Today's choices

country: South Africa

In South Africa many young people sort of know what HIV and AIDS is, but not always do they know how one can prevent getting infected. Or they are afraid to talk about it with their boyfriend or girlfriend. In a country, with one out of every four young people being HIV positive, this is a dangerous situation.

In 2003 the University of Stellenbosch and WPF developed the CD-ROM of sexuality education curriculum Today’s Choices and introduced it in a number of schools. Today's Choices does only explain to young people to have sex safely. They also learn about self-confidence, purpose in life, values, relationships with their parents and friends and other things they experience in their adolescence. Young people learn to decide for themselves about their lives.

In 2005 a contribution from the Dutch Postcode Lottery enabled the programme’s large-scale implementation, in more than 2,000 schools in the Western Cape. In 2006 this curriculum was piloted in schools in KwaZulu Natal.

The curriculum is very succesful. It is available in 4 languages. The Ministery of Education in 3 provinces was accepted as the standard school curriculum.

Results 2006

316,160 young people (aged 12-24) followed the lessons in 2,158 schools in 7,025 classes;
600 adults participated in awareness-raising activities;
535 teaching packages were distributed as well as 228,000 teacher's manuals;
In 2007 a new version for Grade 12 is being developed for a pilot project.