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Initiative

HIV Prevention Program for Senior High School Students

HIV Prevention Program for Senior High School Students
SUBMITTED FROM:

CENTER FOR LIFE



Objective Action

The program "HIV Prevention Program for Senior High School Students" is intended to cover an established, on many occasions and of critical importance, gap on individual and public health information available to the student - youth population of Greece in relation with the HIV infection and AIDS. The general objectives of the program are:

  • provide reliable and adapted to modern scientific informational data with respect to HIV infection and AIDS,
  • raise awareness on the necessity and the methods of protection against HIV,
  • eliminate negative stereotypes and fight stigma around HIV / AIDS, and
  • interconnection of schools with their respective medical and psychosocial service providers for people living with HIV / AIDS.
 

Target Audience

It is aimed at senior high school students (Grade 11 & 12) attending General and Vocational high schools, Second Chance Schools, Schools for Students with Special Needs,  as well all students attending evening high school lessons in Greece.

 

Duration

September 2017- May 2018


Description

We observed that despite the rapid evolution of scientific understanding and tackling of HIV / AIDS, there hasn’t been a corresponding degree of change in knowledge and attitudes of the Greek society, a large part of which remains attached to outdated conceptions, both regarding the methods of transmission as well as for the population groups affected by the HIV. This mismatch has two crucial consequences:

  • A substantial part of the population, especially the student and youth population does not know why they should and how to take precautions during sexual activity.
  • Stigmatization and social exclusion of people living with HIV / AIDS continues, which has particularly negative effects in their health, both physical and psychological.

All of the above data support the necessity of informing the youth – high school population in relation to HIV / AIDS. The Centre for Life, driven by 26-years of experience and ethical principles cultivated over the years, leveraging from the long training of the staff and the excellent cooperation with other relevant agencies, has the ability to shape the appropriate conditions in order to make knowledge as the means of protection and elimination of stigma towards people living with HIV / AIDS.


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Impact on Society

During the implementation of the program (September 2017 - May 2018), 1.274 informative sessions to over 65.000 high school students have taken place across the country. Also, an according number of 65.000 informative brochures have been distributed to the students that participated in the informative sessions. 63% of the sessions took place in schools out of the Attica and Thessaloniki regions, indicatively in Crete, Evros, Kefalonia, Ioannina, Santorini, Milos, Rhodes, Kilkis and Serres. Each session is also addressed to the teaching stuff of each school, and a total of 3.551 teachers so far have attended the program and also have received and informational portfolio with all the relevant info on HIV/AIDS. In this context, a very significant finding is the high response of teachers and students to Centre of Life’s call, especially in remote, provincial towns, something that signifies the high demand in these regions for similar activities.



Initiative Location

The program includes visits to schools in all of the thirteen (13) regions of Greece


Working with Organization

The scientific editing of printed and digital teaching materials are made by the National School of Public Health, while approval has been secured by the Institute for Educational Policy. Meanwhile, Centre for Life’s directors who undertake to implement the program, have received further training from staff of the Office for Health Education and Public Awareness of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control & Prevention (HCDCP), thus ensuring the maximum degree of validity of the information and quality of communication with the youth - school audience. Finally, the lead donor of the program is Stavros Niarchos Foundation


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Workers Participation

The program is being implemented by twelve (12) people in total, two Program Coordination Officers and five (5) informative groups each consisting of two (2) speakers. The Program Coordination Officers (one in Athens and one in Thessaloniki) are responsible for coordinating the overall supervision of the program. The five (5) informative groups are staffed by ten (10) speakers of Higher or Tertiary Education, specially trained by the Centre for Life which already has extensive experience in conducting informational speeches around HIV / AIDS.


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Benefits for Οrganization

The main gain by this program for Centre of Life is that it implements one of its most basic goals, which is the provision of comprehensive information to the general public, and especially to the crucial target group of adolescents and young people, about HIV and AIDS. In this context, the benefit is double: the general public learns how to get protection against the transmission of HIV and also learns that it can co-exist with people living with HIV, getting over the negative connotations that were prevalent over the past decades due to the spread of misinformation or incomplete information on HIV and/or AIDS.

At the same time, what is also very significant for the future actions of our Organization in the education sector, is the excellent cooperation and the dialogue that has started over all this time with the representatives of Secondary education across the country. The 1,374 teachers that have participated in the informative sessions have expressed their satisfaction for the program’s implementation and have given us useful feedback for the program’s development over the next years.




Connection with Global Goals






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