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“I worry about children in my class being HIV positive. Could

they infect me?”

Schools have a key role to play in making Kenya a better place for those with HIV. After all, every child has the right to a good education, including children with HIV. Education has the POWER to slow the spread of HIV and schools are places where care, support and tolerance can be provided for those infected and affected by HIV.

However, talking to students about HIV in a relevant and exciting way is not always easy. This guide to the KUWA SHUJAA comic, will help you change that.

“How can I help my students to show compassion to those who are

affected by HIV and AIDS?”

“If I tell my class that I have been tested for HIV, will they stigmatize me?”

2

WHY HAVE WE GIVEN YOUR

STUDENTS A COMIC?

The purpose of the ‘KUWA SHUJAA’ project is to ensure that all school environments are places where those with HIV are free from stigma and discrimination. You, the teacher, can make this happen!

Children living with HIV and AIDS or with families affected by HIV and AIDS are often stigmatized or isolated from their community and denied access to health services and school. The stigma is often worse for a person living with HIV than the symptoms of the sickness itself. Stigmatizing HIV can lead to higher infection rates because it stops people getting tested and protecting themselves and their partners. F

AC

T:

The teacher’s role is to increase understanding and compassion and so lessen discrimination. You need to inform yourself and your learners.

This Teachers’ Guide offers suggestions for classroom activities that will encourage young people to think through their values and develop a better understanding as to how and why HIV is relevant to them.

YOUR ROLE:

KEY FACTS ABOUT DISCRIMINATIONIgnorance is the basis of discrimination, so teach the facts about HIV and AIDS! It is important to teach the facts about transmission because many children discriminate against others because of their fear of being infected.Children and adults living with or affected by HIV and AIDS need care and compassion; they should not be discriminated against.HIV and AIDS is a disease like many other diseases. Just because someone has HIV or AIDS it does not mean they are a bad person or that they have done wrong.Bullying is banned!

This publication has been made possible with the generous support of the American people through USAID/Kenya, under the APHIA II Operations Research Project, a cooperative agreement (No. 623-A-00-09-00001-00) between the Kenya Mission and the Population Council.

page 04

One of the most powerful

forms of education about

HIV and AIDS is openness.

When people disclose their

status to family and com-

munity it creates a climate

of open discussion and

this reduces stigma. YOU

can help normalize HIV and

AIDS by talking openly

about it in your classroom

FACT BOX:

Read Manywele’s story with the class – choosing different students to read or act out the parts of the different characters.

ACTIVITY:

In pairs encourage your students to discuss the following situations.

What do you think your friends at school would say if you told them you were HIV positive?What would you do if they were spoken badly about your friends refused to talk to you?

Talk about how we can begin to change those attitudes.

PAIR WORK:

As a follow up to this activity, ask the students who played the role of Manywele these ques-tions...“How did it feel hearing your friends say they don’t want to sit next to you / eat with you / play sport with you?”“What did you want to say to them to make them change their minds?”“Why do you think the students in the comic stigmatized Manywele”“Why would someone not want to sit next to a classmate who is HIV positive?”“How can stigma be hurtful to the people living with HIV”…make sure everyone backs up their comments with the FACTS about how HIV is transmitted.

Ask the class to write a short essay on how Manywele experienced discrimination. Why was he treated badly? What lessons can we learn from this story? What was Maria Kim’s role in this story?

WRITING WORK:

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Manywele left his first school because of the ................... he faced from his ‘friends’.1

DEAR MR. POLITICIAN…

KUWA SHUJAA 2 encourages the students to make a list of all the negative and positive aspects of having an HIV positive friend. You can do this activity with the whole class. Write their suggestions on the board in 2 columns. Then go through the NEGATIVES. How many of these are based on MYTHS? [CHECK GUIDE 1 TO REMIND YOURSELF ABOUT HOW HIV CAN BE TRANSMITTED]

Why not put a quiz together exploring the ways in which HIV is transmitted?

This fun game tests the students’ knowledge about HIV that they learnt in KUWA SHUJAA 1. The students were challenged to complete sentences by filling in the blank with the correct word.

Why don’t you come up with your own sentences and read them out to the class? You could turn this into a competition… whoever answers the questions fastest wins! And remember: knowledge saves lives!

The comic asks the students to imagine they are writing to an MP! They should write a letter to discuss the ways to bring forth an HIV free society.

ACTIVITY: You could use this as an activity in class. You could ask them to write the letters and then read them out to the class. Then you could have a fun vote for which MP everyone would most like to represent them in parliament!

ACTIVITY:

ACTIVITY:

ACTIVITY:

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page 09

page 10

5

ACTIVITY:

FACT BOX:

Jipendo breaks up with her boyfriend when she sees him visiting a VCT. She thinks that if he is in a VCT he must be cheating on her. But he was just getting information about HIV and how to look after himself and Jipendo.

There is NO

THING wrong

in visiting

a VCT. Vis

iting a

VCT does n

ot mean that

the person is

sexually

active – t

hey are p

laces

where health

y and

useful in

formation can

be found.

In the comic, the activity asks the students to respond to questions about HIV and AIDS like they are a peer educator. The statements are potentially very hurtful and are the kind of statements that can cause stigma to spread like wildfire.

“I’m not worried about having sex with my sweetie – she’s a nice girl and her mother is a teacher. You only have to worry about dirty girls.”

“You hugged that guy with AIDS. Are you crazy?”

“I don’t believe Juma has HIV. He looks so healthy.”

Choose some students to come to the front of the class – these are your ‘peer educators’ who want to break stigma in the school. Then have other students call out negative comments about HIV. Let the ‘peer educators’ respond appropriately to these statement

ACTIVITY:

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This comic is all about being a hero…This is your chance to be one and to get creative. The right message about HIV can stop stigma from spreading and hurting our friends and family.

page 20

think of the current state of schools and whether the students affected by and infected with hiv can be comfortable in the classroom…Ask the students what they think can be done right now to make the situation better for everyone…

in comic 02 we asked students to design their own adverts about important facts on HIV…in Comic Two, we asked the students to design a poster all about making the school a Stigma Free Zone…Encourage the students to have as much fun designing the poster…Remind them it is not an exam…and not a test. It is for fun and to see if they can get the message across…

Alternate the designs on the boards in your classrooms and in your school. Let the students decide who had the best ones and get them excited about the message and the artwork!

in this ac

tivity the stu

dents are en

couraged to write a

fictional l

etter to their sch

ool explainin

g that they

are being bullied

because o

f their hiv status.

DICTIONARY

CHALLENGE

WRITTEN ACTIVITY:

TIP

:

7

8kuwa shujaa production charles j ouda | bridget deacon | fatima aly jaffer design salim busuru art salim busuru | eric muthoga | noah mukono | kevin mmbasu stories grace irungu | daniel muli | peter kades published by well told story: www.wts.co.ke