Choose Life: A Guide for Peer Educators and Youth Leaders

This guide was primarily designed for boys and girls aged 10-14 from rural and urban areas of Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique and Rwanda.

This guide is especially geared for peer educators, youth leaders and others working with groups of youth. The guide provides facilitators with games, discussion questions and notes on behavior change. The objective is to enable them to effectively address HIV/AIDS from a values-based perspective. Its 12 modular lessons are progressive, leading participants through the decision-making process that culminates in a commitment to abstinence. Stories run through the curriculum, following the lives of youth and their families dealing with issues such as self-image, peer pressure, temptation, sexual abuse and unwed pregnancy.

The interactive learning sessions in this guide are designed to help create a supportive and positive learning environment. This will allow dialogue about sexual behavior and make group members feel free to ask questions, communicate openly, challenge one another, clarify their values, express concerns, and grow in understanding of relationships with the opposite sex.

Through participatory learning using games, stories and role plays, youth will be encouraged to feel good about who they are, their bodies, their families and their friends. They will then be able to make good decisions, set goals, communicate with parents and friends, care for their bodies and be assertive. These are skills that lower their risk of HIV infection and sexual exploitation. Learning to maintain a healthy lifestyle will protect them throughout their lives.

Source: World Relief

Date of Publication: March 25, 2019