HIV & AIDS and education

There is a growing recognition that education for all will not be achieved unless the education community recognises the devastating impact of the AIDS epidemic.

There are many places in the world still relatively untouched by HIV & AIDS, but in southern and eastern Africa where the epidemic has hit hardest, schools and communities are struggling to live with a virus that attacks people at the prime of their lives.

Educators have been slow to pick up the challenges posed by the AIDS epidemic. It is only since 1999 that educators have realised the dramatic effects that the epidemic is having on formal educational structures in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, even today education planners are still reluctant to factor in the effects of the epidemic and most people in the education sector attempt to "carry on as usual."

At the same time, education is seen as one of the most important weapons in the fight to address the AIDS epidemic. Yet educational responses to AIDS tend to be led by AIDS specialists more than by education specialists - leading to ineffective responses that fail to draw on the accumulated learning of what works in education. Indeed, some of the most widespread responses to AIDS directly contradict good practice in education.

ActionAid is therefore working to:

• participate in national and local education planning processes
• mainstream HIV & AIDS into education work by engaging people working on education to prioritise HIV & AIDS
• ensure that HIV & AIDS responses draw on wider learning about what is effective in the field of education

Education can help stem the epidemic
Without a known cure, education is a necessary part of any HIV & AIDS prevention strategy, by raising awareness and promoting behaviour change. It is important that education staff lead HIV & AIDS initiatives if it is not to continually end up marginalised as an issue to be dealt with only by HIV & AIDS experts.

A new initiative
If we hope to achieve significant change in attitudes or behaviour, we must address power issues first. In a major new initiative we are fusing Stepping Stones and Reflect, to do just that.

Stepping Stones encourages people to explore issues which affect sexual health - including gender roles, money, alcohol use, traditional practice and attitudes towards sex, death and ourselves. It encourages openness, understanding and tolerance of HIV & AIDS.

Through Reflect people undertake a comprehensive analysis of social, economic, political and cultural issues, providing a powerful basis for being able to look at the impact of HIV & AIDS across the full spectrum of local life rather than seeing it as an issue in isolation.

Fusing the two into Reflect Plus or STAR (Stepping Stones and Reflect) offers huge potential, creating a long-term process of reflection and action through which participants are able to address sensitive issues and place HIV in the context of other local issues. Guidelines for this fusion have recently been produced through a writer's workshop in Uganda that brought together leading practitioners of the two approaches.

photo : ©Elaine Duigenan/ActionAid