*EPF407 07/03/2003
Education Is Key to Stopping the HIV/AIDS Virus
(Gene Sperling addresses Global Health Council) (940)

By Jamie Martin
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- "If we can educate children, specifically girls, we can defeat the HIV/AIDS virus," Gene Sperling, former Economic Advisor to President Clinton, stressed June 23.

Sperling spoke at a Global Health Council media briefing entitled "HIV/AIDS: More Than Just a Health Issue," where he discussed how the disease impacts different sectors of African communities. He noted that education, in particular the education of children, could be the key to solving the AIDS pandemic.

"AIDS and education is a paradox. ... HIV/AIDS is an enemy of education because it kills teachers and leaves children orphaned, yet education is perhaps the number one social vaccine against the spread of HIV/AIDS," Sperling told his audience.

According to the Basic Education Coalition (BEC), an estimated 860,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa lost teachers to HIV/AIDS in 1999. Additionally, students are forced to leave school when their parents fall ill and die of HIV/AIDS because the family burdens shift to the children. The BEC states: "Students -- particularly girls -- leave school to take on adult responsibilities, such as earning money, procuring food, and caring for the ill."

Although HIV/AIDS is devastating the education sector in Africa by claiming both teachers and students, Sperling said, "We must get children in school. Schools are essential to HIV/AIDS prevention because they provide the best way to reach the next generation of Africans with the information and motivation to change behavior, and ultimately stop the spread of HIV/AIDS."

Sperling emphasized the importance of educating teenage girls, because they are five times more likely than teenage boys to contract the HIV/AIDS virus in Africa. "Getting girls into the classroom may be the most cost-effective first step to HIV/AIDS prevention available," he said.

Sperling said more than half of all African girls aged 6 to 11 are not in school, and as few as 10 percent of those girls finish a primary education in many parts of rural Africa.

Sperling, along with the Academy for Educational Development (AED), a nonprofit organization committed to solving education problems in the United States and throughout the world, has several intervention strategies to bring more African girls to school. Moving schools closer to the community, bringing in more female teachers, talking to leaders about cultural traditions and myths that have kept girls out of school, and eliminating school fees, Sperling and AED believe, can break down the barriers that keep girls out of school.

"Parents have to make a cost benefit analysis," Sperling said. "If you make schools closer and eliminate fees, then the other reasons for keeping girls out of school seem to break down."

In addition to educating girls, Sperling emphasized specific methods for teaching children about HIV/AIDS. "Education," he said, "has to be interactive. Telling children about the disease helps somewhat, but actually doing role-playing, helping children with sex refusal skills, and educating them on who is most likely to carry the disease will help them in real-life situations."

Nonprofit groups from the United States are currently helping to institute these interactive teaching methods in African schools in hopes of fostering greater prevention. In particular, World Camp for Kids (WCK), a non-profit organization operated by college students and recent college graduates, finds that children develop a realistic appreciation of the disease when real-life examples are used in teaching HIV/AIDS prevention.

Baker Henson, co-founder of the non-profit organization started in 2000, explained in an interview with the Washington File that while teaching each component of HIV/AIDS, the counselors use interactive examples to teach the children.

"We teach the children how to identify people with HIV/AIDS by having them draw pictures of what they think a person with HIV/AIDS looks like. They always draw a fat person with no HIV and a skinny person with HIV. We teach them that this is incorrect and that the only way to tell if someone has HIV is through a blood test. ... It is very hard for children to understand that a person with HIV can look completely healthy -- that they can be fat or skinny. We try to clear up all their misconceptions in the easiest way for them to understand."

Children love playing games, and the WCK counselors are no strangers to this fact, using them whenever possible. Counselor Ashley Bizzell recalled, "At the end of the two-day camp, we play a review board game and the children love it because there are prizes. It's great for us [the counselors] because we get to clear up any questions or misconceptions they still have."

In addition to games, the counselors use other fun real-life exercises to teach the children, such as how to use condoms by using bananas. "A normally awkward lesson for children is lightened using this technique," Bizzell said.

WCK works to improve the lives of impoverished children throughout the world. This year their goal is the children of Africa, specifically Malawi. That program visits 40 rural bush schools, regions that normally go untouched by HIV/AIDS education programs.

In closing, Jesse Pipes, WCK's other co-founder, told the Washington File that "We teach children the truth about HIV/AIDS. ... We eliminate the misconceptions, we teach them how they can contract the disease and how easily it spreads, and most importantly, we teach them prevention. ... Our hope is that these camps will empower the children to teach others about HIV/AIDS. We realize that they are the hope of Africa when it comes to HIV/AIDS prevention."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Return to Public File Main Page

Return to Public Table of Contents