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AFRICA: Turning on to safe sex
Source: PLUSNEWS
2002-07-11

CLICK ON LINK BELOW FOR FULL REPORT Http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=1371 BARCELONA, 9 July (IRIN) - Preventing HIV/AIDS in theory seems simple enough. Provide sexually active young people with information on how the disease is spread, and they will naturally adopt safe sex behaviour. But the reality has proved much more complex. Twenty years after the disease was diagnosed, much ignorance surrounding HIV/AIDS still persists. According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, new studies have established that the vast majority of young people have no idea how HIV/AIDS is transmitted or how to protect themselves from the disease. In South Africa there have been two innovative approaches to that problem. Soul City, a telling it as it is television, radio and print initiative set in the community, and loveLife, a fresh and positive media-driven lifestyle brand. LoveLife's boss David Harrison believes that the lessons have been learned on not only how safe sex messages should be transmitted, but also what they should contain. It needs to be targeted, it needs to be focused, he told PlusNews. The need for a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS awareness is much more than the typical lone billboard in urban centres. It includes youth advisory services, drop-in centres and youth-friendly clinics. LoveLife, he explained, taps into youth culture and lifestyle to make safe sex sexy in a non-didactic manner. It combines a high-powered media campaign (for young people, by young people in a language they understand) with adolescent sexual health services, outreach and support programmes that have won the backing of the South African government and some major donors. While Love life's approach has stirred some controversy in South Africa, a national survey in 2001 found that 62 percent of young South Africans said they had heard of it and 76 percent of those said it had made them more aware of the risks of unprotected sex. But only 30 percent of sexually experienced youth reported using a condom every time they had a sexual experience in the past year.

CLICK ON LINK BELOW FOR FULL REPORT
Http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSReport.ASP?ReportID=1371

BARCELONA, 9 July (IRIN) - Preventing HIV/AIDS in theory seems simple enough. Provide sexually active young people with information on how the disease is spread, and they will naturally adopt safe sex behaviour. 

But the reality has proved much more complex. Twenty years after the disease was diagnosed, much ignorance surrounding HIV/AIDS still persists. According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, new studies have established that the vast majority of young people have no idea how HIV/AIDS is transmitted or how to protect themselves from the disease.

In South Africa there have been two innovative approaches to that problem. Soul City, a telling it as it is television, radio and print initiative set in the community, and loveLife, a fresh and positive media-driven lifestyle brand. 

LoveLife's boss David Harrison believes that the lessons have been learned on not only how safe sex messages should be transmitted, but also what they should contain. It needs to be targeted, it needs to be focused, he told PlusNews. 

The need for a comprehensive approach to HIV/AIDS awareness is much more than the typical lone billboard in urban centres. It includes youth advisory services, drop-in centres and youth-friendly clinics. 

LoveLife, he explained, taps into youth culture and lifestyle to make safe sex sexy in a non-didactic manner. It combines a high-powered media campaign (for young people, by young people in a language they understand) with adolescent sexual health services, outreach and support programmes that have won the backing of the South African government and some major donors.

While Love life's approach has stirred some controversy in South Africa, a national survey in 2001 found that 62 percent of young South Africans said they had heard of it and 76 percent of those said it had made them more aware of the risks of unprotected sex. 

But only 30 percent of sexually experienced youth reported using a condom every time they had a sexual experience in the past year.

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