Enhancing Sexual and Reproductive Health Information of Adolescents as a Panacea to Curb HIV and AIDS in Nigeria
Patrick Ajibade · Journal of Human Ecology · 2015
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the information available to adolescents concerning sexual health, existing approaches need to be assessed to determine their efficacy as a means of reducing the vulnerabilityand exposure of adolescents to HIV and AIDS. This paper takes the form of a case study and makes use of PeerEducation Training (PET) as an intuitive and innovative approach to enable adolescents to make informed sexualdecisions to reduce the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in Africa. The data was gathered by observing the behavior ofparticipants in Peer Education Training, as sharing information among peers within a single demographic grouphas been found to provide an effective way of encouraging communities to participate in and own their campaignsagainst the spread of HIV and AIDS. On the basis of the findings, the wide adoption of peer education campaignswithin individual ecosystems is suggested as an effective means of mitigating the spread of sexually-transmittedinfections, HIV and AIDS. Cultural and academic institutions could play a vital role in the designing and use of peereducation information programs, and media-centered peer education can provide an effective means of transmittinginformation, which may be further enhanced through the use of gaming techniques.