Anglican Church of Tanzania - Youth Against AIDS

TANZANIA: Tanzanian Youth Against AIDS
Anglican Church of Tanzania: Health Department & Youth Desk

The program aims to:

- Train peer educators who will be responsible for young people in their dioceses
- Establish youth friendly Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres.
- Train counsellors for VCT centres
- Establish youth resource information centres.

The overall objective is to strengthen the capacity of our Youth to respond to the threat of HIV/AIDS.

So far, this project has been successful in developing teams of youth in many dioceses and opening 3 youth friendly voluntary counselling and testing centres. Youth were educated in understanding HIV. These youth in turn educated their friends and neighbours. Thus understanding better how AIDS is spread, they know how to protect themselves, and they can also be sure when caring for family and friends that they can minimize the risk of contracting the disease. The youth friendly voluntary counselling and testing centres test people for the virus and offer counselling pre and post testing. These VCTs are in Dodoma, Mbeya and Tanga.

This next phase of this project will work with the HIV youth committees in 10 dioceses throughout Tanzania: Central Tanganyika, Mpwapwa, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Southern Highlands, Njombe, Kondoa, Tabora, and Iringa. These HIV committees will be supported to improve their co-ordination, networking and education; and to help them apply for funding from other donor organizations and to set up income generating activities in order to expand their program. It is also planned that these committees will co-operate with people living with AIDS, to create communities of mutual help and to increase awareness-raising among the general population. The current project will also support the ongoing work of the VCTs and ensure that the communities in travelling distance of them know of their existence and the facilities and services they provide. Part of the ongoing challenge of dealing with the HIV pandemic is educating both women and men on the risks and on appropriate behaviour for this age of AIDS. Women are especially vulnerable and must know how to protect themselves. Even more importantly men must understand the vulnerability of women and respect their rights as autonomous people. This kind of gender education is an overall part of this project.

Check out their links:

Anglican Church of Tanzania Health Department

Anglican Church of Tanzania Youth Department