Development Issues: HIV/AIDS, Youth, Technology.

Programme Summary

Launched in 1998, the AIDSWEB project is an effort on the part of the World Bank Institute's ICT for Education programme (formerly the World Links for Development Program) to offer secondary-school students training and access to technology, accurate information about HIV/AIDS, and guidance in initiating and sustaining action to combat the disease through national and cross-national partnerships. The project, which addresses 13- to 18-year olds in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, the USA, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, is designed to complement existing Ministry of Education and NGO HIV/AIDS education prevention campaigns.

Summary of ICT Initiatives

Many of AIDSWEB's educational and peer-based activities involve use of ICTs. Once signed up to participate, each student and teacher fills out an online introductory questionnaire, which is also used by the project facilitator - a reproductive health consultant - as a pre-test. Then participants work through five online educational goal activities (i.e., Cultural Exchange, Basic Facts of HIV/AIDS, the Importance of HIV/AIDS, the Challenge of HIV Prevention, and Social Action) that allow them to explore myths and misunderstandings, conduct research, and discuss how they can prevent HIV in their own lives and communities

Community action is encouraged through the Social Action component of the programme. Students are guided in developing an HIV/AIDS action plan, which might include working with Parent-Teacher Associations, establishing income-generating projects for peers, and inviting testimonies from people living with HIV/AIDS.

The project also works to increase the quantity and quality of HIV/AIDS educational materials in schools. A CD-ROM with HIV/AIDS-related information drawn from existing online material was produced for schools with slow or no Internet connections. In addition, efforts have been made to help adapt locally produced print-based HIV/AIDS educational material for electronic dissemination via CD-ROM and the AIDSWEB site. Training materials designed to integrate computer and Internet literacy training material with HIV/AIDS examples were delivered by ICT for Education-trained teachers to HIV/AIDS-oriented NGOs and peer educators accessing the school-based telecentres in the after-school hours.

AIDSWEB works to enhance links between schools and community NGOS working on HIV/AIDS, and to help students make communication-based connections for future action. For example, a partnership with a Zimbabwean NGO called the Training and Research Support Center (TARSC) has made available an adolescent reproductive health activity pack, "Auntie Stella" which features 30 question and answer cards based on the letters sent to magazines and radio helplines. In addition, teachers and students at West African Secondary School in Ghana have linked up with AIDS Action Ghana, a national NGO, to train peer educators.

The programme finds ways to send teachers, students, and others to relevant conferences. For instance, 30 teachers, NGO, and government project participants attended an HIV/AIDS Materials Review Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa, in July 2001. AIDSWEB also hosts its own conferences. In October 2002, an international workshop was held to explore the role of ICT in HIV/AIDS prevention activities. Follow-up activities, like development of pilot projects for online counselling, are taking place at the local level.

Observations

Three-quarters of the 400 ICT for Education Program Internet Learning Centers in Africa are located outside of capital cities. In order to continue to serve rural youth, new technologies such as mobile van telecentres and the use of satellite technology for connecting rural schools with high-speed Internet connectivity are being pilot-tested. Teachers who have participated in the project report that it has raised awareness of HIV/AIDS issues among their students, enhanced research skills, helped the integration of HIV/AIDS education into school curricula, and helped emphasise the role of the teacher as a facilitator. AIDSWEB currently serves approximately 500 youth in 70 schools in 8 African countries.

An independently administered survey and a series of interviews in 2002 culminated in a evaluation that noted that[1]:

• Access had improved, though more so for boys - Students who were not in the programme were almost 6 times more likely to have less than 1 hour of computer access in the previous month. In the intervention group, 51% reported having more than 4 hours of computer access in the previous month compared to 23% in the control group. AIDSWEB enabled computer and Internet access for a greater percentage of boys than girls. 2% of the boys in AIDSWEB schools had no access to the computer, as compared to 30% of boys in non-participant schools. 11% of girls in the AIDSWEB programme had no computer access, as compared to 38% of girls in non-participant schools.
• Positive Knowledge shifts occurred - AIDSWEB students were almost twice as likely to correctly identify all 4 methods of AIDS prevention and transmission. These results were consistent across most countries.
• Community practices improved - 63% in the control group and 85% of the intervention group responded that they helped their communities by sharing information about HIV/AIDS with family, friends, and/or health workers about HIV/AIDS; volunteering with local organisations or health clinics/hospitals; or developing a social action plan. AIDSWEB students were more than twice as likely to develop social action plans.

Partners: ICT for Education (part of the World Bank Institute), World Links, iEARN, Schools Online, Education Development Center, Knowledge Economy (part of the World Bank), SchoolNet Uganda, The United Negro College Fund's Specials Projects programme, US Department of State's Bureau of Educational Cultural Affairs. AIDSWEB involves schools in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe; Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, the US, and Zambia. Microsoft contributed software to participating countries/schools.

Source: Letters sent from Anthony Bloome to The Communication Initiative on June 18, 2002 and February 26, 2003; and posting "AIDSWEB: HIV/AIDS and ICT Project Update (Winter 2003): ICT for Education Program World Bank Institute Human Development Division (WBIHD)" by Anthony Bloome to the Global Knowledge Development list server on February 20, 2003. And the AIDSWEB site.

For More Information Contact:

Anthony Bloome

AIDSWEB Project Coordinator

ICT for Education Program, WBIHD

Tel.: (202) 473-2282

abloome@worldbank.org

1. "Evaluation Report of WBIHD's ICT for Education AIDSWEB Project" (prepared by ENCOMPASS LLC,November 23, 2002), forwarded by Anthony Bloome to The Communication Initiative on February 24, 2003; and"AIDSWEB: HIV/AIDS and ICT Project Update (Winter 2003): ICT for Education Program World Bank InstituteHuman Development Division (WBIHD)", posted by Anthony Bloome to the Global Knowledge Development listserver on February 20, 2003.

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