The UNDP HIV/AIDS Regional Programme in the Arab States (UNDP/HARPAS) has organised a national workshop for youths leaders in Djibouti under the title "Youth challenges in Response to HIV/AIDS", in cooperation with the Ministry of Youths and the Executive Secretary for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Djibouti. The workshop was held during the period 4-7 May 2009 in the headquarters of Bandar Jadid organisation in Djibouti city.

Joint Efforts

Outstanding effort has been done by both the Ministry of Youths in Djibouti and the UNDP, to nominate and select the participants for this workshop, which resulted in inviting 80 youths representing various sectors of the society. The workshop organisers also sought gender balance in the workshop attendees, so that both men and women are equally represented. There was also a balanced representation of youths from all different backgrounds.

Opening Addresses

In the beginning, both Mr. Sunil Saigal, UNDP Resident Representative, and Her Excellency Ms. Hasna Barakat, Djiboutian Minister of Youth, Sports and Tourism, gave the opening addresses of the workshop. Following this, Dr. Ehab El-Kharrat, UNDP/HARPAS Senior Advisor, gave an overview of the programme initiatives that aim at mobilizing community leaders in Arab countries by raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and supporting people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH).

Inherent Rights

In the beginning of the workshop, Dr. Khadija Moalla, HIV Practice Leader and Regional Coordinator of the UNDP HIV/AIDS Regional Programme in the Arab States, mentioned that HIV is not merely a virus, but rather a developmental challenge. She further explained that the problem in the Arab region is that HIV has been associated with a negative mental image, resulting from misconceptions about PLWH, which stands behind the stigma and discrimination that PLWH suffer.

Dr. Moalla overviewed the rights that PLWH are entitled to in any community, explaining that these rights are endorsed by holy texts, and also stipulate in and called for by international conventions.

When introducing the workshop, Dr. Moalla pointed out that the objectives of this training session is to provide youths leaders and younger people, who are also leaders in their youths community centres, with the opportunity to interact. The aim of this is to develop the capacity of the younger leaders so that they can have more active roles among their peers, and eventually undertake developmental initiatives in Djibouti.

In this context, Dr. Moalla added that UNDP/HARPAS seeks to achieve the following objectives:

1. Contributing to helping young people in social and economic integration, and developing their capacities to be able to compete in the labour market, 2.

3. Raising the awareness of young people on the dangers of HIV/AIDS and drugs, 4.

5. Training youths leaders for a positive response to HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, 6.

7. Training of youths leaders on the establishment and facilitation of social and economic integration programmes for young people. 8.

Compassion in Action

Dr. Mongia Swaihi, Professor of Islamic Studies at the Zaytouna University, Tunisia, and Member of the Steering Committee of the Arab Network of Faith-based Organizations in Response to HIV/AIDS (CHAHAMA), has shed the light on the Arab religious leaders initiative in response to HIV/AIDS. This initiative has succeeded in mobilizing nearly 3,000 Muslim and Christian religious leaders, who have been trained to respond to HIV/AIDS by abolishing the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV. In this context, the CHAHAMA network has undertaken the transformation of the negative religious discourse towards PLWH, from being hostile to a more compassionate one, in order to create a supportive and enabling environment that will contribute to reintegrating PLWH in their communities. Following this, Dr. Swaihi spoke about the role of Islamic teaching in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS.

HIV and Addiction

Mr. Ayman Ghaly discussed in his presentation the means of prevention against the spread of HIV among young people. He particularly focused on refraining from drug use through acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills, which will enable youths to resist peer pressure leading to such practices.

In another session, Mr. Ghaly spoke about the motives leading to drug addiction, pointing out that addiction is of a diverse nature, which goes beyond drug addiction e.g. shopping addiction and TV addiction, etc. Mr. Ghaly also explained how intravenous drug addiction is a fertile medium for disease transmission, particularly HIV transmission, while listing means of harm reduction that limit viral transmission among drug addicts. Following this, he gave an overview of one of the successful drug rehabilitation programmes known as the “Twelve Steps Drug Rehabilitation Programme”, then he ended his presentation by shedding some light on the concept of resilience.

The Root of Danger

It is worth mentioning here that youths and adolescents, who are below 25 years of age, make more than 50% of the population in Djibouti. In spite of issuing a national law that stipulates obligatory education till the age of 16, a lot of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 years drop out of schools, leading to 59% of them remaining unregistered in secondary schools.

With little opportunity to appropriately use their time in a way that helps them find work or engage in relevant vocational training, adolescents who drop out of schools become vulnerable to the risks of khat, alcohol and drug addiction at a relatively very early age. In addition to this, they are at risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

In Djibouti, youths between the ages of 15 to 34 are the most vulnerable to HIV infection, with a prevalence rate of 6% among them. This percentage is particularly alarming, especially that it comes after conducting a study in 2006, which measured the level of knowledge and positive behaviour related to HIV prevention among youths and adolescents of 15 to 24 years of age, and where the results showed that the levels of knowledge and positive behaviour were inadequate.