Amour & Vie (Love & Life) – Benin

Amour & Vie (Love & Life) is a youth reproductive health magazine that is aimed at creating behavior change among youth. The magazine looks at different issues including, abstinence, being faithful and condoms (ABCs).

• The Abstinence issue highlights delaying sexual debut as the best way to prevent HIV/AIDS/STIs.
• The Being Faithful issue focuses on the dangers of having more than one sexual partner and described youths' habits of jumping from partner to partner with the slang phrase "zapping."
• The Condom Use edition centers on topics related to consistent and correct condom use.

Main Communication Strategies
Amour & Vie aims to attract the attention of youth by integrating the basics of HIV/AIDS protection with messages from Beninese pop stars, interactive strategies such questions and answers, and contests.

Amour & Vie, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was first created as a free source of HIV/AIDS/STI information for the youth of Benin. Each two-page issue had a comic strip and a Q&A section, in addition to special contests and games.

Amour & Vie then expanded to eight pages in full color. The magazine is part of the behavior change communications (BCC) programme from Population Services International (PSI) targeting youth. The BCC programme targets both urban and rural youth and includes interpersonal communication activities (especially for out-of-school youth) and mass media campaigns.

Each issue of the magazine has a specific theme, and features a Beninese celebrity with an interview and pullout poster of the star. In each issue youth are encouraged to write in asking questions, giving advice to their peers and responding to the issue's trivia/game contest. A contest is held in which readers who send in the correct answers to certain questions pertaining to the issue's theme have the chance to win an Amour & Vie t-shirt.