Prevention - HIV/AIDS

Violence, substance abuse, unprotected sex, and related risky behaviors take a tragic toll on the lives of individuals and their communities. To prevent these risks, we must first understand the factors and circumstances that contribute to risk-taking. EDC’s Center for Research on High Risk Behaviors (RHRB) conducts a variety of research projects that develop, evaluate, and disseminate effective interventions for reducing health risks.

A new regional campaign aims to influence decision-makers and practitioners in the education sector to take action regarding HIV/AIDS. On February 16, 2005, EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs (HHD) and UNESCO’s Office for the Caribbean launched the new “Campaign on Advocacy and Leadership to Advance the Caribbean Education Sector Response to HIV/AIDS” in Trinidad and Tobago.

Because of its success in helping vulnerable children in Thailand, EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs’ (HHD) Regional HIV/AIDS Project funded by Deutsche Bank has been extended to parts of Cambodia and Vietnam where the number of children orphaned by AIDS is on the rise and 95 percent of all HIV infections are among people between the ages of 15 and 49.

Through the Zambia Community Radio Project, EDC is partnering with such radio stations and other local non-governmental and community-based development organizations to create a series of village-based radio programs entitled Our Village.

This pilot project is designed to gauge the success of applying a versatile video compact disc (VCD) technology to meet critical learning needs of young girls who cross the Mekong in search of a more exciting and financially rewarding life in Thailand.

This article is excerpted from Rigor, Collaboration, and Care: Two Decades of HIV/AIDS Prevention Research (2003), produced by EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs. It describes the development of culturally sensitive educational videos that have produced positive behavior changes among African American and Latino men and women.

While HIV/AIDS and hunger have taken a huge toll on teachers, students, and families in Zambia, EDC is supporting a growing network of community learning centers that bring education to areas without formal schools. The 300-plus centers are run by unpaid mentors using lessons delivered via radio to groups of young people gathered in homes, backyards, churches, or cement-block classrooms.

Community service programs—when combined with curriculum—not only promote community values and good citizenship, they may also protect students from risky health behaviors during adolescence. When New York City middle school students’ community service work (three hours per week) was combined with health instruction, both their violent behavior and their high-risk sexual activity dropped significantly.

Education and social marketing initiatives have proven to be effective prevention strategies in several African nations. Building on successful school-based prevention efforts in the United States, EDC/HHD is collaborating with other international organizations to enlist African teachers in the fight against AIDS.

"Schools without teachers, orphans without school fees, communities without functioning schools." That’s how EDC’s Michael Laflin describes the current state of education in many African countries, where the HIV/AIDS epidemic is decimating families and social systems. In Zambia, teachers are dying faster than teachers’ colleges can produce them.