HIV & AIDS Program: Reproductive Health Workshop for Youth

LUCSA's HIV & AIDS Program recently conducted the final cluster of Reproductive Health Workshops for Youth for 2011. The aim of these workshops are to bring together youth and youth advisers from various member churches to engage in open dialogue about the issues facing today's youth in regards to sexual health and HIV & AIDS. 

This final cluster group of 15 participants met in Windhoek, Namibia for the week-long workshop (11-15 April). The following areas were covered:

• Discussing the purpose of training Christian youth in reproductive health
• Basic facts about HIV & AIDS with an emphasis on the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2010 treatment guidelines
• SAVE: Safe Practices (A+B+C+PMTCT, safe blood, safe injections, safe circumcision, safe microbicides and vaccine development); Access to treatment (for opportunistic infections, STDs, PEP, PMTCT, ARVs) and nutrition; Voluntary, routine and stigma-free counseling and testing; Empowerment of children, youths, women, men, families, communities and nations against vulnerability to preventable and controllable infections, illnesses and deaths 
• Discussing the SSDDIM: Stigma; Shame; Denial; Discrimination; Inaction; Mis-action acronym and its role in society
• Reproductive Health
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)
• Sex and sexuality
• Relationships
• Development of HIV & AIDS competent churches and HIV & AIDS mainstreaming

The group shared its 2010 reports and spent time developing and sharing their 2011 activity plans.