Supporting youth: broadening the approach to HIV/AIDS prevention programmes

Abstract

The aim of many HIV/AIDS-awareness campaigns is to pass on knowledge. This assumes that people – particularly young people – practise unsafe sex and become infected with HIV because they lack the necessary information. But it is now clear that even with the right information, many youth do not take steps to protect themselves from infection. As a result they are often blamed for the problems facing HIV/AIDS prevention. However, this book argues that blaming youth is not fair and that it is not just youth who need to change. Social circumstances often make it very difficult for youth to take precautions and it is these social circumstances that need to change as well. Knowledge is only one component – or part – of a number of components that are essential for behaviour change and HIV/AIDS prevention. The conversation on the next page raises some of these other components