Education

The China children’s summer camp kicked off it’s annual activities this year in Liangshan, an autonomous prefecture in the south of the Chinese province of Sichuan. Sichuan is one of the largest provinces in China, it is also one of the most affected by HIV which is why this camp is so important. The camp brings together children who are living with HIV and runs under the theme “love in the sunshine”. At the camp the children are encouraged to participate in a wide range of activities in an environment they feel safe in, where they won’t be judged and where they will be respected by the other children and staff.

The event was one of a series of activities the Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé was invited to participate in by the First Lady of China as part of UNAIDS and China’s strengthened cooperation and joint commitment for a robust response to HIV both in China and around the world.

One such activity was a visit to the Xichang University. Universities are playing a key role in the response to HIV. Xichang University for example, is encouraging students to actively engage in HIV prevention efforts in the community. During the visit the group, which included the Chinese Vice Minister of Health, joined in Red Ribbon Youth activities and spoke to students about their experiences as HIV prevention volunteers going out into villages to raise awareness of HIV prevention. 

Mr. Sidibé also met with Governor of Sichuan Province Yin Li in Chengdu, who governs over the 80 million strong population who live in the Province. He said that in recent years, HIV prevention and control efforts in Sichuan have made positive progress, a significant step forwards for a province which is home to more people than France or the United Kingdom. He also said that he would like Sichuan to further strengthen its cooperation with UNAIDS to explore more effective ways of stopping HIV and ensuring access to treatment. 

Before arriving in Liangshan, the Executive Director of UNAIDS attended serval important meetings in Beijing including a meeting with the Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan who commended UNAIDS on the robust response to HIV. She said that China stood ready to work together with UNAIDS on HIV prevention and treatment efforts to improve the health and well-being of people around the world.

Mr Sidibé also met with the Chinese National Drug Administration and congratulated the Chinese government for its achievements in drug regulatory reform. China has extensive pharmaceutical production capacity and an important drug regulatory system. He stressed that there are great opportunities for China and Africa cooperation in trade, technology transfer and local production of medicines.

Also in Beijing, Mr. Sidibé joined the community of people living with HIV for a meaningful discussion on the implementation of 90-90-90 in China. He called for more efforts to make HIV testing and immediate treatment become a reality everywhere and to ensure the availability and accessibility of simplified, high quality drug regimens.

The Joint UN team in China is working hand in hand with the Chinese government, partners and communities to achieve "zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related deaths."  On 20 June 2018 the Joint UN team launched its Joint Work Plan on AIDS in China further strengthen efforts to end AIDS in China.

During the Global Partnership for Education meeting on 2 February, hosted by Senegal and France, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé discussed the importance of education and health. “Integrating education and health is key for our success in controlling the epidemic among young people. Without effective, quality and sustainable health and education systems we are failing young people”, Mr Sidibé said. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

The First Lady of Senegal, Marieme Faye Sall, and the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, inaugurate a cardio-paediatric centre that provides surgical treatment for children affected by cardiologic diseases. The centre, funded by the Cuomo Foundation in Monaco, supports women and children in Senegal. Credit: UNAIDS.

Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV is crucial, as is community involvement, stressed Mr Sidibé during his meeting with Ms Sall. The western and central Africa region lags behind in access to treatment and prevention, which is why UNAIDS and partners launched a western and central Africa catch-up plan. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

Mr Sidibé also met with the Minister of Health and Social Action of Senegal, Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, stressing that no matter who you are or where you are from, everyone has the right to health, the right to an education, the right to equal opportunities and the right to thrive. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

The Secretary General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Michaëlle Jean, will raise the issue of counterfeit medicines at the upcoming World Health Assembly in May. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

Minister of International Development of Norway, Nikolai Astrup, and Mr Sidibé met on the sidelines of the meeting. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

Mr Sidibé, along with the Ambassador of Luxembourg, Nicole Bintner. Luxembourg has been an active participant and donor in the western and central Africa catch-up plan. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

Good health enables a girl to thrive, to grow, to think, to explore and to contribute to her community. Knowledge of how to stay healthy and access to quality health services enable her to prevent illness, to eat well, to manage her sexual health, to have healthy babies when and if she chooses to and to nurture her own well-being. Education and health are two of the most transformative elements of a girl’s life. Credit: UNAIDS/B. Deméocq.

A baby abandoned at a health clinic, an abusive boyfriend, dating woes and fake medicines are all plot twists in C’est la Vie (That’s Life), a television series based in, and produced in, Africa. Shot in Senegal, the sitcom takes place in the fictitious Ratanga health clinic, where midwives interact with patients and work on various cases. Their life stories and office politics come into play, adding intrigue, but the overall aim is to raise health awareness through entertainment.

The series, a first in western Africa, was inspired by Mexican pioneer Miguel Sabido—who used telenovelas to promote literacy and family planning—as well as by the educational television series Shuga. Shuga, the MTV English-language series, is now in its six season and has been so successful that it has moved its filming location from Kenya to capture new stories from Nigeria and South Africa.

Réseau Africain d’Education en Santé (RAES), a nongovernmental organization backed by several United Nations agencies and the French Government, founded Keewu, a production company, to launch the show.

RAES founding member and now Keewu producer Alexandre Rideau’s motivation for launching C’est la Vie was to reach millions via television. “The statistics speak for themselves in western Africa,” Mr Rideau said. “Young people are clueless about sexuality, HIV prevention and simple things like menstruation.” He also added that it was obvious from the many questions received that people had real difficulty in accessing information.

The show highlights many of the realities of the region, from high levels of maternal deaths to HIV infection. Four in five children living with HIV in western and central Africa are still not receiving life-saving antiretroviral therapy and AIDS-related deaths among adolescents aged 15–19 years are on the rise in the region, according to a UNAIDS/United Nations Children’s Fund report, Step up the pace. 

In its second season, C’est la Vie has gained in popularity, so much so that actors are being recognized in the street. Mr Rideau recounted that a toll collector in a toll booth in Dakar would not let an actress who plays an unpleasant character in the series go through in her car.

Broadcast in western and central African countries on A+ and TV5 Monde Afrique, as well as local channels, the show reaches about 100 million viewers. Mr Rideau explained that the series may not necessarily change people’s behaviour, but it gets crucial conversations started about health issues. In Senegal and Togo, open debates about the show’s themes take place in town squares following an airing.

Mr Rideau said that he wants to roll the show out in six other countries in 2018. A radio spinoff in the Hausa language is now being distributed in Niger.

PROMO REEL - C'est la vie! - Saison 1 from Keewu Production on Vimeo.

Jimmie Earl Perry, the first UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for South Africa, has died.

A seasoned singer and performer in theatre productions around the world, Mr Perry was notable for his work in using the creative arts to educate audiences. At the Africa Centre of HIV/AIDS Management at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, he staged HIV educational theatre productions that were performed to more than 3 million people in communities and workplaces nationally and internationally.

At the time of his appointment as UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador, Mr Perry said, “If we are to turn this epidemic around, South Africans have to really understand what the virus is, how it is spread, that it is not a death sentence thanks to medical treatment and to put an end to the fear and stigma of living with HIV.”

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, said Mr Perry’s appointment in 2009 came at a critical time for the AIDS response in South Africa, with far-reaching policy changes announced by the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, on World AIDS Day of that year. “I decided to appoint Jimmie Earl Perry as National Goodwill Ambassador because of his capacity to inspire and his willingness to lead and empower others. He had a strong belief in the potential of people to rise above their circumstances and he encouraged the best in everybody he met.”

Mr Sidibé said Mr Perry’s passing was a great loss for the AIDS community. “Jimmie Earl Perry encouraged and inspired my global advocacy and efforts to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. UNAIDS benefited a great deal from our association with Mr Perry, and we are grateful for his service and dedication. I am humbled and privileged to have counted him as my friend and brother,” he said.

Close to 10 years after its first edition, a fully updated International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education published today by UNESCO advocates quality comprehensive sexuality education to promote health and well-being, respect for human rights and gender equality, and empowers children and young people to lead healthy, safe and productive lives.

“Based on the latest scientific evidence, the International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education reaffirms the position of sexuality education within a framework of human rights and gender equality,” says UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “It promotes structured learning about sexuality and relationships in a manner that is positive and centred on the best interest of the young person. By outlining the essential components of effective sexuality education programmes, the Guidance enables national authorities to design comprehensive curricula that will have a positive impact on young people’s health and well-being.”

The Technical Guidance is designed to assist education policy makers in all countries design accurate and age-appropriate curricula for children and young people aged 5 – 18+.

Based on a review of the current status of sexuality education around the world and drawing on best practices in the various regions, the Guidance notably demonstrates that sexuality education:

•  helps young people become more responsible in their attitude and behaviour regarding sexual and reproductive health
• is essential to combat the school dropout of girls due to early or forced marriage, teenage pregnancy and sexual and reproductive health issues
• is necessary because in some parts of the world, two out of three girls reported having no idea of what was happening to them when they began menstruating and pregnancy and childbirth complications are the second cause of death among 15 to 19-year olds
• does not increase sexual activity, sexual risk-taking behaviour, or STI/HIV infection rates. It also presents evidence showing that abstinence-only programmes fail to prevent early sexual initiation, or reduce the frequency of sex and number of partners among the young.

 The publication identifies an urgent need for quality comprehensive sexuality education to:

• provide information and guidance to young people about the transition from childhood to adulthood and the physical, social and emotional challenges they face.
• tackle the challenges posed by sexual and reproductive health issues, which are particularly difficult during puberty, including access to contraception, early pregnancy, gender-based violence, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV and AIDS
• raise awareness of HIV prevention and transmission, of which only 34 per cent of young people around the world can demonstrate accurate knowledge
• complement or counter the large body of material of variable quality that young people find on the internet, and help them face increasingly common instances of cyberbullying.

The Guidance was produced in collaboration with UNAIDS, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN Women, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

During a visit to Paris, UNAIDS Executive Director met with France's First Lady at the Elysée Palace to discuss the links between education and HIV.

Mr Sidibé explained that in sub-Saharan Africa, three in four new HIV infections in 15-19 year olds are among girls. And HIV is the third leading cause of death among young women aged 15-29 globally.

The causes vary but lower access to education along with gender inequalities erode women and girls' ability to negotiate safe sex and have control over their bodies. In addition, most young people lack the knowledge to protect themselves from HIV. In sub-Saharan Africa, surveys from 35 countries showed that only 36% of young men and 30% of young women correctly identified the ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV.

Mr Sidibé stressed that when girls stay in school they are less vulnerable to HIV. He also emphasized that age-appropriate comprehensive sex education for girls and boys is a cornerstone to end the AIDS epidemic. 

Acknowledging Mrs Macron's vast experience in education as a teacher and educator, Mr Sidibé offered support to organize an event on girls’ education on the sidelines of the Dakar financing conference of the Global Partnership for Education in February 2018. Senegal and France are co-hosting the event to raise funds for teachers' trainings and to promote scientific and computer education in schools. 

UNAIDS has invited the First Lady of France at its Geneva headquarters in the coming year and to join the First Ladies of Africa at next year's General Assembly in New York. 

GENEVA, 16 October 2017—UNAIDS warmly welcomes the nomination by the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) of Audrey Azoulay as its new Director-General.

“Audrey Azoulay’s commitment to promote respect for diversity, gender equality and access to education and culture will be invaluable in her new role. They are values we share,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “UNAIDS looks forward to working closely with Ms Azoulay and UNESCO to further strengthen our engagement with the education, scientific and cultural sectors as part of our joint efforts to end AIDS by 2030.”

UNESCO was founded in 1945 with the mission of contributing to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture. UNESCO is one of UNAIDS’ 11 cosponsoring organizations and leads efforts to support countries in scaling up the education sector response to HIV. 

Education is essential to an effective response to HIV and contributes to fostering economic growth, reducing poverty and improving general health. Education has the capacity to transform lives and enable people to thrive in their environment, take healthy decisions and build a more just, inclusive, safe and sustainable world. The role of the education sector includes providing the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that can contribute to safer behaviours, eliminate stigma and discrimination, seek treatment and enable them to stay healthy and free from HIV.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé met with students and staff during a visit to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, United States of America, on 15 September.

During an open dialogue in the school’s Sheldon Hall, Mr Sidibé and the Dean of the school, Michael Klag, joined with students, faculty, researchers, global health leaders and alumni to discuss global health, systems for health, leaving no one behind and social justice. Mr Sidibé expressed his concerns about the fragmented global health system and introduced his vision of systems for health that engage all relevant constituencies, including civil society, governments and scientists, and a global health financing institution that goes beyond HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. In addition, he said, there is an urgent need for an instrument for global health advocacy and accountability. 

The visit also saw Mr Sidibé meet with a group of Sommer Scholars to discuss their future contributions to global public health and with members of the Johns Hopkins University Center for AIDS Research.