General Health Peer Education

            The general health peer education program mimics the AIDS peer education program in many ways. Both programs involve groups of twenty secondary school students meeting six times with HMO volunteers. For the general health program, meetings usually last 1-2 hours each. They involve a similar combination of games, lectures, discussions, exercises and role-playing. General health topics covered include malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, nutrition, hygiene and first aid. The specific content of each session is determined by participants in the program and occasionally with input from administrators at the secondary school. For this reason, not all topics are covered with every group of students. Instead, health issues that are especially important to each particular group of students are covered.

            The goal of this program is to equip participants with knowledge about health issues that are relevant to their daily lives. Students are expected to implement the creative solutions to health issues that they develop during the program in their own households and to educate their family members about the health issues that affect them. Students are not expected to give presentations in front of large groups of people, but they should serve as resources whom their peers can turn to when they have basic health questions.