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At the previous meeting in June, we outlined the 'condom normalisation' campaign that was to be rolled out during the summer. This paper reports on that and also on the implementation of sex and drugs education in schools and colleges which had made unexpectedly rapid progress since the last meeting.

1. Condom Normalisation

1.1 Background

This campaign is based on evidence from a number of sources, specifically research related to the feasibility of establishing social marketing of condoms in Ukraine. In July 2001, a team of experts concluded that a classic 'social marketing model' was costly beyond the budget of this project (this report is available on the project website).

Subsequently, discussions have taken place between various agencies and donors and although there is a willingness to fund such a scheme, there is as yet no programme in place. The same report identified significantly lower condom use that would be expected in an industrialised country with the age profile of Ukraine. In addition, manufacturers and retailers have confirmed very low sales of condoms. (Sales in Crimea in the last year total about 1.6 million condoms in a population of about 2 million. However over 80% of sales are low-cost brands targeted at the 'sex' market with very explicit 'sexual' images on packaging designs. They put this down to the large influx of holiday traffic to Crimea. Sales to the non-casual, non-holiday sex market are very low as a result of a very low demand.). During May 2002, a survey was carried out in 3 centres, specifically investigating attitudes to condoms and claimed use. This report is available on the project website and copies will be available in both Ukrainian and English at the meeting on October 3rd. The findings from this survey confirmed the need to tackle three issues:

• to increase the proportion of young people who, as part of a rational survey questionnaire, say they believe themselves to be at risk of STIs or unintended pregnancies;
• to make it easier for young people to buy condoms - the survey clearly identified that current prices of quality condoms are not considered too high for the majority of those interviewed;
• to radically shift the social climate so that condom promotion by manufacturers, distributors; retailers and HIV prevention programmes become simply part of marketing goods.

1.2 Media activities

Following the project principle of using existing items wherever feasible and developing new items only where there is an identified gap, 16 000 posters; 120 billboards; 400 000 leaflets were produced. Fifteen video slots; 10 radio slots were put together on 120 tapes and 60 CDs. This included 10 existing items and 5 new.

We took the decision not to invest our limited resources of both time and money in carrying out pre and post campaign surveys. All materials had been well researched and we were confident that they were effective. We decided instead to put our resources (largely time and energy) into gaining as much coverage as possible.

We are very proud of the successful partnerships we have established with media during the project so far. These positive relationships have been the principle reason for the extraordinary coverage of this media campaign. Details of this are available on the project website, but we produce a summary here.

It is important to note that coverage in oblasts was extensive and not restricted to the main city or large urban areas. To illustrate this, we provide details from Kherson, a region with relatively little infrastructure for supporting intervention programmes and until very recently, a region with almost no external investment.

It must also be remembered that most of these items were condom specific, and using mass media methods. It was therefore visible to the entire population, although the location of billboards was targetted to some extent. There is a prevailing opinion that this would not be considered 'acceptable' by the population. Although some billboards acquired additional sex messages, including diagrams, the preparatory work carried out locally, explaining the need for this campaign, along with a more accepting attitude than many may expect, there have been no negative responses.

1.3 Kazantip

The project team in Crimea has implemented an intervention for participants of the "Kazantip" festival. The intervention included distribution of condoms, leaflets about HIV and STIs and consultations of venerologists.

There were 50 000 participants at the festival, from 12 to 30 years old, but mostly people in their early twenties. This included mostly people from Ukraine, but also young people from Russia and Belarus. The project was able to cover approximately 60% of participants with its services.

The project team distributed 17 000 booklets about HIV; 4500 booklets about STIs and 56 486 condoms. The project team also gave 315 consultations about STIs/HIV and condom use.

More information is available from the film!

1.4 Impact

As stated above, our impact measures have been focussed on the coverage of the items and the cost effectiveness of this using our project principles. However, Sevastopol carried out a pre and post campaign study of condom sales. The results are encouraging, and we intend to emphasis the participation of condom retailers in the next wave of the campaign, to coincide with WAD.

1.5 Next

We intend to build on the successes of this campaign, which we see as following 3 key principles:

• using materials developed by our partner organisations and developing new materials only when there is an identified gap;
• close collaboration with media;
• measuring impact on the basis of coverage.

2. Sex and drugs education in schools

2.1 Background

There is ample evidence that young people in Ukraine have insufficient access to accurate information about the negative aspects of sex and drug use and we do not propose to repeat this here. The project set out to investigate the feasibility of introducing these issues to the curriculum rather than depending on extra-curricular activities. The logic for this is straightforward - the great majority of young people are in schools, colleges; access to internats is through the same routes as mainstream education.

2.2 Valeology Experts Group

This was established to support this work and comprises representatives from the key interest groups : Young People; HIV Positive People; Departments of Education; Academic Institutions; Schools, Oblast Coordinators from across the project oblasts. This group of 12 has worked together since March 2002, sharing imagination and determination. The progress so far has surprised and delighted us all.

2.3 Framework and Methodology

With support from EU experts, a framework of principles for a sex and drugs education curriculum was developed. According to the list of these principles, the Valeology Group reviewed and compiled a list of school programmes that are suitable for use in oblast schools.

2.4 Implementation

We have decided that the term 'pilot' is not applicable here. Instead each oblast has developed a phased implementation plan, with a minimum target of 60% coverage of all schools in year one. This is an ambitious target but we are all confident that the appropriate technical support and resources are in place. Details are available on the project website but we illustrate this with a summary of the Kherson plan.

Total number of schools in Kherson oblast: 650

Number of schools targetted by the project: 457 (including 270 rural schools) (100% schools in 10 rayons of Kherson oblast which are the most affected by HIV). The teacher training will be based on UNDP training modules (HIV+ STIs, Drug Use, Communication Skills) and will be conducted by the staff of Kherson Oblast Teacher Training Institute (under supervision of Kherson Oblast Department of Education). The training will target teachers of Life Skills and Safety course ("OBZHD") and 10 rayon chief methodologists.

The teachers will be trained in groups of 20, with two sessions happening simultaneously, series of training will be repeated every 2 weeks, therefore training all OBZHD teachers in 10 rayons in 6 months.

ÂTeachers for grades 1-3 will be trained as a part of their monthly "specialist days."

2.5 Critical Support

The success of implementation does not only depend on the technical expertise of the many educational professionals involved. This is again an area where active support is required from others.

• The Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine identified commitment to this in a letter;
• Oblasts have issued a Decree identifying their commitment; all documents are available on the project website.
• Our media partners continue to play their vital role in explaining to the general population why these programmes in schools are necessary. A joint initiative to raise the profile of this work is described below.

2.6 Video Scenario Competition : "AIDS can affect anyone: you don't need to be afraid-you need to know"

The goal of this competition is to raise awareness of HIV among teenagers and to build support for HIV positive people. The topics for scenarios are:

• ways of HIV transmission
• HIV prevention and healthy life style
• Support for HIV positive people
• Leadership and personal responsibility

Children of 12 to 18 years are invited to participate. The winning scenarios in each oblast will be used for making short videos to be broadcast on one of the central TV channels in time for the World AIDS Day.

2.7 Impact

We intend to establish a longitudinal study that will track the shifts in levels of knowledge, awareness and claimed behaviour and which can be a significant monitoring tool for all prevention activities in Ukraine. We have developed a set of questionnaires which are designed for 3 age groups: 6-11; 12-14; 14-16. The survey sample will cover 1000 students in each region. The sampling will allow us to measure the relative impact of:

• no project participation;
• project curriculum;
• UNDP peer education without project participation;
• UNDP peer education with project participation.

We are expecting to prove that the most cost effective intervention is a combination of the project curriculum and peer education.

We are very pleased to have formed these strong links with the Peer Education Programme.