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More
than a quarter of the world’s 40 million HIV-infected people are between
the ages of 15 and 24. Around 700 000 of the new infections that occurred in
2003 were in children less than 15 years of age.
In South Africa, adolescents become sexually active at a young age, with a concurrent
increase in the risk of becoming infected.
Kethuphila is a programme that challenges young people to ‘choose life’,
by educating and empowering them to make responsible life choices. Based on
Ntsomi or Xhosa story telling, the programme uses innovative interactive drama
to reach primary school and preadolescent children. By building self efficacy,
the programme attempts to delay sexual debut.
Five promising and enthusiastic young dramatists have been trained and are employed
to go into the schools and carry out the programme. A professional actor and
nurse/educator supervise and provide feedback after every class room session.
The Centre’s psychologist also gives input to the team.
The pilot phase of the project has shown promising results. In the next phase,
lessons learned will be implemented in a number of under-resourced Cape Town
schools.
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