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Young People We Care! - Making a Difference in our Community (2nd Edition)

Young People We Care! - Making a Difference in our Community aims to:

• Provide encouragement and ideas to help young people be active members of their community.


• Promote values and practices that will reduce stigma and discrimination against people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.


• Help people living with HIV and children affected by AIDS live better lives.

There are three sections to this book:

The Before You Start section aims to help organisations that wish to use this book to plan ahead, with young people, before beginning any training. For a Young People We Care (YPWC) programme to be successful, young people must be protected against stigma and rejection. This can be achieved through adequate consultations, for example, with parents, community leaders, home-based care providers, school heads and teachers. These members of the community can provide encouragement and support to the young people as they implement their community activities. It is also important for organisations running a YPWC programme to put in place supervision structures to support the young people.

The Training Guide section is written for a facilitator or young person with a good knowledge of HIV and AIDS, and facilitation experience. The Training Guide includes participatory activities to help young people think through a number of topics. It aims to prepare a group of young people to implement the Community Activities in the second section. You may have covered some of these topics already in your ongoing programme - others may be new. In either case, it is important the young people feel comfortable with the issues raised.

The Community Activities section is written for young people and suggests ways to help support others in the community. Some of the information in the Training Guide is repeated in the Community Activities section. This is because some organisations may choose to distribute only the Community Activities section to young people and we don't want important information to be missed.

Topics covered in the book include:

• Understanding Your Community
• Knowing Your Facts about HIV and AIDS
• Being a Young People We Care Volunteer
• Ending the Stigma
• Making Good Choices about Sex
• Helping Families
• Being a Friend
• Overcoming and Avoiding Abuse
• Helping Children Grieve
• Making Memory Boxes and Books

Download Young People We Care! - Making a Difference in our Community (2nd Edition).