RTK - Ghana Field

It is Tuesday morning 29th of October 2002. 18 young people are gathered in a warm training room on first floor of the building of the NGO PPAG (Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana). But the heat does not bother them. They are discussing intensively how to implement RTK in two sub-metros in the capital Accra: Ablekuma and Ashiedu Keteke. They take it very seriously, since they are in the driving seat of the Initiative.

UNICEF invited PPAG as the research organisation for the RTK project. They have brought together a group of young people, who are representing the NGOs that are implementing UNICEF's HIV/AIDS prevention programme in Accra. RTK is thus integrated in UNICEF's overall response to HIV/AIDS. The young people discussing RTK know what they are talking about. They were trained some weeks ago in Participatory Action Research (PAR) by PPAG with the support of Virgil Mensah, a student at Cornell University. Furthermore, the RTK youth team was trained to use the Sara Communication in the context of their research.

To date, the group has been gathering baseline data through questionnaires in the two sub-metros, especially focussing on high risk groups. This has not always been easy, as became clear during their discussion. Nii explained that children who were hawking on the street only wanted to participate if he would buy their products. Others had to win the trust of the porters at the market before they could even ask them some questions. But all in all they were able to collect information from the in-school and out-of-school youth. In the coming weeks they are going to do the actual Participatory Action Research. They are exited about it. In the heat of their discussion, they are brainstorming ideas on how to document the process and how to feed back to the communities and their friends abroad, who are doing similar things. All these elements will become building blocks for an integrated communication strategy.

While the young people in Accra are doing their research, about 40 kilometers away from the capital, 55 young football players are being trained by PPAG in HIV/AIDS peer education. These young boys reside at the Feyenoord Fetteh Football Academy, a boarding school sponsored by the Dutch soccer club Feyenoord. The school aims to train talented football players in Ghana, but at the same time provide them with education. UNICEF and Feyenoord are collaborating with RTK in two ways. Feyenoord sponsors the RTK initiative, while UNICEF trains the boys from the school in peer education. These boys are role models in their communities, but they will become renowned in future, when they will be playing in the National team of Ghana. By involving them in the RTK Initiative they will become great advocates for HIV/AIDS prevention - now and in the future.

Next year, RTK will scale up and will also start in the North of Ghana. By that time the RTK youth team will be experienced in PAR and will again take the steering wheel, this time to support their colleagues in the North.

SOURCE:
UNICEF Right to Know Initiative, November 2002.