Brazilian educators involved with AIDS prevention and
network-building activities, visited Maputo and shared
methodological society organizations and projects. This
first "Exchange Between Brazilian and Mozambican
Youth for Peer Education On HIV/AIDS Prevention
through Art-Education" (funded by USAID and
UNESCO) represented a challenge and a unique
opportunity for peer educators in different continents to
interact and learn from each others efforts to break down
old paradigms by employing a great deal of creativity. The
approach of the workshops was focused on youth
proactivity-based methodologies developed to appeal to
young people. The Brazilian youth conducted the
activities with a strong contribution from the
Mozambicans. The topics discussed were basically related
to youth networking, legislation and advocacy, art-education and HIV/AIDS issues. Through dance, theatre and
music, the participants exchanged views and experiences by using these artistic languages as tools to facilitate youth
in the development of strategies which make possible the raising of awareness about HIV/AIDS, sexuality and
other cultural aspects that influence preventive education in that country. Such approach and its
methodologies, transferred to Mozambican institutions information about the framework that, in Brazil, leads to
successful prevention programs focused on youth.
The second part of this exchange will take part on early November. Seventeen youth from five
different provinces from Mozambique will be together in Salvador to share their experiences in promoting
the art education methodology in preventing HIV/AIDS. By involving and empowering youth and their
associations, this project will achieve sustainable results that will have a lasting impact beyond the project
implementation period.
Box 4 - CRIA (Integrated Reference Center for
Adolescents):
Box 4 – CRIA (Integrated Reference Center for
Adolescents)
CRIA leads the 300 NGOs and GOs from the youth
network that implements the HIV/AIDS program in
Salvador Through this network, CRIA has been able to
disseminate AIDS prevention information to over 500
public schools in Salvador Using theater as its core
methodology, CRIA encourages youth to develop theater
plays, poetry sessions, publications, internet sites and other
instruments to disseminate information to the largest
possible number of youth in other NGOs and government
programs. Besides working with Mozambican youth, CRIA will
work with the National and Provincial Youth Councils on
networking methodologies
Box 5 - Project Axé:
This project was created in 1990 to address the increasingly
difficult conditions faced by street boys and girls in Salvador.
Today, Axé assists 1,500 children and youth ages 5-18, mostly
of African-descendants, who carry the burden of centuries of
racial discrimination, poverty, and physical, psychological, and
social violence. Through art, education and the use of African-
Brazilian values, Axé has managed to reintegrate children into
their families, provide all 1,500 children and youth with
access to formal education, build their self-esteem and
develop a pedagogical approach which is counted among the
most successful in the world to deal with high-risk
populations. Axé's health unit has developed, tested and
validated innovative methodologies to disseminate contents
related to AIDS prevention among high-risk youth.
V - Conclusions
One of the main successes of the National IDS
Program of the Brazilian government is its articulation
with the civil society for several tasks. The universal
distribution of anti-retroviral drugs, the implementation
of laws that guarantee rights to the HIV positives and
the consolidated structure of specialized support are
successful practices that relate directly to the role of
civil society in fostering social control. The robustness
of civil society in the field of HIV/AIDS goes
beyond the action of NGOs, including networks, fora
and scientific meetings. The exchange of expertise,
strongly stimulated and promoted by UNESCO, has put
together different ways to deal with the epidemic in
Brazil, what brings considerable knowledge that, applied