Ukuthasa

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	Ukuthasa, in partnership with Helderberg Christian Church, GOLD (Generation of Leaders Discovered, is running a life-skills programme in the Helderberg community in the Western Cape and Cato Manor in Durban, South Africa. Ukuthasa was honoured to be the first non-South African charity involved in Peer education in partnership with Local Government at its inception seven years ago. Although the programme execution has suffered many changes through funding setbacks, the Peer Education Programme continues to have a positive effect on the community and achieves life changing results. The Life-skills programme aims to enable young people to make wise choices about education, future goals and careers, community involvement and upliftment as well as life decisions around sexuality and sexual choices. HIV infection rates amongst young South Africans continue to increase so sexual choices can be life-saving or life threatening.

		The programme trains the peer educators (who are elected by their fellow pupils) to mentor their colleagues, advocate for change and act as referral agents so that young people can make the best choices available to them. They learn about HIV infection, how it happens, how it is treated and how to avoid it through workshops, weekend training camps and regular youth and community events. The young people chosen as peer educators remain in the programme for three years. The training is intensive and expensive but research has shown that to impact a teenagers life and effect behaviour change takes a minimum of three years. Increasingly, we are finding that young people leave the programme and opt to do a fourth year working with an NGO delivering peer education, some have then moved on to further training or college whilst others end up facilitating training themselves.
	The programme promotes the view that I can achieve anything if I work hard at my education and plan my life. Nothing is impossible! It involves personal and community awareness and transformation. I can break the cycle of poverty into which I was born.

	The programme covers anything and everything because the young people are encouraged to challenge behaviour and ask questions, learning to respect others as they do so. The learning methods are Peer to peer, experiential, role modelling, workshops, drama, role plays. The young people are expected to have views on any number of issues but examples would be: · Drugs · Crime (from organised to petty) · Smoking · Sex (including when to start and the dangers of sex with multiple partners) · Teen Pregnancy · Abortion · Infanticide · Contraception · Sexually transmitted infections · Family life, how to be a husband/wife/father/mother/son/ daughter.

	Ukuthasa (Cape Town) and Hope2educate (Durban) deliver the GOLD model. Facilitators equip adolescent leaders to influence their peers and younger children by challenging negative and dangerous environmental and community behavioural norms and making use of positive peer pressure which they learn whilst on the programme. The GOLD peer education model was originally designed to be applied within a context where peer educators are identified and selected within secondary schools - building the capacity of community based organisations to train and support school-going peer educators.

	£5,000.00 funds a weekend training camp for 120 teenagers. To get involved, click here.	The model harnesses the influence that young people have with their peers to encourage youth to make informed choices and develop health-enhancing and purpose driven social norms. At the heart of the model is the belief that the message giver is the strongest message. Adolescent peer educators are equipped and supported by skilled facilitators to fulfil the following four roles at varying levels of responsibility for both their peers and younger children. Role-modelling - health-enhancing behaviour; Educating - their peers in a structured manner; Recognition & Referral - youth in need of additional support are identified and referred on to experts; Community upliftment - advocating for resources and services for themselves and their peers; acts of service; raising awareness the issues affecting youth. Peer Educators receive intensive training over three years in a range of issues including: · self-development, · presentation and facilitation, · sexual and reproductive health including HIV/AIDS, · leadership, group work, · community development, communication skills, · project management, research, advocacy and child rights, · mentoring. · The learning methods are Peer to peer, experiential, role modelling, workshops, drama, role plays. The emphasis is on practical experiential learning and skills development and each peer educator has specific practical outputs that they have to meet each year as they progress through the relevant programme. Through these activities large numbers of youth (peers) are effectively reached by the peer educator.