HIV/AIDS Programs | kifaruyouth

KYCC’s HIV/AIDS Initiative

The HIV/AIDs epidemic has hit our community hard, accelerating at a six-fold pace each year over the last decade. Almost 6% of our people (10,000) are now infected; a higher rate than for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole. Thousands more, especially our children, are feeling the impact of sick and dying relatives.

One of KYCC’s core functions is to create community awareness and to encourage the community to participate in curtailing the disease. We dedicate much of our time to traveling within our district, especially to schools, colleges, congregations, hospitals and very remote areas, to educate our people about HIV/AIDS.

Through this program, we have learned that HIV/AIDS is having a huge emotional and long-lasting economic impact in our communities. Our Centre staff and volunteers are working with both those suffering from HIV/AIDS and those affected by their sick and dying relatives. We have a three-pronged approach in which we address:

1. Effect on individuals through:

Loss of work and income
Death of family members
Worsening child health and survival
Weakened support within family
Illness and suffering

Effect on Family – Here we focus on how HIV/AIDS affects the family unit:

Weakened integrity and support structure of family unit
Poverty
Break in child education, training and human rights
Death of parents

Effect on children - We address how the epidemic affects Karatu area children’s’ ability to survive when:

Children are orphaned
Parental care is reduced or becomes non-existent
Children step in to head families as parents become sick and die.

NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS

KYCC’s HIV/AIDS education and advocacy campaign requires a large amount of time, dedication and funding. We play a big role in our District’s HIV/AIDS programs to make sure that accurate information is disseminated at all levels of the population. We believe truth about HIV/AIDS will help free this generation and future generations from this terrible illness. We have local volunteers who actively campaign against the disease but we hope that you too will support our HIV/AIDS program. Please donate any of the following materials and/or provide a contribution to help us stop the horrible illness. We are in need of:

Meals
Visual aids (projector, screen and laptop)
Small generator
Speakers
Training modules for children
HIV training manual for trainers
Flip chart and marker pens
Demonstration models
Brochures
Transportation
Network and Media Campaign
Website cost hosting
Conference training room/workshop room
. Specific Situation of Youth in Karatu Tanzania.
The youth are facing various difficult situations in Tanzania and Karatu in particular. The core problem facing youth in Tanzania is unemployment. This problem is characterized by lack of job opportunities in urban areas, and underutilization of the majority of the national labour force in the rural. Globalization which caused transition to the free market system has resulted in the privatization of many public institutions. Since the capacity to make profit depends on low operational costs, employers often hire the minimum number of workers to maximize their profit; this in turn escalates the unemployment problem.

Unemployment for people aged 18-34 was 8.6 in the rural areas and 41.4 percent in the urban areas. The youth aged between 15 and 34 years are more vulnerable to unemployment.

Rural youth grow up in a culture that does not typically support entrepreneurship. They often seek employment by migrating to nearby cities and town. When they could not find jobs in town they engaged in dangerous behaviors such as petty theft, armed robbery,
drug abuse

and unsafe sex, which cause other social problem like spread of HIV/AIDS among youth, family crises, mental disease, and deaths.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is a threat to socio-economic development in Tanzania. An estimated 1.5 million Tanzanians are infected with HIV, which will progress to

AIDS and eventually result in death. According to 2002 Behavioral Surveillance Survey among Youth, during the year 2001 a total of 14,112 AIDS cases were reported to the National AIDS Control Program (NACP). Most AIDS cases fall within the age group 20-49 years with highest number of reported cases in the age group 25-34 and 30-39 for female and males respectively.

Youth aged between 15 – 24 years contributed to 15% of the total cases.

Constraints and Challenges facing youth.

. Education System

The number of primary school leavers is big and has not been followed by a corresponding expansion of the secondary education. Very few have been absorbed in secondary school (about 10 per cent).
. Lack of Skills and Business Training.

At the time youths complete primary or secondary education they do not have adequate skills that they can use to start self employment activities. There are few secondary schools that have business and commercial courses for students but the weakness is however that they emphasis on theoretical courses.

. Inadequate credit facilities

Many youths have started self-employment opportunities but lack startup capital. Financial institutions usually have difficult conditions, which are almost impossible to be met by youths.

. Emphasis on the formal sector alone

The formal sector has not been able to absorb the majority of the unemployed youths..

. Non-attractive agricultural sector in the rural areas in general

The rural areas and the agriculture sector in particular are currently not attractive to youths. The hand-operated hole has remained the main farm implement for working the soil and has, for a long time now, rendered agriculture a difficult task.

. Gender Imbalance

This attitude is however slowly changing and women are increasingly becoming active in the labour force.

. Inadequate Information

Youth information is inadequate in coverage, gender insensitive and lack standards for statistics. Youth are facing severe difficulties in accessing information as in Karatu district no centers for

information as in Karatu district no centers for information have been established yet, e.g. Library or youth centre.

. Lack of youth friendly services

Community leaders have a tendency to ignore youth issues, hence make unfriendly environmental which hinder youth development opportunities.

. Problem statement and justification.

Vulnerability of youth to unemployment, lack of entrepreneurship skills and absence subsequent resources center for them enhances their engagement in illegal activities like theft, drug abuse, prostitution and homosexual. These illegal activities makes youth contributing nothing to our economic development. This is due to the fact that youth are a big workforce in Tanzania (60% of total workforce) it cannot be overemphasized that they are a group of people which have a unique opportunity and role to participate in the 'development of the nation. In the community, it is the youth who are expected to take the responsibility of production, defence and security, rendering various, social services and preserving the culture. In addition, youth have the opportunity and ability to be developed in knowledge and skills which prepare them to participate in decision making. (Tanzania youth Development Policy 1996)

Karatu is the one of the fast growing districts in Arusha region. The activities conducted within the district influence influx of various people from different part inside and outside our country. For instance, in the year 2009 the number of tourists entered in the Karatu district were more than 1000. Therefore, there is great risk of increasing HIV/AIDS infection as there are youth in Karatu who engage themselves in prostitution activities. On top of that it is yet known that Karatu is a leading district in Arusha for having higher rate of HIV/AIDS infection.

. Goal and Objectives

. Goal

To promote the lives of youth, (female and male) living in Karatu through capacity building in the areas of education, health, economy, culture, politics and responsible parenthood and entrepreneurship.

. Main Objectives.
Youth to identify and participate fully in solving their problems.
To build a youth resource center and making information available to youth
To change the “passive culture” amongst young people by making them learns to secure their existence in the socio-economical environment in Tanzania and play their active role in future leadership. It aims to achieve this by generating increased awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic through use of cultural games and different spots, educational materials and development of a network of youth AIDS aware volunteers.
To prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS by providing access of appropriate and meaningful information, raising awareness and encouraging discussion across the district villages through different sports for better life campaigns prioritizing young people, and local communities. To have a well informed young society in the rural and urban schools and out of school on HIV/AIDS;
To engage the young people in different sports games partnership as the owners of KIFARU YOUTH AND CHILDREN CENTRE.
In collaboration with educational institutions (e.g. Primary/Secondary Schools) to form some education enhancing programmes focusing on the HIV/AIDS;
To build Stakeholder partnerships between private and public AIDS agencies and organizations representing the target groups; to develop programmes to prevent HIV/ AIDS and to promote Stakeholder HIV/ AIDS measures and initiatives.
To enhance youth awareness about all forms of violence against women and girl-child and encourage youth participation in the movements that work to ensure better protection for survivors of violence and calls for the elimination of all form of violence against women and girl-child.

If you want to support us

email us info@kifaruyouth.org