STI Counseling and Treatment Programme

This programme draws centrally on face-to-face communication to provide information about abstinence and condoms, as well as to promote STI prevention and treatment among sexually experienced youth. Specifically, school-based reproductive health clubs serve as venues to encourage adolescents to discuss reproductive health matters. The clubs offer health awareness campaigns at which health care professionals provide students with information on STI prevention and treatment. Other activities of the reproductive health clubs include distributing educational materials on STIs, organising debates and symposia, sponsoring dramas and essay contests, and showing films on STI prevention and treatment.

Peer education is another core strategy. Members of the reproductive health clubs are chosen by their peers to be trained as peer educators. Training lasts 4 weeks and covers aspects of STI prevention and treatment, symptom recognition, the benefits of early treatment, the need for professional treatment, sources of professional treatment, prevention methods, the importance of partner notification, and the need to abstain from sex during treatment for STIs. Trained peer educators provide counseling to other students, either one-on-one or in groups at breaks and after school. They also distribute educational materials on STIs and refer youth with symptoms of STIs to trained health care providers.

Youth, HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health.

WHARC created this programme in response to studies indicating that Nigerian adolescents are often reluctant to seek medical treatment for STI symptoms or, if they do seek help, rely on informal sector providers (patent medicine practitioners, traditional healers, pharmacists, and laboratory technicians). Assessment has also showed that neither these personnel nor medically trained health care professionals tend to use standard protocols for diagnosing and treating STIs in adolescents.