ZIMBABWE: Youth instrumental in future HIV/AIDS decline - UNICEF

Johannesburg, 22 February 2006 (PlusNews) - Further reductions in Zimbabwe's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate depends largely on the greater involvement of the country's youth in the fight against the pandemic, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Formerly a high prevalence country, Zimbabwe recently became the first Southern African nation to report a significant decline in HIV infection, from 24.6 percent in 2003 to 20.1 percent in 2005.

However, UNICEF warned that much of this success could be lost depending on how society chooses to engage its youth - the population group most at risk from the HI virus.

"The recommended involvement of youths comes down to the willingness of communities and guardians to openly discuss the dangers of the pandemic with their children," UNICEF spokesman James Elder told PlusNews.

UNICEF hopes its recently expanded Young People We Care (YPWC) project would help empower the country's youths to take the message of "self-protection" forward.

Commenting on the role of YPWC, Elder said: "It aims to encourage young people to become more involved in the care of people living with and affected by AIDS, while engaging them in activities that will reduce further HIV transmission among their peers and break through existing taboos," Elder noted.

Under the project, some 7,000 young volunteers accompany UNICEF's home-based care facilitators on visits to affected households. While facilitators provide primary care to the ill, youths carry out household chores and dispense psychosocial support to peers who have lost parents to the pandemic.

However, the Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), an NGO working with local youth, says much more still had to be done to target young people.

"Aside from a few dedicated organisations, very little emphasis has been placed on the role of young people as peer educators and proponents of appropriate behaviour change," FACT spokesperson Bertha Mukome told PlusNews.

An epidemiological review 'Evidence for HIV decline in Zimbabwe' released by UNAIDS late last year, concluded that the decline in national prevalence rates was partly due lower rates of new infections among young people.

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[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]