CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb. 20, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- GOLD Peer Education Development Agency (GOLD), a not-for-profit organization based in South Africa, recently won the Commonwealth Education Good Practice Award for helping education in difficult circumstances. Over 40 organizations from 52 Commonwealth nations entered this prestigious award.
"Peer education is more than transforming individual lives," says Susannah Farr, Executive Director of GOLD. "It is a means to community transformation."
"People don't change with information, they change when others around them change," explains Farr. "At the heart of the GOLD model is the belief that the message giver is the strongest message. Young people are far more influenced by their peers than educators, parents or any other form of social messaging."
GOLD trains local organizations throughout Southern Africa to equip and empower young people at risk of HIV or made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS epidemic to become agents of positive change in their schools and communities.
These peer educators receive intensive training across a range of issues including: self development; presentation, facilitation and communication skills; sexual and reproductive health including HIV/AIDS; leadership; group work; community development; project management; research; advocacy and children's rights; and mentoring. The emphasis is on practical experiential learning and skills development and each peer educator has specific practical outputs that need to be met annually.
The GOLD model is implemented as a three-year peer education program with an optional fourth year during which adolescent peer educators based primarily in schools are equipped and supported by skilled facilitators to role model healthy and positive behavior; educate their peers in a structured manner; recognize youth in need of additional help and refer them for assistance; and uplift their communities through advocating for appropriate resources and services for their peers.
"I already had leadership in me but I never knew what to do with it," says YMCA Peer Educator, Frans Jordaan, 17. "I used it to deprive people and disrespect adults. During my first year with GOLD I have changed. I have realized how my change has made a difference to me, my school and my community."
GOLD works with 24 community organizations in 170 schools and communities in three provinces of South Africa as well as three regions in Botswana. GOLD is equipping over 7500 young people as adolescent peer educators. They are directly impacting more than 400,000 peers and younger children who they believe will have a significant impact on their respective communities.