In the Diocese of Pretoria, under Tumelong and Anglican Aids and Health care Trust, we are running as youth peer educators programme called Siyafundisa ( Teaching our children), it is a HIV prevention programme focusing on teaching the youth about Abstinence and being faithful by offering them Peer Education and Life Skills programme. The main aim is to encourage the youth to abstain from sexual activities until they are married.
One of the exercises we give to young people during our workshops is for them to discuss and give percentages to risky behaviours that young people engage in. The shocking statistics are that unprotected sex, pregnancy and abortion always top the list by between 80%, 90% and 95% this is worrying it means we still have a long way to go in changing young people attitudes and behaviours.
Many young people find it hard to talk about sensitive topics with their Parents so they get information and advices from friends, school mates, TV and etc. So what Peer Education does is to take a group of suitable young people from the age of 10-13, 14-18, 19-24 and train them so that they can pass the correct information to other young people on the following topics: Sexuality, Gender, The advantages of abstinence, Consequences of sexual activity, HIV and AIDS.
So far, Soyafindisa have reached 3489 with messages of abstinence.