Creating environments that support peer education : experiences from HIV/AIDS-prevention in South Africa

Few would disagree that social environments influence the success of health education. There is less agreement about what constitutes a ‘health-enabling community context’. I recently conducted research on this topic (written up in a book on peer education and sexual health in South Africa) which evaluated a three-year HIV-prevention programme aimed at people living in particularly high risk situations for HIV/AIDS (Campbell, 2003). Young people in school were one such group (2% of boys and 13% of girls aged 15 were HIV positive), and they constitute the focus of this editorial. (Extract from article)