Prevention - HIV/AIDS

EDC/HHD works with local partners in four countries in South and Southeast Asia to provide care and support as well as prevention education to children affected and infected with HIV and AIDS. Project activities include providing financial and in-kind assistance to orphaned children to attend school, vocational training for young people who must now support their families, and training peer educators so they can educate their friends in their own communities about HIV prevention.

Education International (EI), EDC, and the World Health Organization work with teacher-union affiliates in nearly 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Caribbean, and Latin America to prevent new HIV infections, increase the number of learners completing basic education, and mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on achieving Education For All Goals. This work involves a range of activities including training, policy development, advocacy, research, publicity and communications.

Working with various partners in the Caribbean, EDC will develop a framework to monitor and evaluate the response to HIV and AIDS within the Caribbean’s education sector. The framework will be research-based and developed with extensive input from stakeholders so that it customized, user-friendly, and effective. EDC will also develop a tool to equip those in the education sector with the specific knowledge and skills to maximize the utility of the framework.

EDC, with support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, will collaborate with Latino parents, youth, and community agency staff on the development and dissemination of a Spanish-language version of the proven Saving Sex for Later intervention. This is an innovative, evidence-based, and user-friendly parent education program designed to promote healthy sexual and reproductive choices on the part of young adolescents. It consists of a set of three audio CDs and accompanying print brochure, which will be available in both English and Spanish.

Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, and existing behavioral interventions do not meet their prevention needs. EDC is developing and evaluating the No Excuses/Sin Buscar Excusas one-session video-based intervention designed for culturally- and geographically-diverse English- and Spanish-speaking gay and bisexual Latino men. Working with community partners in New York City, a randomized efficacy trial is enrolling approximately 400 men, with the goal of testing whether the intervention reduces risk behaviors and promotes HIV testing.

EDC and Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York are developing and pilot testing the Keep It Up program targeted to African American and other Black young men in high-poverty communities with high rates of HIV. Keep It Up embeds HIV behavioral prevention in a broader health promotion campaign. The goal is to reduce the stigma surrounding HIV and reach a population that bears a disproportionate burden not only of HIV/AIDS, but also other health problems—hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, asthma, and other STIs.

This rigorous three-arm randomized experiment tests whether an innovative multi-year parent-mediated HIV intervention, Preparing Our Sons and Daughters for Healthy Futures, reduces HIV risks among African American youth living in high-poverty urban neighborhoods. About 1500 families with 6th graders in New York City public schools are being enrolled and will be followed through 9th grade.

EDC has produced a dissemination package for Safe in the City, a brief video-based HIV/STD prevention intervention for STD clinics. In a large, multi-site efficacy trial, Safe in the City was found to be effective in reducing new cases of STDs among clinic patients. The intervention has been selected for national dissemination through CDC’s Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions program. EDC was a collaborating partner in the development and evaluation of this intervention.