[health-vn] Online Forum on Teachers and HIV & AIDS

[Vern Weitzel]

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Subject: 	[AIDS ASIA] Online Forum on Teachers and HIV & AIDS
Date: 	Tue, 5 May 2009 09:28:28 -0700 (PDT)
From: 	LOAN NGO <ngothloan at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: 	AIDS_ASIA at yahoogroups.com
To: 	AIDS_ASIA at yahoogroups.com

Dear Colleagues
�
Please find attached, and below, an invitation to participate in an E-forum on 
Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges” from 18 
to 29 May 2009.
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We very much hope that you will be able to participate and look forward to your 
contributions.
�
Kind regards,

�
Lynne Sergeant
UNESCO HIV and AIDS Education Clearinghouse
International Institute for Educational Planning
7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix
75116 Paris
France
Tel. +  33 (0)1 45 03 77 55
E-mail: l.sergeant at iiep.unesco.org
Website: http://hivaidsclearinghouse.unesco.org
E-mail:    hiv-aids-clearinghouse at iiep.unesco.org

Teachers and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges Online 
Forum – 18-29 May 2009

UNESCO’s International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) and the UNAIDS 
Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education are organizing an E-Forum on Teachers 
and HIV & AIDS: Reviewing achievements, identifying challenges” from 18 to 29 
May 2009.
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This Forum aims to promote the exchange of views and experiences on the 
contribution of teachers to HIV prevention and mitigation efforts and the impact 
of the epidemic on teachers.
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The outcomes of the Forum will also directly feed into the Spring meeting of the 
UNAIDS IATT on Education, hosted by Irish Aid in Limerick, Ireland in June 2009, 
which has ‘Teachers and HIV & AIDS :Reviewing achievements, identifying 
challenges’ as its Symposium theme. A report on the outcomes of the discussion 
will also be available more widely on the IIEP’s HIV and AIDS Education 
Clearinghouse following the Forum.
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The organizers are inviting a wide range of stakeholders to join the Forum 
including educational planners, policy-makers, representatives of teachers’ 
unions, members of HIV-positive teacher networks, teachers and other education 
sector staff, civil society stakeholders, donors, UNAIDS Cosponsors and other
multilateral agencies, and colleagues who work on HIV and AIDS responses in 
other sectors.
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To join the Forum, please send an e-mail message to: 
hiv-aids-clearinghouse at iiep.unesco.org, stating your name, title, organization 
and nationality. We will then send you detailed instructions on how to access 
the Forum and to contribute to the discussion.
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Please note that you can sign up anytime prior to or during the Forum but the 
Forum will be active only from 18 May.
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For more information on the IATT Symposium in Ireland, please contact: 
info-iatt at unesco.org.
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Forum Theme and Sub-Topics for Discussion
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Teachers are instrumental to the achievement of the Education for All (EFA) 
goals, and also have a critical role to play in school-based HIV prevention 
efforts. However, evidence of effective teacher involvement in the HIV and AIDS 
response is scattered and the lessons learnt, as well as their implications, are 
yet to be
comprehensively fed back into joint efforts around EFA.
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This makes it opportune and important to review what progress has been made in 
involving teachers in the HIV response and to consider how this can inform the 
efforts to achieve EFA and the Millennium Development Goal to ‘halt and reverse 
the spread of HIV’ by 2015.
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We know today that children and young people who go to school have better 
opportunities in life and better protection against disease, including against 
HIV. This protective benefit of education is particularly important for girls. 
Yet many children do not have access to education, due to the teacher shortages 
among other causes.

And even where teachers are in schools, issues of capacity play an enormous role 
in the overall quality of the education provided, and in whether and how these 
teachers will address HIV and AIDS.
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In many countries, curricula now include HIV- and AIDS-related content, often as 
part of a broader focus on life skills and healthy living. Teachers are given an 
important responsibility in ensuring that children and young people acquire 
essential knowledge, skills and attitudes for prevention. In higher prevalence 
settings, teachers are seen as pivotal in ensuring that pupils affected and 
infected as a result of the epidemic have access to care and support.
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Without teachers the endeavour of providing EFA cannot be achieved. However, 
teachers face challenges in playing the role that is attributed to them. These 
challenges include the often difficult working environments (i.e. overcrowded 
classrooms, lack of materials) and poor or inexistent training. In many contexts 
– in particular in sub-Saharan Africa – teachers are themselves affected by HIV 
and AIDS. Stigma and discrimination, gender inequity, concerns around morality, 
cultural issues and relationships between teachers and students often make the 
actual environment in which school-based HIV and AIDS education is highly complex.
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The Forum will invite discussion on four interrelated sub-topics:
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1. Involving teachers in HIV prevention – policy and management implications
2. Coverage and content of pre- and in- service training for teachers
3. The role of teachers in child protection and promotion of safe and healthy 
school environments
4. Supportive and enabling environments for teachers affected by HIV and AIDS
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All four sub-topics will be accessible over the course of the E-Forum.
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The Forum will be animated by e-moderators (IIEP and UNAIDS IATT Secretariat 
staff), with daily syntheses of Forum discussions and commentary to guide 
further discussion on these issues.