Sex and Relationship Education
Get your facts right - take the interactive quiz to find out how much you really know about HIV and AIDS.
HIV is increasingly becoming a disease of the young, with children, adolescents and young people accounting for more than half of all new infections. Every day, 8,000 young people are infected with HIV: that's six new infections every minute of every day. Despite this, millions of young people don't know a single way to protect themselves from the disease.
There is no cure for HIV and AIDS, but young people can protect themselves from HIV and AIDS by:
Choosing not to have sex or, if they are in a sexual relationship, by being faithful to their partners and always using condoms.
Choosing not to inject drugs. If young people are injecting drugs, they should always use a clean needle.
Frighteningly, millions of young people still don't know the most basic facts about HIV and prevention. A dramatic example of this comes from Somalia, where a study revealed that only 26 per cent of girls had heard of AIDS and only one per cent knew how to avoid infection.
Adolescents and young people cannot protect themselves if they do not know the facts about HIV transmission and how to prevent it.
Education represents the best opportunity to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS by giving young people crucial information about the disease. UNAIDS studies show that when young people are provided with accurate information on sex and HIV/AIDS, they are more likely to delay sexual activity and more likely to use condoms when they finally have sex.
Education can also stop the ignorance and fear that mean many young people with HIV and AIDS face stigma and discrimination. This is a huge problem for millions of young people living with HIV and AIDS. Fear of discrimination stops young people from getting tested, so they don't the treatment that could keep them alive, and are more likely to pass the disease to other people.
Girls and young women face the biggest threat from HIV and AIDS: they make up 60 per cent of all young people living with HIV. Part of the reason for this is that, in many cultures, women aren't seen as important as men, and don't have the power to refuse sex or demand safe sex. To make matters worse, of the 100 million children currently missing out on a primary education, the majority are girls. This means that millions of girls aren't getting education to give them the knowledge, skills and confidence to assert themselves in relationships. They're also missing out on information that could stop them from passing on HIV to their unborn babies.
Education is the best weapon we have against HIV and AIDS but, tragically, the disease threatens both the supply of and demand for education. Large numbers of teachers have died of AIDS related causes, robbing children of quality education. Meanwhile, with 15 million children already orphaned by the disease, and millions more caring for sick parents, households have less money available for education, and children are likely to drop out of school to care for sick adults or to go to work to help feed their brothers and sisters.
The Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign aims to cut new infections amongst young people by 25 per cent. Improving education about HIV and AIDS is the only way to achieve this aim.