How to Create an Effective Peer Education Project

This handbook, developed by FHI's AIDSCAP's Behavior Change Communication (BCC) unit, is part of a collection of nine handbooks that discuss concepts in behaviour change communication (BCC) in relation to HIV/AIDS/STI issues.

"How to Create an Effective Peer Education Project" is designed to help field-level planners and implementers who are planning a new peer education project and want to strengthen or energise ongoing projects.

The information in this handbook is based on interviews with more than 200 AIDSCAP subproject managers, peer educators and peer beneficiaries in ten countries. It presents advice from experienced HIV/AIDS BCC practitioners on recruiting and selecting peer educators; community acceptance and support for peer educators; training topics for peer educators; supervising and supporting peer educators; and the role of educational materials and condoms in peer education projects.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What is Peer Education?
• Benefits of a Peer Education Approach
• Should I Use a Peer Education Approach?
• Critical Element: Activities Expected of Peer Educators
• Critical Element: Recruitment and Selection of Peer Educators
• Qualities to Look For
• Recruiting the Peer Educators
• Critical Element: Comprehensive Training of Peer Educators
• Training Peer Educators to Increase Awareness of STDs/HIV
• Training Peer Educators in Condom Promotion, Distribution and Education
• Training Peer Educators to Motivate and Support Behavior Change
• Training Peer Educators to Deal with Care and Support Issues
• Critical Element: Support and Supervision of Peer Educators
• Support
• Supervision
• Critical Element: Community Acceptance and Support
• Critical Element: Educational Materials andCondom Supplies
• Educational Materials
• Condom Supplies
• Common Difficulties in Peer Education Projects
• Difficulties Faced by Peer Educators
• Barriers Encountered by Programme Managers
• Final Thoughts

Click here to download the publication in PDF format [124 KB].

Click here for a list of the nine handbooks in this BCC series.