WAD Malawi
YONECO tell us about activities they are organising for World AIDS Day 2007 in Malawi.
YONECO World AIDS Day 2007
Youth Net and Counselling (YONECO) in Malawi will coordinate and participate in a number of activities to commemorate World AIDS Day 2007. These include:
Community AIDS Awareness Activities through Theatre Arts
YONECO believes that using “edutainment” is a way forward for highly illiterate communities in Zomba, Machinga, Balaka and Mangochi districts in Malawi. YONECO has organized a series of community theatre activities to communicate HIV prevention messages, promote positive behaviour and reduce stigma. YONECO will conduct 8 awareness sessions in the month of December as special programmes on HIV and AIDS for youth, women and children in the districts mentioned above. YONECO will therefore engage community leaders on HIV prevention in line with the theme for 2007.
Youth and Child Involvement in HIV Prevention
Community Youth and Child Leadership development has been planned as a tool for prevention of HIV and AIDS. In most cases, youth and children are treated as recipients of our interventions. In line with the theme on leadership at all levels, YONECO has planned to engage effectively with youth and children on leadership development for the prevention and mitigation of HIV and AIDS. Leadership should start at a tender age and therefore YONECO's focus on youth is crucial.
Launching of Malawi Monograph on Adolescent Reproductive Health Services
On the eve of the World AIDS Day, YONECO in partnership with the Guttmacher Institute (USA) and the Centre for Social Research (University of Malawi) will launch the “Protecting the Next Generation Monograph: New Evidence on Adolescent on Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs”. The monograph is a publication of the research that YONECO has been involved in during the last 5 years. The findings from this research are quite interesting and there are policy recommendations. These include the fact that young people are having sex and we need to focus on helping them to delay sex while also protecting them from sexually transmitted infections. In addition to this, access to sexual and reproductive health services are very limited and there is a need to develop comprehensive sex education programmes with competent personnel. The need to ensure that young people are accessing the right information can not be over emphasised.
World AIDS Day Special Radio Programme for Young People
YONECO has arranged a special radio programme on World AIDS Day for youth and children. This is a phone-in programme where young people will ask a series of questions on HIV and AIDS and discuss the challenges of young people in the country devastated by HIV and AIDS. The presenters for this programme will be young people themselves.
