UNICEF helps organize road shows in Lesotho to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS

In an effort to help fight the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people in Lesotho, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is helping to organize a series of life skills road shows aimed at drawing attention to the toll taken by the epidemic on youth, to discuss other challenges they face in contemporary Lesotho and to seek solutions for them.

At 29 per cent, Lesotho’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is the third highest in the world. The prevalence rate among young women between the ages of 15 and 24 is 51 per cent, UNICEF said.

On Tuesday the Secretary-General’s Office announced that Kofi Annan’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, would begin a three-day visit to Lesotho today to follow up on the latest developments on the HIV and AIDS front.

UNICEF said in its announcement today that the road shows in Lesotho are a youth-led initiative which it is supporting together with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Gender Youth Sports and Recreation.

To date two of the road shows have been rolled out. Similar events will be held in all 10 districts of Lesotho during 2005-06.

A variety of life skills activities take place at the road shows, interspersing education with entertainment in a manner attractive to the youth and channeled through recreation. The activities are designed to impart knowledge and information through activities which include drama, poetry, sports and dance, UNICEF said.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) will also start partnering the road shows through a new initiative of screening HIV/AIDS and life skills related videos, in local language, on site via a mobile video machine, UNICEF added.