Summer schools teach teens to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS

Over 1,400 Moldovan adolescents, aged from 12 to 18, are trained in summer schools to become “peer-trainers”. This new approach, proven efficient in many countries, entails the fact that the teenagers get new knowledge on HIV/AIDS not from teachers and parents, but from their peers, who share the same interests and enjoy full trust, Info-Prim Neo reports quoting UNICEF Moldova. The summer schools are held in 7 districts: Orhei, Anenii Noi, Telenesti, Cimislia, Calarasi, Stefan-Voda and Leova. The trainers try to persuade them that AIDS represents a real danger, but it can be avoided if having adequate knowledge. Apart from prevention methods, the youths are taught to be tolerant with the HIV infected. “The peer group is an important socializing environment, especially in puberty and adolescence, when the attitude towards a healthy life-style is shaping. In years this practice has proved to be efficient,” says the coordinator of the project “Youths for prevention of HIV/AIDS”, Viorel Babii. The teens have been rigorously selected to get to be trainers, as only 4 have been taken from every school. They had to prove they were motivated enough to produce a change in their communities. “I'm proud I was selected. I worked a lot to prove my opinion counts for my colleagues and will listen to me when I will tell them of HIV/AUDS,” says Natalia Suruceanu from Anenii Noi. The schools are organized by the National Center for Resources for Youth, the Education and Youth Ministry and the district Education Directions, with the financial support of UNICEF, UNFPA and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. “UNICEF supports the project in order to enhance the access to correct information about HIV/AIDS, which, unfortunately, is still very scarce among adolescents,” says the coordinator of the HIV/AIDS for Vulnerable Teens Program, Larisa Lazarescu-Spetetchi. The peer-trainers network was set up in 2007 and now joins over 1,000 teens from 270 Moldovan schools. They are to be joined by other 1,400 children to be trained this summer.