NAC targets female students

Danisa Masuku
After realising that Bulawayo is an HIV hot spot with female students at a higher risk of contracting the virus, National Aids Council (NAC) began a programme to empower the girl child at school.

According to the 2011 Demographic Health Survey Bulawayoa��s prevalence rate was at 19 percent.

Basing on that statistic, Sinatra Nyathi (ABOVE), the provincial Aids coordinator for Bulawayo province said female students did not have bargaining power before indulging in sex.

a�?We have noted with concern that female students between the ages of 10-24 are five times more likely to be infected with the HIV virus than boys of the same age. This is because female students are more vulnerable to abuse than boys,a�? said Nyathi.

She added:

a�?Some of the sexually active girls fail to negotiate for safer sex and due to that they are at risk of being infected with HIV and Aids.a�?

The empowerment programme is termed DREAMS and it is meant to impart information and life skills to female students specifically.

DREAMS is an acronym for Determined, Resilient, Empowered, Aids free, Mentored and Safe. The programme is now under way in Bulawayo schools.

Of note is that some of the students are from child-headed families and they have no immediate person to turn to for information.

a�?The DREAMS programme will give the students correct and accurate information on family planning and reproductive health that will help them in making informed decisions in their sex lives,a�? said Nyathi.

Reproductive health lessons in two suburbs a�� Makokoba and Cowdray Park have also begun because the two areas have been highlighted as areas with higher prevalence.