Programmes

Schools HIV/AIDS Education Programme

The Schools HIV/AIDS Education Programme works in 45 schools in Central Province, Zambia and across six districts covering:

• Sexual and reproductive health and rights- tackling pregnancy rates in young people, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the stigma attached to those living with HIV/AIDS.

• Life skills- developing interview techniques, confidence building, nutritional information, gender awareness and career planning.

The pupils are then recruited as leaders within their communities, to spread the knowledge and skills they have obtained and empowering others to do the same.

Teacher’s Aids Action Programme

The Teacher’s Aids Action Programme works with Zambian student teachers in government funded Colleges of Education in order to improve their skills to deliver HIV/AIDS awareness.

By training teachers about HIV/AIDS, they gain awareness about how best to protect themselves and ensure that HIV/AIDS teaching infiltrates schools in an effective manner.

This programme runs in 13 Colleges of Education across Zambia, placing volunteers in each college to work with the teachers.

Ex-Volunteer Network

There are about 1000 ex Restless Development volunteers in Zambia. The Ex-Volunteer Network works to offer these young people further opportunities in Zambia and utilise their skills and expertise in development.

The Ex-Volunteer Network is a network of young advocates skilled in capacity building and HIV/life skills programming. Operational since 2004, their in-depth practical experience of working in schools, communities and colleges of education is at the heart of Restless Development’s capacity building and advocacy work in Zambia.

Through the Ex-Volunteer Network, volunteers support programmes and use their connections with other organisations in Zambia to encourage local organisations to work with Restless Development youth. They work to train local organisations in youth-led development and advocacy and to grant young people practical work experience and internships within government bodies and the private sector.

DIRECT DELIVERY

We train young Zambians to implement sustained behaviour change activities tackling youth exclusion, life-skills, gender inequality and sexual reproductive health. Much of this work is delivered on a full time basis in rural communities by trained Volunteer Peer Educators, fully supported by Restless Development.  Once they have completed their placements these expert volunteers continue to work with Restless Development in a range of ways. Sample activities include:

• Lessons and workshops for both in school and out-of-school youth
• Youth-led clubs within communities that champion development activities and raise awareness of community issues.
• Career development skills - teaching basic career guidance as part of curriculum with Youth Resource Centres signposting career options
• E-board/career bulletin – a membership website with opportunities for youth to take up lead roles and internships in development work
• Community and national decision making – young people participate in community and national development committees
• Former expert volunteers take a lead in building up local communities to hold local governments to account and improve service delivery
• Community volunteers deliver minimum standards in sexual and reproductive health and rights
• Former expert volunteers train up youth workers in Ministry of Youth  operated Resource Centres on sexual and reproductive health and nationwide (university) Colleges of Education.

WORKING THROUGH PARTNERS

• Training fellow organisations in use of our methodology to attain impact upon national development indicators
• Internships within government and the private sector, ensuring young people's participation
• Professional level work experience

• Expert volunteers as technical assistants on advocacy issues – e.g. providing training to community based organizations and wider civil society on youth led advocacy, or training up communities to demand service delivery improvement

PUSHING FOR CHANGE

• Youth consultation in policy - policies directly affecting young people will involve trained youth advocates as meaningful participants to ensure young people's views are represented
• National Youth Action Plan implementation - to act as grassroots bridge for decision makers, testing at local level how well the national action plan is being carried out

A NEW GENERATION OF LEADERS 

• 70-80% of the volunteers working within the Schools HIV/AIDS Education Programme are national volunteers, from Zambia.
• 10% are international volunteers, recruited from the UK, Australia or the USA.
• In 2009, the programme had around 90 volunteers.
• The programme lasts for nine months; two months training and seven months active in the field.

  OUR VIEW FOR THE FUTURE

After a strategic review in early 2010, Restless Development (Zambia) is working towards engaging local communities and out-of-school youth alongside in-school initiatives. This will utilise the Ex-Volunteer Network and their expert status to work with the local community- once established, local youth groups will take the lead on this role, in order to ensure our work is self-sustainable.

Ex-volunteers will also move around colleges to support teachers in order to develop a network of skilled teachers in HIV/AIDS education.

Our goals for 2015 are for young people:

• To lead development initiatives at all levels
• To become economically empowered
• To become less vulnerable to sexual and reproductive health risks