The SAN Back-to-School Reading List: 6 Books You Should Read to the Children in Your Life

Talking to children about sexual health and HIV may not always be the easiest. However it is vitally important for parents and teachers to gradually broach these subjects. This is important not just to reduce HIV prevalence down the line, but perhaps more importantly, to mitigate the stigma and discrimination associated with it. 

One of the best ways to impart such knowledge in a lighthearted way is during story time. We recently found Bill and Melinda Gates’ Reading List with books that help children to think globally and be inspired to effect change. In the same vein, we have created a SAN Back-to-School Reading List with books that help children begin to understand the subject of HIV and AIDS, as well as how to support those living with or who have family living with HIV.

Here is our list of 6 books that should help you to get talking about HIV with the kids in your life: 

1. My Dad Has HIV by Earl Alexander

"My Dad Has HIV is a children's book told from the point of view of Lyndsey, a 7-year-old girl in the second grade. Lyndsey is based on Earl Alexander's own daughter Lyndsey. With an easy-to-read style and fun illustrations, this book is a great way to really educate children about the real nature of HIV/AIDS." [1]

This book was written by Earl Alexander, a father living with HIV, for his daughter Lyndsey, and "all children whose lives have been touched by AIDS." [1] Alexander initially struggled "to accept his condition" but ultimately "he resolved to devote himself to educating everyone, especially the youth, about the dangers of sex, drugs, alcohol, and disease." [1] 

2. Alex, the Kid with HIV by Linda Walvoord Girard

"When a new boy who has AIDS joins Michael's fourth-grade class, Michael reluctantly becomes his work partner. He soon learns, however, that Alex is funny, creative, and mischievous. He says he can do anything he wants because "I'm sick," so the two boys write an insulting poem about their teacher. Alex's wish to be treated like everyone else is granted--both boys are disciplined, but their friendship is strengthened." [2]

3. I am HIV-Positive by Wendy Flanagan

"The story looks at the basic facts of HIV/AIDS through the eyes of a child. It explains in the simplest terms transmission, infection and the do's and don't's of prevention. It looks at practical ways of caring and coping. Young adults are more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS than anyone else. Lindiwe's explanation should empower learners to lower the risk of getting sick and increase their resilience to the virus. This is one of the JAWS HIV/AIDS readers developed for primary school learners.The story conveys both the basic information about HIV/AIDS (health promotion) and the subtle psycho-social dimensions of the pandemic affecting learners' lives (personal and social developement). It can be used as a reader, or to help teachers introduce subject matter that is difficult to manage in the classroom." [3]

4. Little Feet, Big Steps by Brit Sharon

"Little Feet, Big Steps is a coming of age story about a young girl that, with the help of her encouraging mother, takes on a huge project by signing up for the AIDS Walk in her city. She turns to her community to fundraise and is completely unstoppable on her journey to make a difference. Throughout the story, Gabby comes to terms with what AIDS is and why people come together to support causes that effect others. This story steps away from traditional storyline of a helpless female character waiting to be rescued by prince charming, and instead, empowers young people to take action in their communities, causing them to be leaders on the planet." [4]

5. Medikidz Explain HIV (Superheroes on a Medical Mission) by  Kim Chilman-blair

Understanding the impact of HIV on children worldwide "Dr. Kim Chilman-Blair and Dr. Kate Hersov teamed up with a leading graphic novel artist to create a series of comic books explaining health conditions to young people from a medical viewpoint. Each comic is written by doctors and peer-reviewed by leading specialists in each respective therapy area. Medikidz is a resource designed to educate not only young patients, peers and their parents, but also to aid practitioners and educators in explaining health conditions as effectively as possible. The books follow a team of five larger than life superheroes from outer space, with each Medikidz specialising in explaining a different part of the body. What's Up with Jason? is an engaging way to educate children about the medical facts behind HIV and how it can be prevented." [5]

6. Be a Friend: Children Who Live with HIV Speak by Lori ed Weiner

"In these writings and drawings, children with HIV infection and AIDS who have come to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, tell how it feels to be different from other kids, how they face rejection if people learn they are sick, and what it is like to lose friends and loved ones to AIDS. Simple and powerful, the writings and drawings express all the youngsters' hopes and fears." [6]

See one you want to read to the child or children in your life? 

We think this is a great collection of books on HIV and AIDS which discuss the subject from diverse angles in a way that would help a child understand this condition, as well as how to be supportive and non-discriminatory toward people living with HIV or AIDS. 

Here's to a generation free of HIV stigma! Let's all contribute to its making!

amfAR’s GMT Initiative is Combating the Stigma and Discrimination that Fuel HIV Infections among LGBT Worldwide

By: Lucile Scott, amfAR

Since its inception in 2007, amfAR’s GMT Initiative has provided financial and technical support to over 164 community organizations working on the front lines of the epidemic to reduce the spread and impact of HIV among gay men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender individuals (collectively, GMT) in low- and middle-income countries. Worldwide, as treatment access and prevention science improves, stigma and discrimination is often the main barrier to reducing infection rates and improving access to care among GMT. Stigma and discrimination affect every aspect and stage of HIV treatment and prevention, from putting individuals at greater risk of engaging in high-risk behavior that can lead to HIV infection to preventing them from accessing health and testing services to stopping governments from targeting them with HIV treatment and prevention efforts—though they are often one of -- if not the-- most impacted populations in that government’s country.

amfAR launches a new report providing the first-ever
comprehensive analysis of the financing and implementation
of HIV programs for GMT in Southern Africa

The GMT Initiative provides funding and support for localized capacity-strengthening mentoring. This helps grantee partners develop advocacy, outreach, and training programs that target GMT, healthcare providers, governments, and the general population to reduce the stigma and discrimination they face. Many are doing this work in countries where homosexuality is illegal, and HIV rates are high.

Through these programs, our grantees

-train and empower members of the GMT community to perform peer HIV services and advocate for their rights

-train healthcare workers about how to provide GMT with stigma and discrimination-free care

-advocate for governments to overturn discriminatory policies that deny GMT rights, including proper healthcare

-train the governments about how to better reach GMT with HIV messaging once they have removed policy and legal barriers to doing so. 

The organizations also organize campaigns, performances, protests, and more that aim to educate the general population about the GMT community. The GMT Initiative continues to support our partner organizations as they grow and work to formalize and evaluate their programs to improve their impact and to better understand and pass on to others what strategies work most effectively.

In the past year, while our grantees have witnessed many milestones in combating stigma and discrimination, they have also witnessed much backlash to that progress. For instance, in Uganda, advocates recently succeeded in convincing the government to include GMT in their national HIV strategy. However, in December the Parliament passed a law criminalizing “promotion of homosexuality,” forcing those providing GMT with HIV services, including our grantee partner Spectrum Uganda, to—at-the-least temporarily—shut those services down. While that bill has not yet been signed into law by the President, similar bills passed in Nigeria and Russia were. They have also severely and, unless they are repealed, permanently curtailed our grantees’ and other organizations’ ability to do HIV outreach among GMT, reversing years of progress, and wasting millions of dollars in global AIDS funding.

amfAR grantee-partner SOMOSGAY's new
 men's health center during its launch party

But in Armenia, as a similar law was under debate (that has not passed), grantee partner We for Civil Equality worked with doctors, social workers and human rights structures within the Armenian government to create a strong medical referral system to help GMT living with HIV access non-discriminatory care and obtain their life-saving medications. And in Paraguay, our long-time grantee partner SOMOSGAY opened a men’s health center created to cater to the needs of GMT. Three grantee partner organizations in Togo hosted a workshop for members of the media on how to improve their stigmatizing portrayals of GMT. And in Argentina, grantee partner Asociación de Travestis, Transexuales, Transgéneros Argentinas (ATTTA) started shooting a documentary to educate the general population about the discrimination and barriers to equal rights that trans people experience each day.

A film shoot for amfAR grantee-partner ATTTA's documentary
about the fight for trans rights in Argentina  

As Yves Yomb, executive director of Alternatives-Cameroun, told us in July, shortly after a string of attacks against Cameroonian LGBT activists and organizations forced Alternatives to shut down their HIV outreach operations, “We know this revolution will take time, as do all the revolutions in the world.  We don't know if we will see the result, but we hope in 10 or 20 years, people will say the fight for gay rights began in 2005, and thanks to them we have the rights that we have at this moment.”

 And these are just a few of our grantee partners’ stories and successes. To read more about how they confront and combat stigma and discrimination, please read our GMT Initiative blog, Grassroots. 

Orange, Fuzzy, Feisty, and HIV-Positive: Meet Kami

By: Adriana Ganci

Since its premiere on public television in 1969, Sesame Street has been a keystone program in teaching children about diversity and acceptance. The show has historically depicted people of different ethnicities, nationalities, religions and abilities. Sesame Street is, in fact, where many children begin their educational journeys. Big Bird and Elmo are household names. But how many Americans have heard of the Muppet, Kami? Chances are, not many. But everyone should.

Kami is a character who originated on South Africa’s Takalani Sesame in 2002. She has a feisty spirit and loves the outdoors and playing soccer. She is also HIV-positive. In a country where 5.5 million people are living with HIV, the social impact of this issue on children is not one that can be ignored. Because the show is aimed at little tykes aged three-seven, the goal of this programming is not to teach about the importance of protected sex or about the dangers of sharing intravenous needles. The goal, instead, is to portray the life of Kami in a way that resembles the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in South Africa – the life of a child who loves to have fun, the life of a child who lives with HIV, and the life of a child whose parent died as a result of having AIDS. For too long there has been a culture of stigma and silence regarding this globally pervasive issue. Kami seeks to reduce this HIV-related stigma by exposing children to a friendly, likeable, and relatable character from a very young age.

How exactly does Kami work to fight against stigma? She loves playing the train game where everyone holds each other’s shoulders and pretends they are a train. In sharing this game – which, of course, involves physically touching your friends – Kami teaches us that playing games and giving hugs and high fives cannot transfer HIV. Kami also has a memory box that her mother left her before she passed away, filled with happy mementos like pictures of the two of them and her mom’s favorite scarf. Grieving is a very important process for children who lose parents, and Kami teaches us that, while the process is very difficult, evoking happy memories is a very good way to cope. When Kami isn’t singing about keeping the earth clean or kicking a soccer ball around, she is talking with the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Former President Bill Clinton, and thanking them for the work they’ve done for children like herself living with HIV. Both men have told Kami that she is the real hero. Kami’s accolade doesn’t end there – UNICEF also named Kami a “Champion of Children” in 2003. [1]

Kami was created by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind the 45 years of work that Sesame Street has done to acknowledge key critical educational needs in the now 150 countries in which the show airs. [2] Sesame Workshop brings in experts to consult on creative ways to relay these important lessons to children. Projects by Sesame Workshop include an entire array of academic, social and emotional topics: they run the gamut from introducing a Muppet whose father is in prison to airing episodes discussing the importance of improving the education of girls worldwide.

Each project includes extensive post-production research on the actual educational impacts of the programs. Through this research, Sesame Workshop discovered that parents who have seen Kami on television are twice as likely to talk to their children about HIV and AIDS than parents who do not know Kami. Sesame Workshop has also concluded that since the introduction of Kami into the cast, children exposed to Takalani Sesame have demonstrated measurable increases in their knowledge of HIV, de-stigmatization of HIV, and the ability to cope with illness. [3] Due to Kami’s success in South Africa, producers who were creating Nigeria’s Sesame Square decided to also use Kami with the show’s launch in 2010.With nearly 278,000 children in Nigeria living with HIV, there was a need for a character like Kami. Bearing in mind that only about a quarter of Nigerian households have a television, the show’s creators have also created a campaign that extends to radio, cell phones, publications and school materials. [4]

When a person is able to closely identify with something like HIV they are generally able to understand it better. It also makes good sense that we, as humans, are less fearful, and thus less stigmatizing, of things we clearly understand.  Thus, using someone who is vibrant, young, and fun-loving like Kami to introduce the subject of HIV to children of a young age helps to reinforce the idea that those living with HIV are people just like those not living with HIV. Aiming these lessons at children will help South Africa and Nigeria to end the culture of silence and stigma surrounding HIV which, in turn, has the potential to lower the infection rates in those countries. Kami has the potential to help the next generation of South African children become the most accepting generation yet. This is fitting since “Kami” is the Setswana word for “acceptance”.

When Kami joined Takalani Sesame in 2002, some conservative legislators in the U.S. sent a letter to PBS stating that if PBS were to utilize the HIV-positive character in the American show, their funding would be threatened. [5] American children have come to love Muppets who are in wheelchairs, Muppets who are blind, Muppets who are different colors and those that practice different faiths. Hiding the idea of HIV from children will only continue to feed ignorance and fear and encourage stigma towards those living with HIV for years to come. There is no reason that American children would not come to adore Kami, just as others did in South Africa and Nigeria. With a name that literally means “acceptance”, it sounds like it is definitely time to make Kami a household American name.

1.  http://www.unicef.org/media/media_16631.htm

2. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/what-we-do/our-research-model/

3. http://www.sesameworkshop.org/what-we-do/our-research-model/

4. http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/06/sesame.street.nigeria/

5. http://www.queerty.com/could-hiv-muppet-kami-ever-move-into-americas-sesame-street-20100104

For National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day: A Timeline of HIV in American Children

Happy National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, #StigmaWarriors! Today our blog post will be about the history of HIV and HIV-related stigma and discrimination in children and young adults. As you’ll see, the United States has come a long way from the early days of the HIV epidemic, especially when it comes to the care and treatment of children and young adults who are living with HIV. So let’s get started with our history lesson!

1969

The first known case of AIDS in children/young adults in the United States wasn’t discovered to be AIDS until 1987. Robert Rayford, a sixteen year old from St. Louis, Missouri, died of a mysterious illness in 1969 [1], several months after checking himself into the hospital for treatment. When doctors performed an autopsy, they found several abnormalities, and were so baffled by Robert’s illness that they preserved samples of his tissue. In 1987, several years after the HIV epidemic was first identified in the United States, those same doctors tested Robert’s tissue samples, and they came back positive for HIV.

1982

On December 10th, the CDC reported a case of unexplained immunodeficiency [2] (later determined to be HIV) in an infant who had received a blood transfusion. Over the next several weeks, twenty-two more cases of infants [3] who were either living with or had died from unexplained immunodeficiency were reported. Most of the children were diagnosed with immunodeficiency after a blood transfusion or it was found that the condition was transmitted to them through their mother.

1985

Ryan White [4], a hemophiliac who contracted HIV from a blood transfusion, was kicked out of Western Middle School in Kokomo, Indiana, after it was disclosed to school officials that he was living with HIV. After a drawn out court battle, White was allowed to return to school, but his parents decided to withdraw him from Western and enrolled him in Hamilton Heights High School in Cicero, Indiana, where school officials and students welcomed him with open arms after being educated about HIV. This was the first nationally known case of the effects of HIV stigma.

In December, the US Public Health Service released the first recommendations for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission [5].

1987

A federal judge ordered the DeSoto County School Board in Arcadia, Florida, to allow the three HIV-positive Ray brothers (Ricky, Robert, and Randy) to attend school after they were kicked out because the parents of other children did not want children living with HIV to attend the school [6]. The brothers were hemophiliacs and most likely contracted HIV via blood transfusions. After the judge’s decision was handed down, other parents began withdrawing their children from school, and on August 28th the Ray’s home was burned down, prompting them to flee Arcadia [7].

1988

Elizabeth Glaser, wife of Starsky and Hutch star Paul Michael Glaser and a mother living with HIV, founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation (now the Elizabeth Glaser PediatricAIDS Foundation) [7] after their daughter Ariel died of AIDS. At this time there were no approved antiretroviral drugs for children living with HIV, and the Glasers' son Jake was dying of AIDS. Through lobbying, the EGPAF was able to get the FDA to approve antiretroviral treatments for children.

1989

Ryan White spoke before the President’s Commission about the HIV Epidemic about the HIV-related stigma he faced after his diagnosis [8], and emphasized how HIV education helped him be more accepted at his new school in Cicero. As a result, schools across the nation implemented education programs about HIV in health classes.

1990

HIV activist Ryan White died in April at the age of eighteen. Four months later, President George H. W. Bush signed the Ryan White CARE Act [9] into law, which provides government funding for HIV/AIDS research. It has been reauthorized four times, most recently in 2009.

1998

Five years after Ricky Ray’s death, Congress enacted the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act [10], which authorizes payment to hemophiliacs and other people living with blood clotting disorders who were infected with HIV via contaminated blood transfusions between 1982 and 1987.

2002

Twenty years after HIV was confirmed in children, approximately thirteen million children and young people were living with HIV, mostly in Africa [11].

2006

The first National Women’s and Girl’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was commemorated on March 6th.

2013

In March, doctors at the CDC confirmed that a toddler in Mississippi [12] who had been diagnosed with HIV at birth had been “functionally cured” of HIV, leading to hope for a cure in children who were transmitted HIV in utero. One year later, the toddler was still free of HIV.

The first National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day was commemorated on April 10th.

2014

In March, an infant in California was confirmed to be“functionally cured” of HIV [13] after receiving the same treatment as the Mississippi toddler who had been “functionally cured” of HIV one year earlier. The CDC is currently trying to work out clinical trials in order to find a cure for children prenatally exposed to HIV.

The Future

What an amazing timeline! It truly shows how the treatment of people living with HIV, especially children and young adults, has changed. Twenty years ago there were no treatments for children living with HIV, and now there are two toddlers who have been functionally cured of it! Isn’t modern medicine amazing? And now, children living with HIV don’t have to worry about being kicked out of school if their condition is diagnosed. Ryan White and the Ray brothers’ legacy is proof of that.

Who knows what the future holds? What we know it holds is a lot of hope for those living with HIV to potentially find preventative vaccines or even cures. It also holds hope for lives free of HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

Happy National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day!

An Open Letter to Africa's Leaders - Joachim Chissano, former president of Mozambique

H. E. Joaquim Chissano is the former President of Mozambique and current co-chair of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development)

Read the original post in its entirety here, at The Africa Report: http://www.theafricareport.com/Soapbox/an-open-letter-to-africas-leaders-joaquim-chissano-former-president-of-mozambique.html

This is a transformative moment for Africa – and indeed, for the world.

Decision-makers from across the continent, under the able leadership of Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, are finalising a crucial document outlining a common position for Africa on the development agenda that will replace the Millennium Development Goals after 2015.

It is a strategy that has empowered us in many ways. And it means that our voices will be heard when the framework that will guide governments, donors and development partners for years to come is negotiated. So we need to be careful what we ask for.

Since the 1990s, Africa has gained considerable strength in international negotiations by sticking together and forging consensus on important issues.

I urge our leaders to draw from the lessons of the past, but also to heed current realities. And to look ahead to what the future is calling forth – because this new development agenda will affect the lives of millions of our people at a very critical time for Africa.

I encourage leaders to take a strong stand for fundamental human rights, and advance the trajectory for basic freedoms.

This means pushing for three priorities that lie at the heart of sustainable development: the empowerment of women and gender equality; the rights and empowerment of adolescents and youth; and the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people.

These interlinked priorities and their policy implications have been carefully analysed by the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD that I co-chair.

We have found that they represent not only human rights imperatives, but smart, cost-effective investments to foster more equitable, healthy, productive, prosperous and inclusive societies, and a more sustainable world.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights, in particular, are a prerequisite for empowering women and the generations of young people on whom our future depends.

This simply means granting every one the freedom – and the means -- to make informed decisions about very basic aspects of one's life – one's sexuality, health, and if, when and with whom to have relationships, marry or have children – without any form of discrimination, coercion or violence.

This also implies convenient, affordable access to quality information and services and to comprehensive sexuality education.

We can no longer afford to discriminate against people on the basis of age, sex, ethnicity, migrant status, sexual orientation and gender identity, or any other basis – we need to unleash the full potential of everyone.

As an African who has been around a long time, I understand the resistance to these ideas.

But I can also step back and see that the larger course of human history, especially of the past century or so, is one of expanding human rights and freedoms.

African leaders should be at the helm of this, and not hold back. Not at this critical moment.

The international agenda that we will help forge is not just for us here and now, but for the next generations and for the world.

As I think about these issues, I am reminded of the words of our recently departed leader, who gained so much wisdom over the course of his long walk to freedom.

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains," Nelson Mandela reminded us, "but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

Let us live up to his immortal words.

• H. E. Joaquim Chissano is the former President of Mozambique and current co-chair of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development)

Read the original post in its entirety here, at The Africa Report: http://www.theafricareport.com/Soapbox/an-open-letter-to-africas-leaders-joaquim-chissano-former-president-of-mozambique.html

International Day of the Girl

International Day of the Girl encourages us to draw our attention to the inequalities facing young girls across the world. We are called to take a critical look at whether or not girls are given the same opportunities as boys in terms of access to education, financial stability, and sexual empowerment. Here at the Stigma Action Network, we are most concerned with how girls are affected by the HIV epidemic. After examining the data related to this topic, we ultimately found that:

• In sub-Saharan Africa, young women aged 15 to 24 are up to 8 times more likely than young men to be living with HIV.[1]
• Worldwide, young women account for 66% of young people living with HIV.[2]
•  Women living with HIV are more likely to experience violence as result of their status, than men living with HIV.[3]
• Prevalence of first forced sex among adolescent girls is as high as 48% in some countries, which further maintains the HIV epidemic.[4]

While these facts are indeed surprising, the factors that perpetuate them are even more alarming. Three of these most significant factors are outlined below.

• Girls’ Lack of Empowerment: According to global statistics, girls are significantly poorer, less educated, and as a result less financially and socially empowered than their male counterparts. This power imbalance reduces young women’s choices as they negotiate their sexual health and relationships, often giving them little choice in determining if and when to have sex, and in cases of consensual sex, whether that sex is safe. Furthermore, poverty prevents underprivileged girls from receiving adequate health care and education, and as such resources are essential in fighting the HIV epidemic, breaches in these areas may lead to HIV infection.

• Biology: The risk of becoming infected during unprotected sex is two to four times greater for women than for men, and for young girls, the risk can be even higher.[5] This biological disparity gives further evidence as to the importance of educating girls about their sexual health and rights, specifically as they relate to HIV.

• Culture: And lastly, cultural mores may encourage men to have many sexual partners.[6] This is particularly problematic surrounding the issue of child marriage, as such customs can facilitate the spread of HIV to girls in high-risk areas. And given that one-third of the world’s girls are married before they reach the age of 18, such practices can have quite widespread and devastating effects.[7]

As you can see, there are a multitude of socio-economic and biological factors that put girls at a higher risk of HIV. But what is the solution to this problem? And how can we curb these inequalities and give girls the power to take control of their sexual health?

Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF offers up her thoughts:

“Education is crucial to success against the pandemic. 

In fact, UNICEF remains convinced that until an effective remedy is found,

 education is one of the most effective tools for curbing HIV/AIDS”

Luckily, the following organizations are contributing to the fight against HIV by educating girls about the importance of and how to protect themselves by engaging in safe sex! Here are a few #StigmaWarriors who are doing great work with girls on HIV education:

Girls Learn International, Inc

Girls Learn International, Inc. takes a unique approach to girls’ education by partnering American schools with schools in foreign countries where girls do not enjoy the same educational opportunities as boys. This organization functions as an after school program that offers service oriented learning to young girls. Participants in the US chapters learn of the challenges facing girls in their partner schools including child marriage, trafficking, poverty, sexual health, and educational disparities. Money that is raised domestically goes towards purchasing textbooks, teachers' salaries, meals, and transportation in partner schools. Girls Learn International, Inc. has 47 partnerships in the following countries where HIV rates are notably high: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam. Learn more about this organization and how you can help support the education of girls across the world. 

Maasai Girls Education Fund

On the Top 10 list of countries most affected by HIV/AIDS, Kenya comes in at #4. Girls living in poverty have less control over their sexual health, both because of lack of education and because of sexual abuse. "A large, national survey of secondary school girls in Kenya found that 40 per cent of those reporting sexual activity indicated that their first sexual experience was forced or that they were 'cheated into having sex.'"[8] The Maasai are nomadic pastoralists originating from the lower Nile valley with a strong traditional culture that often prevents females from receiving an adequate education. Only 48% of Maasai girls in Kenya enroll in school, and only 5% of those who enroll reach the secondary school level.[9] Such educational disparity can further facilitate the spread of HIV, as girls who remain uneducated are not only unable to make sexually sound decisions, but are also unable decisions that may secure a promising future. The Maasai Girls Education Fund works to combat this, however, by providing a safe environment where girls can receive a quality education. Donations to the Maasai Girls Education Fund go towards buying uniforms, books, and helping to pay tuition. What makes this organization stand out are their community workshops that attempt to reverse cultural beliefs and norms that discourage young girls from enrolling in and committing to school. And as enrollment in school is the best HIV prevention method available to girls (as noted by the World Bank), this organization’s work can surely make a difference.

Commit 2 Change

Young women are the victims of heavy abuse in India as well, in part because they are viewed as the less desirable of the two genders: over 25,000 of adolescent girls are malnourished and suffer from illness and medical neglect [10]. Commit 2 Change is dedicated to supporting female orphans in India by providing them with secondary education, with a particular emphasis on sexual health and HIV/AIDS prevention. Millions of children across the world have become orphaned after losing their parents to HIV/AIDS. Orphaned children are more likely to become impoverished and less likely to be enrolled in school as a result. A study done by UNICEF reveals that "the irony is that orphans are frequently deprived of quality education, which is the very thing they need to help protect themselves from HIV" [11]. India ranks #3 on the Top 10 countries most affected by HIV/AIDS.

The SAN congratulates the above-mentioned organizations (and others around the world!) who are doing great work to educate girls about safe sex and to prevent the spread of HIV among this particularly vulnerable population. However, The Girls Insights report conducted by the International Center for Research on Women found that "girls said they still lack even the most basic knowledge, autonomy and other assets critical for their health and empowerment." This demonstrates that even more must be done if we are to stop the spread of HIV and related stigma!

We hope that more organizations accept the challenge of incorporating sexual education, including education around HIV, into curriculum for young girls and adolescents. Programs must also be developed in a way that empowers girls to use this education to make sound decisions about their own sexual health. Together, with this sort of integrated approach, we can help girls gain control over their lives and futures, and help make a future without HIV a reality.

(Visit UNICEF for more details.)