Soso and Violet are teenagers but they hang out with commercial sex workers, migrant laborers and truck drivers -- and talk about sex.
More specifically, they talk about preventing sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.
| Soso and Violet are peer educators in CARE's SHARP initiative. © 2003 CARE. |
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Soso and Violet, aged 14 and 15, are peer educators for the Sexual Health and Rights Promotion initiative (SHARP) -- a CARE HIV/AIDS project that works to implement prevention and care programs in Lesotho and South Africa.
The small landlocked country of Lesotho is totally surrounded by South Africa. It has one of the highest HIV/AIDS-infection rates in Southern Africa. Over a quarter of Lesotho's population travel regularly from rural homes in Lesotho across the border to work in urban areas in South Africa. These high levels of migration have been a major factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially in high-traffic border areas. Lesotho's three major towns are all situated on the border with South Africa.
That's why SHARP is implemented in Lesotho's three border towns of Maseru, Maputsoe and Mafeteng, with counterpart activities in South Africa's Ficksburg and Ladybrand.
CARE targets vulnerable people, such as youth and migrant laborers, traveling through these high-risk, high-traffic areas to promote safer sexual health. Drawing on extensive experience in community-based work, CARE uses peer educators as an extremely effective vehicle to deliver these messages.
| Peer educators meet at community resource centers in major towns on the Lesotho/South Africa border. © 2003 CARE. |
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As 'youth' peer educators, Soso and Violet's job is to educate their age group on HIV/AIDS. Peer educators are nominated for recruitment by their local community committee and then trained by CARE to go out into their community to talk to their peers about sexual health and HIV/AIDS.
Soso and Violet work with peer educators from all parts of the community, including commercial sex workers, migrant laborers, and long-distance drivers. Coming from the local community, peer educators understand the issues and needs of their peers and are able to inform and educate them while being accepted. Peer educators are key in building the capacity of local communities to deal with and manage issues.
In the border town of Maputsoe, the SHARP! community resource center is the only sexual health resource center in the region. It provides information and advice on prevention and care through educational videos and discussions led by peer educators. The center also offers a drop-in counseling and advice clinic where trained counselors meet with more than 300 people per week to distribute condoms or give advice on issues such as rape or partners who are unwilling to use condoms.
