Protecting Youth against HIV: Education and Dialogue for Adolescents in Thailand

This article describes a 5-year project through which the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) is facilitating HIV/AIDS and sexuality education for 11- to 18-year-old youth in Thailand. Supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, this effort to prevent HIV transmission and promote responsible sexual behaviours features strategies designed to change how Thai youth access information about sexual and reproductive health and to build public support for dialogue.

As explained here, PATH staff developed a comprehensive 16-hour sexuality education curriculum based on the premise that young people will make good decisions when they have complete and accurate information; it is also tailored to students' needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles. The teacher is a facilitator of a learning process that is participatory and experiential. The project includes supervised extracurricular activities, such as camps that incorporate sexuality education into computer games and drama. In addition, the Teenpath website is designed to serve as an engaging source of sexual health information. It reinforces content from the curriculum and provides a place for peers to talk about the challenges they face.

Working with regional partners, PATH identifies schools interested in implementing the Teenpath curriculum and then trains school administrators and teachers (who then train fellow educators) in both content and methodology. The Teenpath team also works with 10 universities throughout Thailand to teach sexuality-education methods to aspiring teachers. Teenpath encourages collaboration and dialogue between these partners and project sites. For example, the project supports national and regional conferences on sexuality education for young people, experience-sharing workshops and refresher trainings, and online discussion forums. In addition, the project produces an array of informational materials.

To empower youth to educate their peers and model healthy behaviours, Teenpath has held more than 50 camps at which young people make their voices heard using a variety of communication channels, including drama, information technology, and mass media. Campers have developed a social marketing condom campaign, surveyed adult attitudes toward condom sales at secondary schools, and forged networks of youth leaders to encourage advocacy for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

PATH has met with key government ministries to ensure that sexuality education is lastingly integrated into school systems. PATH's advocacy has involved holding regular tours of project sites for policymakers and media representatives. Teenpath also works to build support among parents and communities through outreach activities such as workshops to promote parent-child communication about sexuality and sexual health.

To meet increasing demand for sexual and reproductive health services, Thailand's National Health Security Office has asked PATH to develop a model network for youth-friendly reproductive health services for low-income adolescents, including voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV. Other clinic services will include contraceptive counselling and provision, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections.