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Smart
Choices HIV AIDS Prevention Program |
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The
following is brief overview of the Campus Crusade Smart Choices
curriculum that we use to provide training to High School Students for
AIDS awareness and prevention.
This curriculum linked with our Church-to-Church
Partnership
Program is an extremely effective tool.
Smart Choices is a six-hour seminar presented in two-hour segments over
three days. It teaches all
the basics that can reasonably be fit into six hours: |
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1 |
The distinction between HIV and AIDS |
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2 |
How to minimize the risk of becoming
infected when living with or caring for someone who is infected. |
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3 |
The actions
that need to be taken when becoming infected. |
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4 |
The most common
methods of becoming infected and what to do to best prevent being
infected. |
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5 |
Since
promiscuous sex with multiple partners is the most common method of
contracting HIV, the obvious solution is to simply stop that behavior.
This is a very simplistic and trite statement and naturally would
be a very tough sell to a bunch of teenagers.
The program also has a strong message of behavior change which, is
directed at boys and girls but emphasized to the boys’ treatment of, or
attitude toward girls. |
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6 |
Since
this program was developed by a religious organization, naturally the HIV
AIDS message and the tough choices that have to be made are tied into
the Judeo Christian ethics and morality system. |
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7 |
Scripture
is used widely throughout the program to reinforce the strength that can
be drawn from a relationship with God for making the tough choices that
have to be made along life’s path. |
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8 |
We show the
Jesus film produced by Campus Crusade in the last hour of the seminar and
invite all students to make a commitment to Christ |
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9 |
Our final step
is to give the student the opportunity to make a voluntary commitment to
abstinence until they marry and have them sign a commitment card in the
form of a bookmark, which they keep as a reminder |
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At the grass
roots level this program is very similar to the ABC program that seemed to
be very effective in Uganda in the early ‘80s. |
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A –
Abstinence before marriage
B – Be Faithful to one partner after marriage
C – Change behavior and trust Christ to help you make the tough life
choices. |
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Link
to the Uganda story. |
