Lesson for Life is a way of both increasing children's knowledge of HIV and AIDS and activating community and child-led responses to the crisis. Its key strategy is enabling and children's participation: "Young people are at the centre of the epidemic," said one GMC organiser. "They have a right to life-saving information that will help protect them from HIV/AIDS and also have a major role to play in stopping the spread of this devastating epidemic." In both formal and non-formal education settings, the Lesson for Life gives children a leading role in teaching others the facts about HIV/AIDS and in taking action in their communities to mitigate its impact. In an effort to provide a platform for children directly affected by HIV/AIDS to share their experiences, concerns, and ideas, organisers urged the following:

• Organise or join in with a Lesson for Life on World AIDS Day in community venues such as schools, youth centres, parents' associations, sports clubs, or village squares or town centres
• Use the Lesson for Life activity pack, suggested lesson plan, leaflets, posters, t-shirt designs, and other resources - available for free download on the GMC website
• Talk to the co-ordinating organisers in participating countries to find out about other Lessons for Life being set up (click here to view these details).

While Lesson for Life works to strengthen community interaction and communication environments that give a preeminent role to all children in the process of communicating about HIV/AIDS, the programme stresses girls' participation. For example, as part of the 2004 World AIDS Campaign on Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS, Lesson for Life urged activity planners to explore issues such as the impact of sexual violence on infection rates. Each year, in fact, the campaign aims to pick up on a particular theme; the 2005 Lesson for Life will join together with the Global Call to Action against Poverty, an alliance of millions of organisations and people asking leaders to make poverty history in 2005.

Drawing on the free resources available for download each year on the Lesson for Life website, community-based organisers use a wide variety of communication tools in activities each year. To cite just a few examples from the 2004 campaign:

• In Bangladesh, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including BRAC, Plan, and World Vision worked to mobilise over 600,000 children and adults to participate in 2-hour workshops in which facilitators planned to discuss subjects including how HIV/AIDS is spread and how it can be prevented.
• In Honduras, Care, Oxfam, and UNICEF worked with partners to involve mothers and children, religious leaders, and nearly 2,000 institutions, including schools, churches and colleges in such events as 'Football for Life', which was designed to teach footballers how to use sport to spread HIV/AIDS prevention messages.
• In India, Plan and UNICEF are working with children and adults across 11 states, in government schools and with groups of street children. Among other things, debating, 'wall-writing', rallies, quiz-competitions and workshops with school teachers took place on December 1.
• In Vietnam, children from the Hanoi Young Media Club interviewed high-ranking politicians about the effect of HIV/AIDS on children at an event in Hanoi that was broadcast live on national TV on World AIDS Day. Children affected by HIV and AIDS also spoke at the event.
• In Canada, young people on Plan's Youth Advisory Council wrote an opinion/editorial piece for national newspapers and a letter to the Prime Minister and local ministers demanding more action to help young people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The Internet is also used as a central tool to connect children and youth in different cultures. An online Lesson for Life ran from November 15-26 2004 on UNICEF's Voices of Youth website. Young people from around the world exchanged ideas on how all children can be agents of change and help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS. A young participant from Malaysia wrote, "I now believe that the only way to eradicate HIV/AIDS is to stop the prejudice that society has towards people affected by HIV/AIDS".

In addition, as follow-up to the 2004 Lesson for Life activities, children were encouraged to write suggestions and ideas for future action in the form of 'good news stories', reporting retrospectively from the future about improvements made in their countries. These pieces were to be collated and key themes and interesting examples pulled out for special attention. A press release template on the Good News items was then produced by the GMC Secretariat for distribution to the national organisations. These features formed the basis of an optional launch event in late February/March, organised at a national level. Key government officials were encouraged to attend the events to announce the success of Lesson for Life and to disseminate messages from child-created news pieces. GMC suggested arranging for a child to read aloud his or her good news piece alongside an announcement of a government policy change, for example.

Media involvement is a key strategy in disseminating the messages of Lesson for Life. Various materials on the GMC website for communications officers in national coalitions, such as a Covering letter, a national communications strategy, Q&As for interviewees, a press release template, a fact sheet on HIV/AIDS, case studies, and a communications evaluation form.

HIV/AIDS, Children, Girls, Rights.

According to the GMC, almost 3 million children are infected with the HIV virus or are living with AIDS; by 2010, the number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to exceed 25 million. Globally, GMC states, young women and girls can be 2.5 times more likely to be HIV-infected as their male counterparts. Their vulnerability is primarily due to inadequate knowledge about AIDS, insufficient access to HIV prevention services, inability to negotiate safer sex, and a lack of female-controlled HIV prevention methods, such as microbicides.

In 2004, 67 countries from all around the world ran the Lesson for Life; 4.3 million people took part. Organisers anticipate that 15 million people will take part in the 2005 effort.