AHEAD TEEN ACTION PROGRAM (TAP)

The factors listed above are powerful indicators of the need for innovative youth initiatives and programs to educate young people and guide them towards becoming responsible, productive citizens, while encouraging youth to adopt behaviors that will lead to healthy, wholesome and responsible lives. AHEAD's Teen Action Program (TAP), implemented in primary schools in Meatu District in the Shinyanga Region in 1997 and now extended to Kisarawe District in the Coast Region, is designed to empower young people with the knowledge and skills to avoid negative behaviors that invariably lead to unplanned sexual activities, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, school drop-outs, drugs and other mind-altering substances. TAP helps youth to navigate successfully through the stages from adolescence to adulthood. The primary focus of TAP is "prevention."

The goal of this program is to improve the quality of life for youth through improved access to educational opportunities; prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents; and, prepare women and youth to enter into the world of work. In addition to health education, counseling, education and recreation activities, TAP participants are trained to provide home based care to people living with HIV/AIDS. These services include provision of basic needs for patients, e.g., food, clothing, water and other essentials.

The TAP methodology focuses on current and changing values and attitudes towards sexuality and reproduction, proper nutrition and hygiene, education, and participation in community-building activities that include, but are not limited to, providing care and support for AIDS patients and orphans; and, implementing projects which improve health and sanitation in villages.  Through adolescent health/skills programs in five villages in the Coast Region, TAP

  • Trains adolescents and young-adult peer counselors to empower and educate target youth with information regarding their reproductive health.
  • Provides counseling and voluntary HIV testing services that encourage youth and women to understand their current health status and proactively seek early intervention for the promotion of optimal health.
  • Conducts monthly HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness activities in villages to promote a cultural sensitivity and de-stigmatization toward those living with the disease.
  • Provides preventive counseling and treatment for young people infected with sexually transmitted infections.

During their training, the youth participate in community activities to help get the message out concerning HIV/AIDS and other problems facing the community. They also share this information in community meetings through the use of popular entertainment methods to get the messages over to their peers and others in the community. These methods include drama, music, and poetry. Mass media will be used in varying degrees to provide information to the public.

EDUCATION PROGRAM

Education is the key to the TAP. TAP organizers believe that the best contraceptive for adolescent girls is education. Girls face far more constraints than their male peers with regard to access to education and training at all levels. Most often they lack the competitiveness and assertiveness. They are taught from infancy in song by caregivers that they are subservient to boys. Early marriage, pregnancy, customs, beliefs, and social attitudes contribute to the problems girls face. As a result, girls have very limited socio-politico-economic power.

One of AHEAD's key goals is to provide educational opportunities for girls to attend secondary school each year. A committee of educator, parents and community leaders select girls who have potential and are recommended by their school and communities, but whose parents are either unable or unwilling to provide the necessary financial assistance for them to attend school.

Peer Counselors and other AHEAD volunteers provide after-school and Saturday tutoring sessions for students. Two hundred students have received academic scholarships and are attending secondary schools in Kisarawe and Meatu Districts; fifty percent (50%) of these students are orphans.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM

The objectives of the life skills and vocational program are:

  • to increase skills training and provide work experiences for youth;
  • to establish small scale industries for apprenticeship and employment;
  • to provide training in business management and marketing; and, 
  • to increase employment opportunities, especially females.

The establishment of job opportunities in rural communities will help reduce rural-urban migration and enable rural economically disadvantaged adolescents to become productive, more fulfilled and contributing members of their communities.

As of December 2004, one hundred and fifteen girls and boys have completed vocational training in Electrical Installation and Electronics, Computers, Horticulture, and Carpentry. The third year vocational students will complete their training in December 2005.


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