A comprehensive HIV/AIDS education programme, which is reporting shifts in beliefs and attitudes regarding stigma and discrimination among secondary school students, is setting its sights on expanding not only into the wider community but outside Barbados.
The iN Fo Life initiative, launched by Scotiabank in September 2007 with the Ministry of Education and the Division of Youth Affairs, is stimulating behaviour change, according to the bank’s marketing manager Marcelle Greenidge, and it can be taken further.
Between September and June last year, 18 363 students in 12 schools participated in the programme which delivers its message through drama and dance presentations and discussions.
Key facts about HIV/AIDS and the message of HIV/AIDS safety are provided to students through the programme’s facilitators, brochures, bookmarks, and posters in the schools.
There is also emphasis on helping students understand the nature of discrimination, and how not to practise it.
“Through iN Fo Life we have been able to create awareness about the disease in a direct and real manner, as well as address the issues of stigma and discrimination within a framework that supports our educational system,” Greenidge told the DAILY NATION. (DP)
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