unsafe sexual practices caused HIV but they were not aware one could contract the infection through other sources as well. They did not know that there was no danger in living with an infected person if a person was properly educated on the modes of HIV transmission. Coping with the problem required a joint fight against the disease with the mutual cooperation of government, non-governmental organizations and civil society. The Family Planning Association of Pakistan (FPAP) has launched countrywide campaigns to sensitize people about HIV/AIDS and create awareness among religious leaders, seminaries, opinion-makers, local government officials, teachers and female health workers. “Everybody has some role in society and so have we, the clergy. We need to educate people about the virus, the importance of cleanliness and to increase safe behaviour,” says Mahmoodul Hasnain Ghazanfar who delivers Friday sermons at a mosque in Chakwal. Although there has been a relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Pakistan, the situation remains at a precarious crossroads. The first case was officially recognized in Pakistan in 1987; currently there are 2,200 registered AIDS cases. Yet, the World Health Organization estimates that more than 80,000 unregistered HIV-positive persons live in the country. Factors such as vulnerable populations that are scattered and inaccessible, migrant and immigrant populations, injecting drug use, sharing of injecting equipment, unsafe invasive practices and a very low human development index will only fuel the spread of HIV. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it became evident that an increasing number of Pakistanis, mostly men, were becoming infected with HIV while living or travelling abroad. Upon their return to Pakistan, some of these men subsequently infected their wives who, in some cases, passed along the infection to their children. A Chakwal

project official recalls the case of a man from Dharmial village who worked in Dubai. “He tested positive when he went back after a two-month vacation here. He was sent back but he had unknowingly transferred the virus to his wife and still-to-be-born child.” “FPAP came out as an organization that could understand the intricacies involved in working with affect populations or dealing with high-risk behaviours – successfully providing quality information and services from its own outreach programme and service delivery points, while also tapping into a large network of other key stakeholders,” says Asif Karim, from FPAP. The FPAP project covers access to information, preventive services, care and support and partnerships and capacity development. In collaboration with other NGOs working with youth on HIV/AIDS prevention, FPAP provides training, awareness raising activities and counselling for young people and other communities to discourage unsafe sexual behaviour. For example, staff are trained at FPAP’s Youth Help Lines in Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, and Gilgit to provide information and referral advice about HIV/AIDS. Through such programmes, FPAP has reached more than 80,000 women, men and young people with information on STI and HIV prevention. STI and HIV prevention messages have also been included in community-based activities such as happy home meetings, satisfied clients meetings, the male involvement and women’s empowerment programmes, community meetings, public lectures and the celebration of international days. One of the most innovative aspects of FPAP’s programme remains the work being done with religious leaders. FPAP is working with local imams and has even begun reproductive health sessions in women’s seminaries. “I intended to discuss these issues with students but hesitated because of the student-teacher gap and the conservative environment,” the woman in charge of the seminary was quoted as saying by the project staff. She thanked the staff for holding what she called “such an informative session, which the students direly needed.” Speakers at Friday sermons are also doing their bit. “We have to do more to keep our people safe from this threat. People living with HIV/AIDS should not be viewed and treated as bad people and social outcasts. Instead, they need our support and care for they are our kin, our friends, our own people and our own responsibility,” says Chakwal’s imam, Maulana Ghazanfar, “We are working so that no more women like Shafqatunnisas and their families face stigma.”

‘Who said all is lost? Learning about HIV/AIDS’ Asociación Uruguaya de Planificación Familiar (AUPF) In Uruguay, many young people already have access to information about HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health, but they have never had a chance to reflect on how this information connects with their own lives. The Uruguayan Association for Family Planning (Asociación Uruguaya de Planificación Familiar – AUPF) has developed an innovative strategy for the prevention of HIV infection in youth that not only talks to young people about HIV/AIDS, but also lets them talk back. In collaboration with an organization called “Theatre in the Museum,” made up of a group of high school teachers who hold plays in the Torres de la Llosa Museum, youth educators wrote a script addressing HIV entitled, ‘Who said all is lost? Learning about HIV/AIDS’. The characters in the play enact typical risk behaviours, illustrating the chain of infection. An interactive dialogue between the characters and the audience explores some of the reasons why young people do not take precautions despite the information provided to them. At the end of the play, youth promoters from AUPF hold a discussion on sexual and reproductive health. They encourage the audience to reflect about personal decisionmaking and the myths and prejudices surrounding condom use. A demonstration of proper condom use follows, and obstacles to prevention are discussed, including genderbased violence and lack of access to contraceptive methods. Any questions or misconceptions from the group are also addressed. Finally, an evaluation survey on the play and the discussion is distributed, and the youth are asked for suggestions on how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The play is held once a week, with an average of 80 youth attending. Many of the young people come from different public and private high schools. NGOs bring adolescents from the street participating in literacy programmes, while others come from the National Institute for Minors. Some also attend because of word-of-mouth recommendations from their friends who participated. Many youth already have access to sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS information. The visual enactment and ensuing discussion build on this information by triggering serious reflection from the audience about sexual practices and drawing attention to their own attitudes. For young people, especially those who have heard about HIV/AIDS before, the play cuts through ‘message fatigue’ and brings HIV/AIDS to life.

IN BRIEF: Breaking the Silence Lebanon Family Planning Assocation (LFPA) The Lebanon Family Planning Association (LFPA) developed a Hotline project in 1997 in order to break the silence about HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and give under-served populations access to information and counselling. In the ensuing years, the Hotline has evolved to focus on HIV/AIDS in the broader context of sexual and reproductive health, and aims in particular to reach young people and the military with information and referrals to services. LFPA provides Hotline services from the association’s headquarters in Beirut and face-to-face counselling takes place at all LFPA clinics. A great number of young people and soldiers have been able to obtain sexual and reproductive health information through the Hotline as well as referrals to HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health services. To further advocate for the programme, LFPA joined the Ministry of Health National AIDS Programme (NAP) and included their Hotline number in all NAP and LFPA publications. LFPA advertises for the Hotline during awareness meetings with the army, university students, schools, women and other groups. LFPA has also advocated on a national level for further promotion of counselling services on HIV/AIDS and STIs for under-served groups, especially soldiers and young people.

Reaching out to Young People in Rural Communities Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) Savitri began losing weight a year and a half ago. She was suffering from a persistent cold with frequent coughing and her condition was going from bad to worse. She was not responding to the treatment she was getting from the district hospital and she died. The illness that Savitri succumbed to was diagnosed as a cold, although her family believed that she was suffering from tuberculosis. When a community facilitator later visited Savitri’s village and began to describe the symptoms of AIDS, several of the young people at the meeting were visibly shocked and anxious as they recognized the symptoms of Savitri’s illness. Later, in private, a number of young men between the ages of 15 and 25 reported that they had had physical relations with Savitri and were concerned that they might also be infected – although a few of them believed that they could not be, as they had had relations only once or twice. The community facilitator explained the way in

IPPF IN A LIFE

which HIV infection is transmitted and offered blood tests to the young men who were concerned about infection (all the tests proved negative). More comprehensive information was then given on HIV/AIDS with an emphasis on avoiding unprotected sex, and the young men received orientation and training to allow them to share their knowledge as peer educators in the community. Savitri and the young men were from the village of Kiravali Tehsil, in Agra, where the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI) has initiated the YES Project. The project aims to create a wide network of community facilitators to educate young people on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including HIV/AIDS. The project trains peer educators, master trainers, ‘Young Inspirers’ and community-based distributors through orientation, residential courses, camps, conferences and distance learning. The young volunteers, aged 10 to 24 years and spread across 316 villages in the Agra District, are using their knowledge to increase access to sexual and reproductive health information and services for their peers. The advocacy and awareness-raising activities focus on HIV/AIDS in particular, and community and youth participation is one of the key components of the project. The young men and women participate in programme design, implementation and monitoring and also serve on the project’s management committee. The YES Project has generated significant community support, and the district administration has allotted a weekly two-hour slot for sexuality education in schools, incorporating information on HIV prevention. The project is working in a holistic way, utilizing the energy of young people through a chain of yuvak mandals in communities and schools across the project area. These clubs are managed by and for young people and include yuva sutras (networks to link young people across the region) that serve as a nucleus for development initiatives aimed at raising awareness on HIV/AIDS. Each yuva sutra is affiliated to a community resource centre in each sub-district, and each centre is equipped with facilities for youth education, counselling, training, and cultural and recreational activities. Courses are implemented in innovative ways. Henna painting, for instance, is taught both as part of a beauty course and also as a potential channel for transmitting messages on HIV/AIDS and other sexual and reproductive health issues, with henna-painted hands used to display HIV prevention messages and other information. Such courses are benefiting young men and women and providing them with a new sense of confidence and determination. The project has harnessed the energy of young people; however, the key to its success has been the involvement

of the whole community including parents, teachers and community leaders. Parents who in the initial stage had certain reservations about the project are now more than willing to allow their adolescent boys and girls to participate in the activities. Mothers are particularly open to the changes the project has introduced and see the potential for a happier and healthier future for their children. Project assessments have also identified an increased awareness on HIV/AIDS among teachers and community facilitators, as well as a shift in attitudes, including the ability to comfortably discuss issues of sexuality. As one teacher explains: “Earlier we felt shy while teaching issues related to sexuality. We were not able to raise our eyes. Now when children ask questions, we answer their questions with no reservations.”

IN BRIEF: Reaching out to HIV-Positive Persons Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) The AIDS Hotline, run by the Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA), combats ignorance about HIV/AIDS by offering information and counselling about HIV/AIDS and safer sex. In 2003 the AIDS Hotline had 7,611 callers, of which 64 per cent were men. The most frequent topics asked about were safer sex, infection hazards and HIV testing. More recently, the services of the AIDS Hotline have been extended to include counselling on all sexually transmitted infections. Counselling is also offered over the Internet, providing users with the options of chat-room, telephone or email counselling. www.hivinfo.dk is another initiative run by DFPA and is the leading Danish website addressing HIV/AIDS. It is targeted at HIV-positive Danes and their families. The website is updated on a daily basis with comprehensive information and data collected from all over the world, including medical, alternative and social information that may be relevant to people living with HIV. Articles on various themes are updated on the website regularly, and every few months a newsletter is issued. The website’s innovative debate feature allows users to anonymously ask questions about HIV/AIDS. In 2003, there were approximately 500 visitors to the website each day, and approximately 1,800 questions were asked via the debate.

TARGETING INFORMATION TO PEOPLE’S NEEDS

Photo: IPPF/Mark Edwards/Pakistan

“Life is far more valuable than two yuan of postage.”

Sensitizing Communities to HIV/AIDS Reproductive Health Alliance of Kyrgyzstan (RHAK) Asen is a refugee who fled Tajikistan for Kyrgyzstan in the early 1990s, eventually settling on the outskirts of the capital, Bishkek. He is luckier than many of his peers since he has official refugee status, although no official citizenship. At 45 years of age, Asen knew very little about sexual and reproductive health. In 2002, he met a survey team from the Reproductive Health Alliance of Kyrgyzstan (RHAK), which was in his neighbourhood taking a survey of the sexual and reproductive health situation of refugees and internally displaced persons. As soon as he began answering the questions from the team, he came to the stark realization

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that, while he thought he knew a lot about the issues, he in fact knew very little. He was amazed that he could not answer many of the survey questions related to sexual and reproductive health, especially questions about HIV infection. In response, he signed up to take part in RHAK’s training sessions so that he could develop his skills and pass on knowledge to others. He participated in two national Training-of-Trainers workshops to become a trainer in sexual and reproductive health. “At 45 years old and working as a driver, I found myself not only mingling with doctors but talking to them on equal terms.” After these initial workshops Asen participated in two regional workshops to train community leaders as educators, and also took part in another four local workshops, passing on information to others. Now, people come to Asen directly with questions – about protecting themselves against HIV infection, condoms, their sexual problems, and other issues. He says that they are too shy to go to hospitals and so come to him for advice. “We need to keep providing them with more information. For example, they lack even the most basic knowledge about how to use the medical insurance to which they are entitled.” Other men like Asen were trained in three regions of Kyrgyzstan as part of the ‘People on the Move Project,’ implemented by IPPF’s European Network Regional Office and Member Associations throughout Central Asia. Asen provides the people he talks to with condoms and information materials from RHAK.

Raising HIV/AIDS Awareness among Sudan’s Rural Youth Sudanese Family Planning Association (SFPA) War and poverty have left young people in Sudan especially at risk of HIV infection and have made access to information particularly difficult. Over 90 per cent of the Sudanese people live below the poverty line, and there are more people infected with HIV in Sudan – 450,000 – than any other Arab country, according to UNFPA and UNAIDS. The civil war in Southern Sudan and armed conflicts in neighbouring countries have led waves of displaced persons and refugees to move towards big cities, and the majority of the displaced and refugees are youth living in poverty.

The sexual and reproductive health needs of young people require special attention, but there are few youth-friendly organizations or centres providing young people in Sudan with accurate information. Services and facilities targeting young people in Sudan generally provide them with sport activities only. The Sudanese Family Planning Association (SFPA) has taken action by conducting Mobile Rural Lectures through its youth programme. The Sudanese social fabric is characterized by diversity, and SFPA strives to reach as many people as possible from under-served populations, including young people out-of-school, people in rural isolated areas, poor families and minorities. The Mobile Rural Lectures increase young people’s knowledge on sexual and reproductive health and rights, and raise young people’s awareness of the role they can play combating HIV/AIDS. In 2003, the SFPA was able to reach 2,544 young women and men through this initiative. Mobile Lectures were carried out in four regions using participatory learning approaches backed up with audiovisual aids and discussions. The lectures covered issues including young people’s sexual and reproductive rights, youth participation, basic life skills, sexually transmitted infections, safe sexual behaviour, Islam and sexual and reproductive health, the role of SFPA in combating AIDS, modes of HIV transmission and HIV prevention strategies. Collaboration with partner NGOs played a major role in achieving the initiative’s objectives. Students’ networks and community-based organizations supported SFPA by providing suitable spaces to conduct the lectures, and invited young people to attend them. Moreover, SFPA youth volunteers were involved in every step of the project to ensure that ‘what is said, will be understood.’ SFPA was able to break down the silence that prevents young women and men from discussing sexual and reproductive health issues. The seminars have equipped young people with appropriate knowledge on sexual and reproductive health issues and HIV/AIDS, especially among university students and young people in rural areas where inherited norms and tradition impede them from exercising their rights. SFPA was able to create support groups of young people who attended these seminars and decided to work together to combat HIV/AIDS. Involving young people in the planning and implementation of the seminars and follow-up activities strengthens their self-confidence and their relationship to SFPA and their communities. Amid the instability of Sudan, self-confidence and empowerment are weapons that all young people need to protect themselves.

Mobilizing Families to Reach Out to their Own China Family Planning Association (CFPA) Zhihao is one of about 410,000 young people who leave their home towns in Huaihua Prefecture every year in search of a better fortune. This large, mountainous, under-developed and ethnically diverse region of 4.83 million people in Hunan Province has been home to his family as long as anyone can remember, but there is simply no work for young people here. One of Zhihao’s schoolfriends went south to Guangdong and found a job there as a construction worker. The hours are long and his friend works without a contract, but he makes enough money to send some back home to his family. Zhihao is nervous about life in the big city, but he hears it’s a lot of fun, too, and he’s looking forward to making good money. Migration to other parts of China puts hundreds of thousands of young men and women at risk of HIV infection. Reaching so many young people on the move with HIV/AIDS information is a challenge in a region like this. The China Family Planning Association (CFPA) gives these out-floating youth access to information through an innovative approach, using the networks of the youths’ families. Realizing that the family can reach and care for these young people better than anyone, CFPA mobilized their families to reach them with HIV/AIDS information. By working through family networks, CFPA was able to distribute a passionate open letter, an HIV/AIDS information booklet and an HIV/AIDS knowledge quiz to 400,000 young people, exposing them to basic information and life skills on HIV/AIDS prevention. The open letter was advertised in the local print and electronic media at no charge. Through their cooperation with the local family planning associations, family members learned as much about HIV/AIDS as the young people.

test quiz. The completed quiz could be sent back to the local family planning association for a chance to win a prize. About 90 per cent of the target group mailed the quiz back, showing that they had read the booklet. CFPA knew that the volunteers were not HIV/AIDS experts and that many were not well educated and were busy running their own businesses. Their tasks as volunteers were made clear and simple so it would be easier for them to participate. Volunteers at CFPA’s member family planning associations were assigned to visit two families nearby, bringing along educational materials and a clear HIV/AIDS message for family members. With 200,000 member family planning associations participating, CFPA easily reached 400,000 families with HIV/AIDS information. At the grass roots level, there was intensive local input and coordination by local family planning associations, local government and families of the out-floating young people. To raise extra funding to bridge a gap in the project budget, a local family planning association initiated a campaign saying that “life is far more valuable than two yuan of postage.” The campaign motivated family members to contribute to the project and cover the 2.8 yuan cost of postage for the educational materials. During the Spring Festival, most of the out-floating youth came home for family reunions, and local family planning associations seized this chance to arrange a series of activities, such as group discussions and knowledge contests, to reinforce the messages given to young people. Volunteers gained not only the satisfaction of having helped their community, but also access to HIV/AIDS information for themselves. Zhihao is leaving for Guangdong with a deeper understanding of the risk of HIV infection he will face outside of Huaihua and how he can protect himself. His mother, meanwhile, is talking about HIV/AIDS with other young people and their families, so they can be better prepared as well.

Saving Lives and Saving Livelihoods CFPA developed the first comprehensive HIV/AIDS booklet in the local language with information on HIV prevention and common misunderstandings about HIV risk behaviours. The booklet focused on behaviour change rather than mere awareness creation, and explained why so many people who know about HIV prevention are still being infected by the virus. To ensure that young people would keep this booklet as a reference, a local train timetable was attached to the back cover of the booklet for their journey home during the holidays. A test quiz on HIV/AIDS was attached to the booklet, encouraging young people to read through the entire booklet to do the self-

Family Planning Association of Uganda (FPAU) Out-of-school youth are hard to find, and they are hard to define. Access to HIV/AIDS information for this huge and diverse group of young people depends on programmes that recognize their different needs and backgrounds, and can address the one thing they all have in common: the need for work and income. The Family Planning Association of Uganda (FPAU) helps young people in Bushenyi and Luwero Districts form youth clubs that facilitate the sharing of HIV/AIDS

IPPF IN A LIFE

information and also foster the development of skills for income generation. The overarching principle of the Youth Club Cascade Model is participation and empowerment, letting the young people themselves assess needs to then plan, manage and own the intervention. FPAU remains a supportive partner in the background as young people develop and manage organizations that disseminate HIV/AIDS information needed by their communities and foster skills needed by young people themselves. The youth clubs begin as an HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health club, but as they mature they diversify their focus into other areas according to group interest, such as business partnerships, agriculture, trade, cooperative lending and microfinance. When young people decide to create a youth club, FPAU offers them training in youth club management, peer education, drama and puppetry, as well as education on HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health. Youth club members then design their own HIV/AIDS communications programmes based on the needs in their community, reaching out to other young people, and referring them to FPAU for more indepth education and counselling. FPAU also trains youth club leaders in advocacy to help them gain parental and gatekeeper support. The economic opportunities yielded by the youth clubs keep young people involved for the long term, during which they can share HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health information with their friends and families. FPAU nurtures youth clubs from a basic level

Photo: Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa/South Africa

to an advanced level until they attain independent entity status as an NGO, community-based organization, business entity or economic cooperative. A knowledge and skills building package is offered at each level along with an incentive scheme to encourage clubs to move up to the next level. The Youth Club Cascade Model has mobilized large numbers of young people to undertake sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS communication activities in Luwero and Bushenyi. Nine Basic Clubs were formed, and two have matured into the advanced stage with sponsors supporting club needs and activities. Some club members were sponsored to attend the 13th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa. The District Directorate of Health Services in Luwero and Bushenyi supports many activities of the Clubs. Support from school gatekeepers has increased as well, and two schools have asked for clubs to be formed and supported in their schools. The youth clubs have demonstrated a clear link between sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention and employment and good citizenship. They act as a springboard for FPAU to recruit policy volunteers and promote youth participation in governance. The clubs also promote IPPF’s concept of ABC: Acceptance of young people’s sexuality; Being realistic to young people’s needs and a real partner; and offering Choices to support young people’s informed decisions.

International Planned Parenthood Federation Regent’s College, Inner Circle, Regent’s Park, London NW1 4NS United Kingdom Telephone +44 20 7487 7900 Fax +44 20 7487 7950 Email info@ippf.org www.ippf.org Designed by Spencer du Bois UK Registered Charity No. 229476 The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a global network of Member Associations in 149 countries and the world’s foremost voluntary, non-governmental provider and advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Photo: IPPF/Jenny Matthews/Afghan Refugees/Pakistan