Education and AIDS

About half the teachers trained in Zambia each year, as well as thousands of education administrators, are dying of AIDS related illnesses. Tens of thousands more are missing work due to illness, caring for sick relatives or attending funerals.

The children of parents with AIDS often have to miss school to care for them. Relatives, who would traditionally have helped them stand back now, because they are overwhlemed with new dependents, or because of the fear and stigma HIV generates. The children themselves can also be discriminated against for being associated with AIDS. They are also pushed into greater poverty because their parents are unable to work.

Being deprived of education makes children more likely to become infected with HIV as they lack the knowledge, confidence, resources and power to protect themselves.

Education is a powerful tool to break this vicious cycle of poverty and infection.

In 2006, ActionAid concluded from a review of various studies on the impact of education on HIV prevalence*, that formal education helps reduce young people’s vulnerability to HIV infection by

• Making them more aware of how to prevent infection
• Providing them with support from teachers and friends
• Building their self-esteem so they can put into action what they’ve learned about how to avoid infection, and
• Giving them better economic prospects, so they can avoid lifestyles that put them in danger of being infected

That's why at Cecily's Fund we believe it is vital to support the education of as many children as possible, for as long as possible. We work with Zambian partner organisations to help children go to primary and secondary school , and to train as peer health educators or teachers.

*Action Aid: Girl Power: girls' education, sexual behaviour and AIDS in Africa, 2006