Junior High School students recruited for HIV/AIDS campaign

Kpetoe, Feb. 7, GNA - A total of 140 students selected from Junior High Schools in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District have ended a five-day residential training workshop on HIV/AIDS at Kpetoe. The workshop prepared the students to become peer educators on HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). It was organised by the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) under the Teachers Agents of Dissemination (TAD) project of the Ghana Education Service. ,

It also sought to catch the students young and ingrain the protective mentality in them.

Ms Valeria Akuffo, Coordinator of the workshop, told the GNA the workshop prepared the students to become confident in disseminating HIV/AIDS messages effectively without inhibition. She said the students' confidence level had gone up and expressed the hope that they would be able to influence their peers positively. Ms Akuffo said the students would be expected to form health clubs in their various schools and organize related activities to be monitored by SHEP coordinators.

Master Bernard Tetevi, a JHS two student of Kpetoe Beh, a participant described the workshop as educative and entertaining. He said he had acquired more knowledge on HIV/AIDS and had made few more friends.

They were taken through topics including: basic facts on HIV/AIDS and STDs, assertive role-play, negotiation and communication skills, adolescents' growth and development among others.