STF works with and for adolescents in an attempt to keep them safe from STIs and unwanted pregnancies by producing behavioural change communication (BCC) materials for them, as well as for the adults in their lives. Information is communicated through print communication, radio programmes, and outreach and training.

Specifically, STF's age-appropriate, adolescent-driven newspapers are sent to schools and further distributed by CBOs, NGOs and churches; they are also inserted into the local newspaper, The New Vision. The magazines focus on information about sexual and reproductive health and often contain articles written for youth, by youth. They are published in some local languages to reach as wide an audience as possible. These newspapers include:

• Young Talk: designed for adolescents, aged 10-14, in primary school. The print run is 430,000 copies per month with 10 issues a year. Key topics include changes at puberty, children's rights and responsibilities, life skills, general body health, hygiene and age appropriate sexual health information. Young Talk advocates abstinence (readers who say they are sexually active are advised to reconsider what they are doing); however, information is given about condoms when children request it. Primary school teachers are encouraged to use Young Talk as a teaching tool in the classroom.
• Straight Talk: designed for secondary school adolescents and youth aged 15-24. The print run is 260,000 copies per month with 10 issues a year. Straight Talk advocates safer sex, including abstinence, non-penetrative sex and condom use. The paper has a counselling page where a group of adolescent-friendly counsellors and doctors advise readers.
• Local language publications: carry messages aimed at out-of-school youth that include the use of condoms, seeking STI treatment, and prevention of early pregnancy. There are 5 publications, each in a different language, that are published twice a year.

The radio component of STF's work consists of a weekly, 30-minute "edutainment" radio programme that is for and by young people. Launched in May 1999, the show is broadcast in 11 languages on 29 FM stations strategically located in different parts of the country. To produce the show, STF's radio team travels all over the country, interviewing adolescents (in places ranging from schools to markets, homes to streets) and recording their views on different issues. The team also carries out focus group discussions (FGDs) and post-tests in order to seek listeners' input. Scriptwriting and studio production take place at the STF premises. Featuring music, the shows are hosted by youthful radio journalists. A doctor, counsellor, parent/teacher is featured on every programme to give advice. Once a month, a programme is dedicated to listeners' questions (questions that are not run on air are answered through the mail). Topics include: condoms, sugar daddies, menstruation, HIV testing, STI prevention and treatment, relationships, alcohol abuse, and other issues that are raised by adolescents through their letters. A weekly competition quiz is held; prizes include radios, bicycles, clocks, calculators, torches, flasks, T-shirts and stickers. These programmes are used to reach in- and out-of-school adolescents - especially those who cannot reach or who have no access to Straight Talk newspapers - with Straight Talk messages.

STF's outreach and training programme (OTP) involves face-to-face communication, which complements the newspapers and radio programmes. It aims to create a supportive environment for young people by reaching out to parents, teachers, and adolescents themselves. OTP includes the following components:

• Primary teacher sensitisation programme addresses primary schools teachers all over Uganda through sensitisation workshops on adolescent sexual reproductive health (ASRH). Life skills education and guidance and counselling are also involved. Since 2001, OTP has worked with almost 10,000 teachers in 3,500 primary schools in 14 districts.
• Secondary teachers training programme trains secondary school teachers to identify challenges facing their students and aims to give them the skills to help young people with ASRH problems.
• Clubs are considered an important source of support for peers in and out of school to provide guidance, counselling and life skills education. Initiated by adolescents themselves to discuss further the messages of safer sex with their peers, the clubs are led by elected leaders who work as a team in a committee. STF supports these initiatives through training of trainers and supports visits by development and health workers, as part of the organisation's effort to sustain the radio and newspaper messages in schools and communities. According to STF, by the end of 2005, there were over 800 clubs all over Uganda.
• Students' training programme conducts 4-day training workshops in peer education and club management for secondary school students. It aims to give peers correct knowledge on their reproductive health, change their attitude towards their sexuality and build skills that enable them to relate positively to their fellow peers as they support each other in behaviour change.
• Health fairs enable young people who are out of school to come together to a one-stop shop, where they can freely access adolescent friendly services like counselling and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT).
• Parent talk dialogues aim to help parents communicate around issues affecting adolescents comfortably and effectively, as well as to understand their own sexuality and relationships (for example, dialogues held in 2005 were designed to help couples from Kampala disclose their HIV status to their partners. According to STF, these dialogues brought out pertinent issues on discordance and how to handle it in a family. The idea is that the children in turn also benefit, as knowledge of the sero-status of their parents can help influence their own choices and behaviour).

Youth, Family Planning, Health, HIV/AIDS.

STF originated out of the youth-run "Straight Talk" newspaper that was first published in 1993 with funding from UNICEF. With a focus on sexual health and HIV/AIDS issues, the newspaper was launched to increase discussion and debate about sexual health issues between young people through their own forum, in a language to which they could relate. (Organisers say that previous projects implemented in Uganda - a place with great challenges but also very open approaches to dealing with these problems - failed to reach their intended audiences because the language used was not one which youth could relate to; messages were not well received.) In its early years, this paper was published 4 times per year, and included: an editorial page, pages of letters for young people requesting information and comments, cartoons, crosswords, competitions on other youth themes, news articles on recent health issues including statistics, programming interventions and comments on new stories.

According to an impact assessment survey conducted in 2005, out of the 2,137 adolescents interviewed:

• 55% had ever listened to the Straight Talk radio show; of these 42% listened regularly.
• 38% had ever read the Straight Talk newspaper; 48% had ever read Youth Talk .
• 60% said they had leaned about abstinence, 33% had learned about delaying sex, 30% had learned about prevention of HIV, and 11% had learned about staying in school from the papers.
• 60% had taken action as a result of exposure to different STF materials; frequently mentioned actions were: continued to abstain (70%), stopped having pre-marital sex (18%), talked with friends (15%), started using condoms (10%).
• Three-quarters of the adolescents who had not yet had sex reported that it was because of what they read from Straight Talk materials.