PIASCY: Helping pupils to stay safe

Abstract

This is one of our happiest moments. With this book we bring into circulation a very important piece of work to scale up our efforts to prevent HIV and mitigate its effects. PIASCY: Helping pupils to stay safe is a response to the call by H.E. the President to improve communication on HIV and AIDS to young people. Young people, aged 10 to 24, make up 33% of our population. They are our vital resource for the future and should have many productive years ahead of them. There is a great need to address HIV and AIDS in youth. Uganda has made considerable progress against HIV. Prevalence rates have declined, particularly in youth. This has been attributed to intense information, education and communication. This book for teachers, PIASCY: Helping pupils to stay safe, extends and intensifies further this campaign. The Ministry of Education and Sports is privileged to be part of the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth (PLASCY). We are grateful to the Uganda AIDS Commission which convened a large task force to generate ideas for PIASCY and this book after the President's call. UAC Director General Dr David Kihumuro Apuuli gracious chaired many meetings. The task force included representatives from the MOH, MOES, MLG, AYA, AYAAS, IMAU, ACET, CHUSA, AIC, UMSC UCS AIM, NCDC, TASO, AIC, the Population Secretariat and other partners in government and civil society working for behaviour change in youth. We thank you all. We are grateful to Straight Talk Foundation, which took the original document produced by the task force and edited, illustrated and designed it into this book. Catharine Watson led the Straight Talk team. We would also like to thank Dr Jesse Kajimba, Senior Presidential Adviser on HIV/AIDS. Despite his busy schedule, he always found time to be with us. Finally, we thank all our colleagues who assisted us in one way or another. It is not possible to mention each one of you by name. PIASCY: Helping pupils to stay safe targets teachers as change agents. I call upon all teachers to effectively utilise it and its 24 key messages in assemblies, classes and clubs to safeguard pupils from AIDS. The struggle continues.