By Beth Larsen | Project Leader
Health Development Initiative (HDI) has been working hard this year to expand our support for Anti-AIDS clubs in secondary schools. As you know, our sexual health and reproduction education (SHARE) program works with the Anti-AIDS clubs to lead students in discussions about sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, family planning, and other sexual health topics. SHARE also provides the Anti-AIDS clubs with funding to hold awareness events like debates, theater performances, creative writing competitions, etc.
This year, we introduced a new aspect to our program—SHARE facilitators. SHARE facilitators are Rwandan university students that HDI has trained on sexual and reproductive health as well as discussion-based teaching methods. The facilitators help HDI to support the Anti-AIDS clubs by visiting the clubs weekly, presenting information on a range of reproductive health topics, answering questions, providing educational materials, and assisting in club activities. Previously, HDI staff would visit the schools after work in their spare time, but this was difficult to manage for people who already had full work schedules. The addition of SHARE facilitators allows the program to function more efficiently and give more consistent, organized support to the schools.
In January, we spent a week training 6 new SHARE facilitators. We gave them an overview of HDI and the SHARE program, including our goals for the program’s future. The facilitators were encouraged to explore different teaching styles through debates, discussions, and presentations. We then gave them directions for contacting the schools and all of the tools they would need for their visits. These tools included: a question box for students to submit anonymous questions, the quarterly SHARE newsletter, and a variety of monitoring and evaluation tools.
Thanks to the generous support of our donors, SHARE is stronger than ever and will continue growing throughout the year. The school visits have been successful thus far. Each school has been visited at least twice this month, administrative officials have been notified of the SHARE facilitator addition to the program, and Anti-AIDS clubs have been hard at work preparing their plans for the year. Students are excited and eager to host awareness events. We already received a budget proposal for an event that will take place the second week in March!
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