Zomba youth in behaviour change awareness
Youth in Zomba City have been urged to spread messages about behaviour change in the fight against HIV and Aids in their respective communities.
Zomba City Council (ZCC) HIV and Aids coordinator Loniya Muyeriwa made the call on Tuesday when she opened a three-day training of trainers of 21 peer educators for a group of youths from Zomba Centre for Creative Arts (Zocca).
She said the youth are agents of change; hence, they need to play a role in good communication, especially relating to behaviour change in the fight against HIV and Aids.
She said: “The youth should act as models of the same by ensuring that they know their sero-status and use that as an example to their colleagues. We are training these youths to emphasise behaviour change messages as one of the ways to prevent the spread of HIV and Aids.”
In his remarks, Zocca executive director Sammy Yona said his organisation saw the need to hold the training because most of the youth are sexually active; hence, at risk of contracting the virus that causes Aids.
“We wrote a proposal to National Aids Commission [NAC] for us to have this training and we are thankful. We are dealing with many youths, some of whom are physically challenged. So, our aim is to spread the messages using sign language interpreters and others in order to reach out to everyone,” he said.
