Leadership Summit ::
August 4, 2008
Here are some more HIV/AIDS stats [from the 2007 UN AIDS report]:
- More than three quarters of all AIDS deaths globally in 2007 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa.
- In South Africa, which has the largest number of HIV infections in the world (5.5 million), an estimated 1.8 million people have died of AIDS-related disease since the epidemic began.
- Young women in South Africa face greater risks of becoming infected than men. Indeed, among 15–24-year-olds, women account for about 90% of new HIV infections
- Injecting drug use is an increasingly important factor in some of the HIV epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, including those in Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania
On that note, I’m realizing I don’t write all that much about what goes on here day to day.
Here’s a brief summary of what Thrive is doing to battle the AIDS pandemic through the AIDS Prevention Program.
Leadership Summit, Thrive Africa’s AIDS Prevention Program, teaches students in public schools about abstinence, finding life’s purpose and leadership development. Last term, nearly 4000 students missed less than 2 classes and successfully graduated from the class.
In Qwa Qwa, there are 600,000 kids in the school system. The long-term goal is to have a coach [a Basotho young adult that teaches classes], teaching in 1-12th grade in all of the schools.
All of the curriculums are written in-house by Thrive staff. They are culturally relevant and written with African youth in mind. Currently, the coaches are teaching Safe Sex–it outlines facts about AIDS and the importance of saving sex until marriage.
One of the biggest obstacles in teaching AIDS education is the plethora of misinformation out there. For example, many people believe that if a man has sex with a virgin he will cured. As you can imagine, not only is this false information, but has the potential to increase rape statistics as well. False information like this just points to the importance of programs like Leadership Summit that educate kids on truth of HIV/AIDS.
