Gender Youth Sexuality And Hiv Aids

The major finding of the study shows that sexual initiation which typically occurs at an early age for both sexes. However, females are more likely to start sex before reaching the exact age 15 and 18. It is also found that the mean age at sexual debut was 17.2 for male and16.5 for female. Although most youths have used condoms, its consistent use was remained low. Considerable proportion of the youth in the area exhibited high risk sexual behavior including multiple sexual partnership, early sexual activity and inconsistent or non use of condoms that predisposed them to Sexually Transmitted Diseases including HIV infection. This implies that HIV/AIDS prevention and other reproductive health programmes need to target youths when they are very young, particularly for females in the study area.

Dowsett (2003) notes that by far, the vast majority of non-biomedical research on HIV/AIDS has been behavioural research, usually by survey methods, counting people's sex acts, partners, preferences, places, times and reasons for sex, and assessing levels of risk for HIV infection, revealing the dominance of seeing sex largely as behaviours.

In the Caribbean sexuality has never been a topic for public discussion. Previously relegated to theatrical innuendo, musical lyrics and other popular forms of cultural expression, the HIV and AIDS pandemic have now thrown this taboo subject centrestage. The discourse on gender and sexuality is however, still being shaped and this book sets the platform for that discussion. Proceeding from a premise that gender influences sexuality and sexual behaviour, Sex, Power and Taboo provides an interdisciplinary approach to the exploration of how gender affects HIV risk and prevention. The paradigm of HIV and AIDS research is shifted by illuminating the influence of gender ideologies, norms and power relationships on sexuality, and the impact of gender to HIV risk and prevention within and outside of the Caribbean. The contributors are Caribbean and international, and discuss gender and sexuality for the academic, for those in the public health service as well as social policymakers. Sex, Power and Taboo contributes to the research-based interventions to aid the prevention of HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases and will assist in the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes addressing the AIDS epidemic.

What has been the impact of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases on the lives of young people? Youth, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases provides a comprehensive overview of research and policy in this increasingly important area. The book describes the world-wide incidence and prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases among adolescents and examines how their sexual behaviour has changed as a result of the threat of AIDS. It also looks at young people's knowledge and attitudes about their own sexual health, as well as the usefulness of models in predicting those at risk. The authors also discuss the effectiveness of institutional policies in educating young people and in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. Youth, AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases will be of considerable benefit to health care providers, sex educators and all those who work with and study adolescents.

Has broad appeal incuding development studies and international politics/policy, gender studies and African Studies Focuses on the gendered aspect of the struggle against AIDS and what can be done, particularly by women, to protect themselves Uniquely, research organised by British-based scholars but carried out first-hand by local researchers. Includes review of literature on the African AIDS epidemic

This volume is the result of academic cooperation between scholars in Norway, Sudan, Zambia, and South Africa linked to a master’s program in international education and development. It draws upon studies carried out in Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa. Most of the chapters deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic in various ways. Because youth are the group most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, the various chapters discuss the complex discursive spaces that youth inhabit and navigate, and where the interlocking concepts of social identity, power, inequality, sexuality, vulnerability, and resilience are brought together. Many of the chapters discuss the HIV/AIDS pandemic in relation to indigenous knowledges and argue for including indigenous knowledges in the fight against the pandemic. The suggestion to include indigenous knowledges opens space for a more varied, holistic, and comprehensive approach to the pandemic. The book invites readers to explore the oppressive and often dangerous socioeconomic situation that many youth in sub-Saharan Africa experience, also beyond the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Chapters on street youth in Namibia and youth in a township in Cape Town discuss the often creative coping mechanisms employed by youth to escape or mitigate the oppressive situations they find themselves in.

This book examines HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities, impacts and responses in the socioeconomic and cultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa. With contributions from social scientists and public health experts, the volume identifies gender inequality and poverty as the main causes of the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa.