Tacade is working with the British Council and UNICEF to help develop HIV education materials for children and young people in the Ukraine.  Ukraine has the fastest growing HIV epidemic in Europe and is sadly the worst affected country in Europe.  Helen Lee, Tacade’s Development and Training Manger has been providing advice and support to enable local professionals to develop effective HIV education materials for primary school children and to develop a range of interactive HIV education games for teenagers in young offenders institutions.

Helen has made several visits to Kiev and surrounding areas meeting primary school children, street children in shelters and young men in young offender’s colonies as they are described in the Ukraine.  To stop the devastating consequences of the spread of HIV it is essential that people of all ages learn about HIV prevention.  In addition targeted work needs to take place with people who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection such as street children and young people in prisons.  Helen has been able to train; support and guide local professionals to ensure that the HIV education materials produced provide accurate up to date information that children and young people can make use of.  Also she has worked in partnership with the Ministry of Education and local non-governmental organisations to ensure that some of the HIV education materials help to build young people’s life skills so that they can make use of information about HIV prevention.

Helen has also been writing a guide for practitioners about involving and consulting children and young people in the development of health promotion materials, so that this work can continue, even when Tacade staff are no longer visiting the Ukraine.  Considerable research indicates that health promotion materials are much more effective when the target audience has been involved in the production of the materials.  This is standard practise in the development of Tacade’s materials but is a new concept to many professionals involved in HIV education in the Ukraine.

The huge growth in the HIV epidemic in the Ukraine has been fuelled by widespread drug use particularly injecting drug use amongst teenagers and young people in their twenties. Young men are most affected; over 75% of people infected with HIV are male.  The massive increase in drug use is a result of the availability of drugs and difficulties people are facing as the country goes through tremendous economic, social and cultural transitions.  Illegal drugs are now much more widely available throughout the Ukraine then they were under the Soviet Union.  Many young people find it very difficult to cope with the challenges of the new economic system and poverty is now common place.  The epidemic is also being spread through unprotected sex.  Traditionally when the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union people infected with HIV were locked up in hospitals or institutions and very little HIV education took place, so professionals are only now learning about effective ways of educating people about HIV.  The work is proving to be successful in part because of the partnership between Tacade, the British Council, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.  But also in large measure due to the energy and commitment of local professionals determined to work to safeguard the health of children and young people throughout the Ukraine.  It is a massive task given the speed at which the HIV epidemic is moving.

Update December 2007

Helen Lee, Tacade Development & Training Manager returned to the Ukraine in November and December 2006 to advise on the development of interactive HIV education materials and train psychologists and social workers from the Youth Offending Colonies about using participatory teaching methods in health promotion and HIV education. This work is part of a joint initiative between the British Council Ukraine, UNICEF, The State Department of Ukraine on Enforcement of Sentences and Ukrainian NGOs to promote the health and wellbeing of young people in Youth Offending Colonies and street children.

'A guide to consulting and involving children and young people in the development of health promotion materials' has now been published in Ukrainian by UNICEF