UNICEF Launches $500,000 programme in Zimbabwe to train teachers to provide HIV education

Published in HIV/Aids News, edition of 5 September
04/09/2007

UNICEF on Monday launched a weeklong, $500,000 program in Zimbabwe aimed at training 1,500 primary and secondary teachers on how to provide HIV prevention education, UN News Service reports. About 500,000 children will participate in the program, which will focus on teaching life skills for HIV prevention, addressing gender dimensions of HIV, fighting sexual gender-based violence and providing counseling.

The program also will help teachers to understand and handle their vulnerability to HIV and will examine prevention, care, support and treatment, UN News Service reports. The program will be held at seven teaching colleges in Bulawayo, Harare, Masvingo, Mutare and Mutoko. A similar program last year trained 1,200 teachers from 18 districts. The training will be provided by UNICEF; the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture; the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education; and VVOB-ZimPATH, a Flemish HIV/AIDS education project.

About 20% of Zimbabwe's adult population is HIV-positive. A 2005 decrease in HIV prevalence in the country was attributed to delayed sexual activity among young people, faithfulness and increased condom use, according to UNAIDS (UN News Service, 8/28).



 

Aids drugs' flood black market in Zimbabwe (11 September)

Aids drugs - some of them contaminated, diluted or faked - are being sold at flea markets and hairdressing salons in the face of growing shortages in clinics linked to Zimbabwe's economic crisis, says the health ministry.
Read the full story…

Alcohol can speed up Aids progression, according to Kenyan study (30 August)

Kenya may lose the gains it has made against HIV due to rampant alcoholism among the infected, a new research on the impact of alcohol on management of the pandemic indicates. The study, done by the University of Boston, found that heavy consumption of alcohol speeds up the onset of Aids in those infected by HIV. Read the full story…

Live burial claims in Papua New Guinea investigated (28 August)

Police and health workers in Papua New Guinea launched an investigation into reports that Aids victims in the rugged South Pacific nation are being buried alive by their relatives when they presumably become too sick to care for.
Read the full story…

MORE ARTICLES