Social exclusion and violence:
Education for social cohesion

HIV as a Bridge for Peace

Participating countries: Israel, The Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and Morocco

HIV as a Bridge for Peace is a Middle-East regional project which promotes the establishment and on-going functions of a regional network of AIDS educators from the Middle-East countries. Participants in the workshops organised (six of them so far) are coming from different communities: Palestinians, Israelis, Jordanians, Egyptians, Turkish and Moroccans. The NGO The Jerusalem Aids Project (JAIP) provides professional training to them and also makes available, for those who wish, an Educational Kit (in English, Hebrew and /or Arabic) to distribute to schools. For the first time in the history of the region, collaboration between Israeli and Arab professionals in the area of HIV/AIDS education exists. The JAIP workshops have been an initiator of this concern.

The training workshops given in the Middle East covered the following topics: the immunology of HIV/AIDS, epidemiology, HIV and religion, clinical aspects, the immune system, modes of transmission, principles in targeting AIDS messages to youth, barriers to effective AIDS education, networking, blood testing, safe sex and use of condom. Additional topics could be chosen as such: women and AIDS, AIDS and society response, clinic-based AIDS education and prevention, barriers to HIV/AIDS in the Middle-East. Furthermore, the participants learned to use the ISAYP Model (Immune System Approach): a model that suggests a new strategy to HIV/AIDS education, based on a comprehensive health approach, rather than a common approach, which is sex education-based. Many education-related professionals are now implementing the ISAYP Model into schools in their respective regions/countries. Another aim of the project is to help people to get to know - and respect - each other. To create the conditions for this to happen, free time was dedicated, during the workshop, to building personal ties between the participants. The JAIP also organised two missions of health and education professionals from the Middle-East, who travelled and presented together, as one team, their findings and work in the field of HIV/AIDS education at the Vancouver (1996) and Geneva (1998) International AIDS Conferences.

In 1997, people living with HIV/AIDS in the Middle-East are estimated by the World Health Organization at 210,000, with the main mode of transmission being intravenous drug abuse and heterosexual sex. End of 1999: in Israel: 2,400 persons and Egypt, 8,100 persons were affected by HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS numbers). Israel is defined as one of the countries which has low incidence and prevalence of HIV/AIDS, while the number of persons touched is increasing. HIV/AIDS has been transmitted furthermore in the past years by African immigrants. In Gaza and West bank (The Palestinian Authority), as the population becomes more open, new risks for HIV/AIDS infections are developing. The main transmission mode there is blood transmission.

Ms. Hanni ROSENBERG
Chair, Jerusalem AIDS Project (independent, international NGO, which has gained wide experience in the last 12 years in the development, implementation and evaluation of school-based HIV/AIDS programs.)
POB 7179
10 Heller St. Givaat Murdechai
Jerusalem 91077 Israel
Tel : 00(972) 2 6797677
E.mail : jaipisrael@yahoo.com
or
jaip@trendline.co.il
Website : http://www.aidsnews.org

Institutional Partners
Palestinian Center for Exchanges
Young Palestinian Union for Solidarity and Peace
Financial Partners
The Government of Israel (Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs)
The Government of the Netherlands (Embassy in Cairo)
The Government of the United Kingdom (General Consulate in Israel)
The Government of the United States of America (Embassy in Tel Aviv)
The National Council for International Health,
USA UNAIDS, Geneva UNICEF, UNDP, People to People Program The Jerusalem Foundation

In 1995.

See "Project Report: HIV/AIDS in the Middle-East", Jerusalem, 1997 (Edition: JAIP; 1998).

The Immune System Approach Model (ISYAP), developed in Jerusalem and implemented by JAIP is recognised as the best practice and hailed by the international community and researchers.