LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA 7•Who will Find the
Life Skills Education Toolkit Useful?
The Life Skills Education Toolkit is designed for
health workers, facilitators, animators, social
workers, teachers and many others who work with
young people and daily face the challenges of
helping them make healthy and safe choices. The
Toolkit can be used with children in diverse settings
in both HIV prevention and care programs.
The toolkit will be especially useful to development
workers who have found that most programs for
young people only educate and inform but do not
integrate a life skills approach to change behavior.
Examples include:
- A health worker has led sessions on how
substance abuse can be harmful, but the
children in the slums continue to sniff glue
and take gutka (tobacco extract); - An animator tells street children that HIV is
transmitted through sexual intercourse,
but the street boys continue to have
unprotected sex with female sex workers in
the nearby area; - A social worker working with boys in a
non-formal setting has discussed how they
can get into trouble if they follow the gang
leader, but the boys are not able to say “no”; - A community worker working with girls in a
reproductive program has discussed with the
girls how they are more vulnerable to HIV, but
the girls are not able to communicate their
feelings and talk about sexuality;- A teacher talked to her students about the
importance of studying and working hard,
but her students are irregular in their
attendance and do not know what they will
do when they grow up; - An outreach worker taught boys welding
skills and placed them in jobs, but they are
always getting into arguments with their
boss and co-workers; and - A housemother has many orphans and
adolescents under her charge. Some do not
talk about their loss while others are rebellious
all the time. She gives them food, love and
sympathy, but it does not seem to help.
Others who will find the toolkit particularly useful
include young people who want to help their
friends. Peer influences are very powerful. When
young people participate in the program, they learn
to be responsible for their actions and show
concern for others. Many become role models and
are able to help their peers. Managers and policy
makers who want to see changes in behavior that
impact programs can also benefit from the toolkit.
These changes could involve delay in sexual debut
until marriage, accessing services for voluntary
HIV counseling and testing, reduced substance use
and other behavior change indicators.