Project Summary

Home

What We Do

Health Programmes

HIV/AIDS

Preventing HIV/AIDS Among Young People in Bangladesh

Project Summary

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) is an independent public-private partnership mechanism working to increase funding to fight these three diseases in countries with the greatest need, and to contribute to poverty reduction as part of the Millennium Development Goals. In an attempt to avert the epidemic, the National AIDS/STD Program of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has received a grant from GFATM for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among youth and adolescents in Bangladesh. Funded over five years in two phases, the project will support the 2005 UNGASS goal of ‘ensuring that young people have the knowledge, skills and services that they need to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS’, thus contributing to maintaining the current levels of HIV infection to combat the disease. Save the Children USA, as the managing agency, has selected five lead organizations along with 12 others associate organizations from a wide range of NGO, private sector and research organizations to implement the project at the field level.

Goal. To prevent HIV infections in young people, ages 10-24, and thereby help avert a generalized HIV epidemic in Bangladesh.

The project goal will link with that of the National AIDS/STD Program of Bangladesh (NASP) to ’control the spread of HIV infection within vulnerable populations and to limit its spread to the general population, without stigmatizing the vulnerable populations’.

Objectives

To provide HIV prevention information, skills and services to young people.
To collect data necessary for informing the development of national policy and programs for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among young people aged 10 to 24.

Strategies for implementation

Behavioural change communications (BCC) activities to promote awareness and sensitization about HIV and safe sexual behaviour among young people
Improvement of health services to render them more youth friendly for counselling and treatment of sexually transmitted infections
Life skills education, outreach activities and peer education to promote safer sexual behaviour and encourage more openness to seeking counselling and treatment
Advocacy with gatekeepers to create an enabling environment for youth to adopt safe behaviour Generate evidence base data/information to give a strategic direction for interventions
These will also link with related issues and activities including prevention of drug use, sexual violence, trafficking and efforts to reduce gender disparities.

Action for prevention

A broad set of activities linked to the objectives will be initiated nationwide through:
HIV prevention information to young people through mass and print media
Life skills education through youth organizations, movements and clubs
Integration of HIV prevention information into secondary schools and higher secondary curriculum Making health services youth friendly
Improving condom access through social marketing
Advocacy and sensitization with gatekeepers – religious and community leaders, policy makers and parents
Baseline surveys and evaluation surveys
In-depth studies on sexual practices and attitudes of young people

By 2009

By the end of the five-year period, these activities will yield the following results for youth and adolescents:

80% will have knowledge about HIV/AIDS and how to protect themselves from infection
60% will be able to get access to STI services
50% will be able to access condom as and when needed
Policy Issues: there will be improved commitment and support from policy makers, religious and community leaders, parents and teachers for programmes to prevent young people getting infected with HIV
Evidence Based Programming: the impact of advocacy efforts and programmes will be strengthened by the collection and use of relevant data on HIV/STI and risk behaviour among young people