Red SIDA Cusco: Something’s Going On With Teens

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) New York, NY - August 5, 2010 - Bryan, 16, is roaming the streets of Cusco, Peru. But unlike the other 16-year-olds hanging-out in the city’s central plaza, Bryan’s on a mission: to inform his peers about the effects of HIV/AIDS and how to prevent contracting the virus, whose prevalence is growing in this ancient Andean town.  

Bryan is a Mobile Promoter, one of many working with Red SIDA Cusco, a coalition of organizations united to address the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Cusco. As part of this work, Bryan spends time walking through the main gathering places for teens, inviting them to play games targeted at improving knowledge and practices for prevention.    The work of Bryan and his peers is only part of a multi-faceted communications program led by Red SIDA Cusco in partnership with PCI-Media Impact. In addition to the community mobilization efforts, the team has also produced and broadcasted two seasons of a successful radio drama, “Nothing’s Going On,” and accompanying radio magazine shows, which invite dialogue and audience participation about the issues of HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections and unplanned pregnancy prevention.   According to the Ministry of Health, one out of every three people in Peru is between the ages of 13 and 19. In Cusco alone, one in five adolescent mothers has had between two and four pregnancies before her 20th birthday.  Data also shows that in the past few years, adolescent use of contraceptives has not surpassed 2.6%. These young women lack the benefits of information and access to family planning methods and are often also the victims of sexual assault.  A study conducted by Universidad Cyetano Heredia in the Cusco region indicates that 60% of pregnancies in girls between the ages of 11 and 14 are a result of rape or incest.   The project team has also taken the program directly into the community by hosting trainings for teachers and principals at local schools, and workshops for students themselves. Community dialogues and trainings address the root cause of poor sexual and reproductive health among the region’s youth, including access to and use of health services, inter-generational communication and gender and intercultural relations. The program’s messages invite the community to reconsider on how they discuss issues of sexual and reproductive health.    At a teacher workshop, a conversation broke out about whether or not homosexuality has cure, reported one participant. “This created a brief discussion on tolerance, respect, and nondiscrimination,” she said. “This project helps us think about the roles teachers play in the construction of positions for and against controversial themes allowing us to rethink and question our positions and attitudes with a stronger scientific, factual base to defend in front of our students.”   Based on its 25 years of   successfully quantifying responses to its programs, PCI-Media Impact knows the first year of programming brings changes in communication patterns, behavior, and attitudes as a result of listening and exposure to the campaign. Of the adolescents surveyed in Cusco, PCI-Media Impact anticipates 60% will have conversations on sexuality with their father; 73% will speak with their mothers about sex (from the current baseline of 50% fathers/ 63% mothers). The number of adolescents who know how to properly use condoms will double to 34% (the baseline is 17%). Finally, 60% of adolescents will be willing to go to a health center to ask for condoms (the baseline is now 52%). Most youth will listen alone to the programming, though we anticipate 1/5 of them to listen with their families.   “Nothing’s Going On” is part of PCI-Media Impact’s My Community, a series of message-oriented, locally developed pro-social grassroots media programs throughout Latin America. With 25 years of experience in the field, Media Impact has long been at the vanguard of educational media.  My Community represents its latest response to a pressing but often overlooked problem in international development: how to engage low-income communities in open discussions about crucial though sometimes controversial issues.   Each My Community program covers community-specific issues, such as democratic principles, sexual health and rights, reproductive health, and the mismanagement of solid waste. And each program is above all a grassroots soap opera, developed at every stage by members of the communities themselves.   To learn more about PCI-Media Impact go to www.mediaimpact.org.   PCI8275