A pioneering experience among Portuguese-speaking countries

This Sunday (February 12) Brazil and Mozambique initiate the “Estamos Juntos” (We stand together) project aimed at intensifying prevention activities in schools against Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases. The first module of the course involving 40 participants will take place on February 25 in the city of Maputo. This is the first international cooperation in the field of sexual education in schools between the governments of Brazil and Mozambique. Investments of US$ 200 thousand will be shared by the two countries over a period of 14 months.

In Brazil, the project coordinators and financers are the Ministries of Health, of Education and of Foreign Affairs. In Mozambique these tasks will be the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Pathfinder International. The executors in the two countries are the University of Brasília (UnB) and the Ministry of Education and Culture of Mozambique. 

Brazil and Mozambique already carry out prevention activities in schools. Thus the object is to share experience in order to perfect the work. In general terms the Brazilian participants intend to show how the Programme ‘Health and Prevention in Schools’ qualifies teachers and the Mozambican participants wish to show the protagonist role of students in the ‘Geração Biz’.

The next stage of the programme is the execution of the action plans, which will be programmed in Module I of the course. Module II will take place in Brazil in the month of September. At the end of the project, which is scheduled for April 2007, the best experiences will be published in book form. After the conclusion of activities, the idea is to transform “Estamos Juntos” into an international specialization course involving the University of Brasília and Universities in Mozambique. This specialization may stimulate the formation of similar courses in Portuguese-speaking countries and in other Brazilian universities. The schedule foresees the insertion of the discussion of themes related to sexual and reproductive health as well as prevention of aids and other sexually transmitted diseases, into the daily routine of teacher and student.

Find out more about Brazil and Mozambique’s sexual education programmes
Health and Prevention in Schools -Brazil	Since 1995 the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education have joined forces to ensure that the themes of sexual and reproductive health are dealt with in schools. From this integrated work sprang the Schools Project, which began with actions supporting 16 projects in those states with the highest concentration of the HIV/Aids epidemic at the time. Between 1999 and 2000 the project expanded its strategies to all 26 Brazilian States and the Federal District. At that moment the programme ‘Salto para o Futuro’ (Leap to the Future) came into being. In August of 2003 the Health and Prevention in Schools programme was officially launched in 84 schools distributed in six municipalities: Rio Branco and Xapuri (Acre); São José do Rio Preto, São Paulo and Itaquaquecetuba (São Paulo); and Curitiba (Paraná). Innovations in the programme were: making condoms available in the schools, the integration of schools and Basic Health Units as well as community participation in the process. In 2005, Health and Prevention in Schools was reformulated. New strategies were incorporated such as monitoring the schools, the execution of directives aimed at reaching students right from the first years of basic education, support for states and municipalities in setting up intersectorial executive groups, holding macro-regional workshops and support for regional events as well as the production, printing and distribution of educational material. The target is that by 2007 the entire basic education school network should be working with the promotion of sexual and reproductive health.
Geração Biz - (The Busy Generation) Mozambique	This has existed since 1999. It is directed at adolescents and youngsters from 10 to 24 years old and proposes a multisectoral approach involving the ministries of Education, of Youth and Sports and of Health with the support of the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and technical advice from Pathfinder International. The programme is active in seven of the country’s eleven provinces and its fundamental activities are: offering health services to young people through the Serviços Amigos dos Adolescentes e Jovens – SAAJ (Adolescent and Youth-friendly Services); setting up ‘Counselling Corners’ and young people’s associations in the schools; making condoms and contraceptive methods available; qualifying activist teachers and students; and improving governmental infrastructure. It is carried out in 40 districts, 178 schools and has 50 Counselling Corners, 40 SAAJ and 1,100 activists already qualified.

For more information please contact:
National STD and AIDS Programme
Press Advisory Body
Tel: + 55 61 3448-8100/8088
Fax: + 55 61 3448-8090
E-mail: imprensa@aids.gov.br