Guidelines for a Peer Educator Programme for HIV/AIDS: A Social Work Perspective

Abstract

As the HIV/AIDS epidemic and sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) continue to advance worldwide, we are learning more about how they affect individuals, households, families, communities, organisations and nations. The loss of lives has been enormous, particularly in those countries and regions affected early on. This epidemic also affects teenagers. Never before have health workers and caregivers faced a situation like the one created by IDV/AIDS. mv is already a widespread disease in South Africa. Two in every five people between the ages of 20 and 30 years have already been infected and the infection rate increases daily. In order to address this problem, a peer education programme already existing and effective in the United States of America and sixteen other developing countries, was tested to investigate its effectiveness also in South Africa.