Malawi (2005): Baseline TRaC on Youth Alert! Peer Education Program.

This study was conducted to obtain baseline indicators of important behaviors and factors impacting sexual reproductive health of young people in the two targeted districts of the Youth Alert! Peer Education Pilot Project (YAPE); Mwanza and Balaka. A follow-up study will be conducted at the end of the pilot project to monitor the changes in these indicators. In addition to providing a means of tracking the changes in key indicators over the life of the project, the results of this baseline study are being used to inform the content development of the Youth Alert! Peer Education Curriculum, which is currently being finalized. Youth Alert! is an HIV/AIDS prevention and life-skills promotion program that targets young Malawians aged 10-20. To date, the program'™s primary means of outreach have been the popular Youth Alert! Mix radio show and livel y educational presentations in each of the country'™s secondary schools. Recognizing the importance of inter-personal communications and peer influences, PSI/Malawi has (in collaboration with and support from the JHU BRIDGE Project) introduced two hundred Youth Alert! Mix Listeners Clubs in the eight BRIDGE Project districts, and is in the process of introducing a pilot Youth Alert! Peer Education project in Balaka and Mwanza Districts. The study assessed indicators among persons aged 10-20, male and female, resident in the Traditional Authority (TA) Nthache in Mwanza District and TA Nsamala in Balaka District. The identified districts and TAs are the locations identified for the implementation of the pilot phase of YAPE project. A sample size of N=1,220 was aimed for, with 1,270 respondents being interviewed. After data cleaning, a sample size of 1,267 (614 females and 653 males) was analyzed.