An HIV prevention campaign targeting young people aged 10-24 has been launched.  The campaign known as Wise Up is a collaboration between the government of Botswana, UNICEF and stakeholders.

The campaign will ensure that young people of 10-14, 15-19 and 20-24 years are empowered with factual information to guide them to avoid getting infected with HIV.

The underlying notion of Wise Up is that young people need to be smarter in the world of HIV with their sexuality. It necessitates the need to be alert to the challenges of HIV in the country. Wise Up has been designed taking into consideration the characteristics of a young person and their interests.

New technologies such as SMS, social networking media as well as the traditional communication platforms such as television, radio and print media will be used to increase coverage of the campaign and reinforce its messages.

The objectives of the campaign are; to increase young people’s knowledge of modes of HIV transmission, to reduce misconceptions about HIV transmission and reduce young people’s risk and vulnerability to HIV infection.

 
Background

Despite significant progress Botswana has made in scaling up some key interventions against HIV and AIDS, information dissemination to young people remains a big challenge facing the country.

By 2008, only 43 percent of young people aged 15-24 had comprehensive knowledge of HIV, far below the Botswana Universal Access and the 2001, United Nations General Assembly Special Session, (UNGASS) targets of 50% and 95% by 2010. Almost half of adolescents could not correctly identify the most common misconceptions about HIV and AIDS transmission in Botswana.

In 2010, UNICEF approached the government of Botswana and sold the idea of implementing a youth program that will captivate young people. Government, led by NACA, other ministries, civil society organizations and the private sector embraced the idea that gave birth to the Wise Up campaign.

 Download Wise Up Campaign framework