Every child in our community is affected by HIV/AIDS.

A vast majority of the 24,000 children enrolled in our Life Skills program in township schools can be classified as orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Orphans and vulnerable youth are themselves at high risk for HIV infection. Life skills health education in South Africa has proven to be an effective means of helping vulnerable youth develop skills to reduce HIV risk. Over the past 4 years, Ubuntu's Mpilo-Lwazi health educators have provided the only regular access to life skills health education for 24,000 children in the townships of Port Elizabeth.

Mpilo-Lwazi health educators are based in 24 township schools providing life skills classes to on a bi-weekly basis. Classes focus on the development of knowledge, attitudes, values and life skills needed to make and act on the most appropriate and positive health-related decisions. Mpilo-Lwazi health educators use creative, interactive techniques to cover topics, such as the rights of the child, abuse and rape, gender roles, myths, prejudice and stereotypes, HIV/STI transmission and prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and living with HIV/AIDS in the family. The health educators facilitate discussions and role-playing to promote crucial skill development, such as decision-making, withstanding peer pressure, interpersonal communication, value clarification, negotiation, goal-setting, self-assertion and accessing health care services. We focus on the development of positive attitudes related to gender equity and relationships, delaying sexual initiation, using condoms, delaying pregnancy, and challenging myths about HIV/AIDS. The health educators create a safe environment for children to share personal experiences and discuss otherwise taboo topics.

We are making a tremendous impact in providing child/adolescent-entered HIV/AIDS education and support services in Ibhayi, and now need to deepen the scope and quality of our programme. We have formed a close working partnership with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU)'s HIV/AIDS Centre. The NMMU HIV/AIDS Centre provides expertise in curriculum development and skill-based HIV/AIDS education; Ubuntu is an expert in community development and culturally effective life skills education. Together, we will develop a curriculum as a collaborative capacity-building process, where we contribute our lessons learned in implementing life skills education over the past four years, and they train our health educators in lesson planning and delivery in accordance with the outcome-based national curriculum.