PROJECT G YES: TO INSPIRE AND GET 50,000 TEENAGERS TO SAY YES TO ABSTINENCE.
AIDS is a major health issue that demands an urgent response especially in our country.
Africa which is only about 14% of the world population has the highest
prevalence of AIDS.
Nigeria with a population of about 150 million people, the largest
population in Africa, has the highest prevalence of Aids besides South Africa.
1 in every 13 person in Nigeria is living with HIV & AIDS.
Over 10.5 million people in
Nigeria are living with HIV & AIDS, which is about 7% of the total
population of the country.
Every day, more people are either being infected or are being affected
by the pandemic AIDS.
Sexual intercourse
(vaginal, anal and oral) or through contact with semen, or cervical and vaginal
fluids is the most frequent mode of transmission of HIV worldwide, and can be
transmitted from infected person to his or her partner ( man to woman, woman to
man, man to man, woman to woman).
The presence of other
sexually transmitted diseases (STD s) (especially those causing genital ulcers)
increases the risk of HIV transmittion because more mucous membrane is exposed
to the virus. WHO fact sheet on HIV
This, further strengthen by My love for children and
young people and interest to see them grow to become self fulfilled and
productive in the society has created in me a deep seated passion to work for
the development of young people and to contribute in helping them become their
dream, and has propelled me to face AIDS, in an amazing way.
The result; an excited two years of
working with young people,
people living with AIDS (PLWA), Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science and
Technology and other agencies to
face AIDS, using the Club: Anti-HIV&AIDS as a tool. The focus was to
emphasize the (A) in the A B C approach of prevention of;
A – Abstinence
B – be faithful to partner
C – Condom Use
to influence the sexual values of young people, with an aim to contribute
in ‘Getting to Zero’ by inspiring young people especially teenagers to say YES
to abstinence. This is being achieved by sensitization campaigns on
HIV&AIDS, seminars on Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education, Self
Awareness Seminars, Life Skill training,
Academic Enhancement training and
Value Cultivation Workshops.
What follows is a summary report of the Club: Anti–HIV&AIDS
activities in executing the project G YES: to inspire and get 50,000 teenagers to
say Yes to abstinence. This
has been broken into quarters that cover specific terms since we work with the
school academic calendar.
One
important focus of our work is to get young people aware of their role in achieving
an AIDS free generation.
I hope to persuade
you that you too can work to make the world more hopeful.
Let’s face AIDS.
Mrs Mati Coordinator PLWA Ogun State
Education officer Min of Edu, Sc & Tech Ogun State
Dr P N Nwazugbe VP Admin FGGC, Sagamu
OUTCOMES
One afternoon, one of my students
came with about four of her friends to my office. As they sat down, she said,
sir I just wanted to come and say thank you for Project G Yes. My life have
been changed. And part of that change are my friends here, I did not have any
friends before I started attending club trainings. I felt different from other
children, so I didn’t care much about life. My father drinks alot and once he
is drunk he will beat my mother and my siblings. After beating us, he will cut
us with razor blades, see my body all these scars are a proof. Sometimes he
will lock us out at night, there are times I felt I was goning to die of cold. Eventually
my mother left with us. I used to feel timid and ashamed of myself and I hated.
I didn’t know I could forgive him.
But today I feel good about my
life.
Another student told me, I didn’t
know I could be who I wanted to be without joining the bad gang. I love to
shine, I love to be noticed, I love to be the happeing girl. I always thought I
had to be a bad girl to be all that. Thank you I didn’t have to be bad to make
an impression.
One student wrote, I felt my
father was mean. He is so strict he will never allow us out. So I started
having sex right inside the house. I thought I was paying him back for not
allowing us out even though he doesn’t even know I was already having sex. Now
I know I was only harming myself.
One student told me, most of my
friends have boy friends and they are alredy having sex. I used to feel left
out and under a lot of pressure to be like them. Now I have friends who have
the same values like me and some of my old friends have seen their mistakes and
are making new decisions.
One student told me how whenever
she is at home for holiday because her parents were not always at home, she
invited boys to her house, and what they spent most of the time doing was
having sex. She use to feel bad about it but that was the only way she felt she
could spare herself of boredom, she said. But now she has realized that her
time can be used for more important things.
And many more such stories.
I my best moment are when
presenting the make a choice show, demonstrating the sandwhitch method of
refusal and the DECIDE method of decision making becuase of the usual excitment
as a result of discoveries and decisions that follows after the sessions.
Am happy the project is making
the desire impact in the lives of these young people. Beyond the pursuit of an
AIDS free generation, I see a number of young people signing up for personal
development, right living and making effort to impact the lives of peers. There
can not be a greater reward.
Comprehensive report available on request.
No comments:
Post a Comment