Rwanda Alive > Teachers & Students > The HIV/AIDS Epidemic > Take Action > YouthAIDS

ABOUT YOUTHAIDS

YouthAIDS is working in 70 countries to educate and protect kids from a life of HIV/AIDS. Through theatre, media, music, fashion and sport, YouthAIDS promotes decreased sexual activity and protected safer sex. Artists including Alicia Keys, Destiny's Child, Justin Timberlake and Wyclef Jean have worked with YouthAIDS to create public service announcements and messages that change the behavior of youth worldwide. Hopeful messages encourage youth to take responsibility for the health of their generation and make life-saving decisions.

YOUTHAIDS/PSI PROGRAM IN RWANDA

YouthAIDS/PSI programs are working in 79 countries around the world to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially among young people. YouthAIDS/PSI engage young people themselves to help design and implement our youth programs. The approaches stress self-empowerment, healthy and upbeat decision-making among youth, and providing effective health products and services such as HIV counseling and testing.

The YouthAIDS/PSI program in Rwanda in a great example of our work:

RWANDA: Centre Dushishoze
In January 2001, Centre Dushishoze opened in the province of Butare in Rwanda. At the center, youth are able to access high quality, affordable reproductive health services (including HIV counseling and testing, trauma counseling, sexually transmitted disease (STD) diagnosis and treatment, and peer education in an integrated and youth-friendly setting. Since its opening, a more than 56,000 youth, aged 15-24, have visited the center.
Some of the program’s methods include:

• Developed communications campaign, including print materials, videos, and special events, to encourage youth to visit the center and promote safer personal behaviors.

• Peer education, community drama, and mobile video unit outreach efforts, especially in rural areas

• Advocacy efforts within the local community ensure support of parents and religious leaders for project activities.

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