The current government sponsored program on AIDS in South Africa seeks to mitigate the risk of HIV infections and AIDS by encouraging the use of condoms. Though well-funded and quite visible, it is a simplistic, ineffective campaign, and research has shown the program to have actually resulted in greater numbers of young people having sex.
Spending a week in the Orlando East township within Soweto, outside of Johannesburg, conducting video interviews with pre-teens, teens, and young adults, surfaced several factors that influence sexual attitudes and behavior, including those in the diagram below. SAHAC, the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Collaboration, is testing a risk elimination campaign meant to reduce the incidence of HIV infection by 50% within pre-teens and teens. It’s message: “wait just until marriage; enjoy sex just with your partner.”
