Interagency Youth Working Group

Faith-based organizations help shape young people’s values and attitudes. Many organized religions are still searching for an effective approach to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and to educate their faithful about reproductive health issues.

 

Faith-Based Family Life Education Curricula. These curricula, including a participant handbook, are designed to work with adults; one curriculum is for a Christian audience and the other for a Muslim one. No other manuals like these exist. They provide a training curriculum for adults and faith-based professionals to learn how to communicate with youth about sexuality and reproductive health/HIV issues. In addition, a curriculum is available for working with youth directly, from a Christian perspective. The manuals encourage open discussion about sexuality, reproductive health, and HIV in the context of faith communities, using Bible and Quran verses. They are not designed to promote religion. (Family Health International/YouthNet, 2007)

Christian Family Life Education Program in Namibia. Churches in Namibia are now approaching taboo subjects about sexuality using a new family life education curriculum in workshops, parent-youth activities, pastor forums, and other activities. (Family Health International/YouthNet, 2006)

Culture Matters: Working with Communities and Faith-based Organizations - Case Studies from Country Programmes. This report uses nine case studies to describe how to work within cultures to foster stronger progress toward achieving international development goals and advancing human rights. It explains how to integrate cultural analysis into development programs, especially in the critical areas of gender equity and equality and reproductive health and rights. The case studies are from Brazil, Cambodia, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Iran, Malawi, Uganda, and Yemen. (UNFPA, 2004)                                   

Working from Within: Culturally Sensitive Approaches in UNFPA Programming. The nine case studies presented in this summary are drawn from the longer UNFPA report summarized above. It highlights the necessity of mainstreaming cultural analysis and sensitivity in development efforts addressing issues such as gender equality and equity, HIV/AIDS, female genital cutting, gender-based violence, and reproductive health. (UNFPA, 2004)

Communities Responding to HIV/AIDS Epidemic (CORE) Initiative. This initiative is a USAID-funded global program, whose mission is to address the causes and consequences of HIV/AIDS by strengthening the capacity of community- and faith-based groups worldwide. The main approach of the CORE Initiative is to leverage existing efforts, while encouraging new efforts through diverse and innovative partnerships in the areas of community-based prevention, stigma reduction, and care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and their families. Links are available to many faith-based groups that have received grants through the CORE Initiative.

The Impact of Religious Organizations in Promoting HIV/AIDS Prevention. This site discusses examples of faith-based initiatives in which involvement of religious leaders and organizations in HIV/AIDS prevention has had major impact. (Synergy Project and the Harvard School of Public Health, 2002)