Youth HIV/AIDS Prevention

• Overview
• Objectives
• Activities
• Outputs
• Impact
• Unique Features
• Future Plans
  

Overview

This 24-hour telephone service for youth is provided in partnership with Youth Empowerment Foundation (YEF), a Lagos-based NGO that originally established the hotline in February 2001. The hotline provides HIV/AIDS information and referral and counseling services. The role of JHU/PCS is to assist YEF to build its capacity through staff training on HIV/AIDS information and counseling skills. JHU/PCS is also helping to include other local youth serving NGOs and institutions in the capacity-building process. The hotline service is supplemented by mass media advertising and distribution of print materials addressing HIV/AIDS prevention and risk reduction. Young men and women, 15 to 24 years old living in the Lagos metropolitan area are the target audience.

Objectives

• Increase awareness of HIV/AIDS risks and reduction of infections among young people by providing them with sources of credible and accurate information and referral for services.
• Build local institutional capacity (e.g., by improving the counseling skills of staff at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital -LUTH- Medical Social Services Department).
• Create partnerships with government entities, such as the Lagos State HIV/AIDS Foundation, to improve access of young people in government institutions to information and referral sources.
• Encourage open and frank discussion of HIV/AIDS among youth.
  

Activities

• Training hotline counselors.
• To promote the hotline and publicize the availability of 24-hour confidential counseling services, JHU/PCS launched a mass media campaign with the theme "Knowledge is Power" in November 2001. The campaign included radio and TV spots and print advertisements (newspaper advertising, billboards, and posters).

Lessons Learned from AIDS Telephone Hotline Training in Africa (1.5 MB)

Outputs

• Trained 22 HIV/AIDS hotline counselors.
• Trained 12 TOT hotline counselors.
• Produced one TV spot: "Knowledge is Power."
• Produced one radio spot.
• Produced and distributed IEC materials (billboards, posters, cards).

Impact

• Increasing number of calls to hotline.
• Strengthened capacity of Youth Serving Organizations.
• Strengthened capacity of the LUTH Medical Social Services Department.

Unique Features

This is the first HIV/AIDS hotline in Nigeria. In addition, this is the first time that efforts have been made to provide accurate and comprehensive information about HIV/AIDS to youth who prefer anonymity and confidentiality in the way they receive health education. Also, the youth HIV/AIDS hotline provides, through its volunteer counselors, a list of youth-friendly and youth-oriented organizations for referrals ranging from face-to-face counseling to voluntary counseling and testing.

Future Plans

• Work with private companies on removing or reducing the cost barriers through cost-sharing and cost-reduction strategies.
• Conduct community outreach activities in churches, schools, and youth clubs.
• Recruit a full-time hotline supervisor and counselor staff.
• Train additional volunteer counselors and peer educators.
• Continue monitoring and evaluation.