HIV/AIDS in Africa

Of the 2.5 million people infected with HIV every year, young people under the age of 25 account for 40 percent of new infections.

Although many young people are learning about AIDS, more than half of those surveyed in nine sub-Saharan countries lacked comprehensive information about HIV prevention.

At the same time, there is a shortage of health care workers in Africa - a mere 1.3 percent of the world's health care workers struggle to care for a population that accounts for 25 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS cases.

Youth Service as a Strategy

All national HIV/AIDS strategies need to focus on young people.

Through full-time service programs, young people can provide services such as educational outreach, peer counseling, home-based and orphan care, and assist medical professionals in public health clinics. At the same time, they are learning valuable skills that can be applied to careers in health-related fields and contributing to the long-term civic health of their nation.

Photo courtesy of JRMD Burundi

ICP and Youth Service in Africa

Developing a continent-wide youth service program that provides young people the opportunity to play an active role in the fight against HIV/AIDS is highly complex and requires significant resources, the coordination of many different players, political will, and experience with youth service program and policy design.

Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) has the experience, expertise, and willpower to drive this initiative. Over the past year, ICP has begun tracking developments in the

and in Africa and has connected with key individuals and partner organizations on the ground in

South Africa

Scaleable Models?

ICP has identified a number of models we believe have the potential to be scaled up and form the basis for an Africa Youth Corps.

Program Spotlight: Groundbreakers

South Africa

, groundBREAKERS engages more than 1000 youth between the ages of 18 and 25 in a full-time youth service program. Part of loveLife, the leading national HIV prevention program for South African youth, approximately 85 % of groundBREAKERS recruits come from at-risk backgrounds and there is virtually no attrition. At the end of the program between 85 - 95 % of graduates go on to employment or further education. Evidence from a lovelife survey (the largest national survey of South African youth ever conducted) shows that:

Nearly 85% of all South African youth have been exposed to loveLife.
There is a strong correlation between exposure to loveLife and self-reported sexual behavior including increased abstinence, choosing to delay initiating sexual activity and increased condom use;
Participation in loveLife programs is statistically associated with lower odds of HIV, taking into account other likely explanatory factors.

For more information on groundBREAKERS visit loveLife at: http://www.lovelife.org.za/

Program Spotlight: Youth AIDS Service in Nigeria

Nigeria

, young people account for over 30% of all HIV/AIDS cases. Despite these alarming numbers, most HIV/AIDS education programs in West Africa ignore adolescents. Education as a Vaccine Against AIDS (EVA) combats the AIDS epidemic in

Nigeria

by implementing innovative educational programs and teaching HIV/AIDS prevention tactics through one-on-one contact between peer educators and students in Nigerian secondary schools. Recognizing that sexual education needs to be linked to the community and to youth development, EVA has made service-learning a central tenet of their programming. The Youth AIDS Service (YAS) program trains students to become peer health educators in order to enable them to increase awareness in their own communities about HIV/AIDS prevention strategies. This is accomplished through EVA AIDS Clubs where enrolled students participate in community service projects, leadership conferences, and volunteer opportunities with hospitals and clinics. Through its efforts, EVA has reached 6,000 young people.

For more information on EVA visit: http://www.evanigeria.org/