Mixed nationality groups live in pairs or fours within the local community, this enables them to get to know it intimately and identify the priorities for action with the support of the head and community leaders. Their job is to represent and promote good health and at the same time bring home the deadly immediacy of AIDS and other killer diseases. Programmes vary in content, due to the issues facing young people differing in each country and local government playing a part in deciding the role of volunteers. Please check individual country pages for more details. SPW Education programmes run in Nepal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Volunteers live and work in rural primary and secondary schools for between seven and nine months.
Programmes last from 8 - 10 months, including up to 4 weeks training. This involves ensuring that essential information is readily available in a youth-friendly form to all pupils. This can be through posters and leaflets displayed in the school, ensuring young people know where the local health post is, where to get condoms and also build awareness on these issues in timetabled lessons. But information is not enough. I think it is so important that students should be educated about safe sex in a time and place where teenage pregnancies are common and the number of deaths caused by AIDS are rising all the time.