Module 7 – Peer Education

Introduction
As young people reach adolescence and start the crucial journey into adulthood, they reach a time when they choose their own friends and peer groups. At this stage, young people are strongly influenced by their peer groups and therefore their likes, dislikes, behaviors, and choices, are shaped by their friends.

Peer education is a proven strategy that uses the positive aspects of adolescent peer groups to learn life skills and gain accurate information about issues affecting them from each other. Peer education recognizes the rights and responsibilities of students within tertiary institutions to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to enable them to make informed and responsible choices and decisions affecting their lives.

Why do we need peer education?

Peer education is a powerful strategy to promote positive behavior change and improve the life skills of young people for the following reasons:

• A well supported peer education program improves the health and behavior of young people, reducing the risks of unplanned pregnancy, violence, abuse, HIV/AIDS and STIs.
• Young people may not be able to ask their teacher, pastor, parent or counsellor about sex, sexuality, drugs, alcohol, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, STIs, violence or abuse. They usually feel more confident asking a respected and knowledgeable friend first. This one to-one discussion is an important role played by peer educators.
• Young people need to have positive role models to emulate when faced by difficult decisions e.g., how to resist the pressure to have sex, or how to act in an appropriate manner towards a person they are attracted to. Peer educators are selected and trained as role models for their friends.
• Peer education reinforces the life skills and sexuality education that is provided by institutions.
• Young people spend a large amount of their time outside of normal learning time so trained peer educators can work with them during their free time.
• Peer educators build their own skills, self-esteem, confidence, and knowledge empowering them to be better citizens.
• Peer education advisers will develop new skills and knowledge which will enhance their own professional development and career prospects.

Who is a Peer?

• A peer is a person who belongs to the same social group as another person. For example, a peer could be any persons of the same age, educational status, or workmate that are free to formally and informally engage in common issues that affect them in the private and public sphere.
• Students in tertiary institutions are peers, young people from the same neighborhood, church, school or who participate in the same hobby sports etc. are peers.

What is education?

Education is the process of acquiring knowledge through learning. Individuals can learn through circular education, real life experiences, media, and their peers amongst other things.

Peer education involves the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors of peers on a particular area e.g., prevention and management of HIV and AIDS, family planning and/ practicing safer sex.

In SAYWHAT Peer Education is a way of empowering students. It offers them the opportunity to participate in activities where youth can access information and services related to SRH that they need.

Objectives of the SAYWHAT Peer Education program in Tertiary Institutions:

• To increase the participation of students in sexual and reproductive health activities.
• To share and generate information on sexual and reproductive health and improve knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviors.
• To offer psychosocial support to peers.
• To coordinate, monitor and evaluate SAYWHAT activities at college level.

Peer Education trainings are essential to capacitate peers before they take up their role as peer educators. SAYWHAT values training of its peer educators to give them an opportunity to acquire skills, knowledge and behaviors that enhance their work. Peer educators must be well informed and must support each other as a team.

To ensure that peer educators have capacity, SAYWHAT conducts the following trainings for Peer Educators to help them become useful to their college communities:

1. Life-skills training
2. HIV and AIDS Education including Positive Living
3. Sexual and Reproductive Health Education
4. Basic Peer Counselling and Psycho-Social Support
5. Monitoring and evaluation trainings
6. Participatory research approaches trainings
7. Gender Trainings
8. Data management and research skills training
9. Writing and facilitation skills
10. TB trainings

Characteristics of a Good Peer Educator

Peer Education involves building and nurturing the peer educators’ personal behavior to make them acceptable to their society i.e., their peers. In educating others, peer educators themselves must examine and enrich their own values, attitudes, and attributes.

Skills applicable to peer educators

Skills applicable to peer educators

• Patient
• Confidential
• Gender Sensitive
• Team Player.
• Motivated
• Committed to the cause.
• Respected and trusted
• A good listener and communicator. Decision-making skills
• Negotiating skills
• Conflict management skills
• Leadership skills
• Communication skills
• Advocacy Skills
• Facilitation skills
• Researching skills
• Team building skills.
• Counselling skills

Time management skills

Roles of Peer Educators

Peer educators must be knowledgeable about SRHR issues that affect themselves and their peers. The peer educator should actively seek knowledge from SAYWHAT, other NGOs and the health workers at campus or in their neighborhood. It is important a peer educator go through this training in full and refer to it every now and then.

Some of the topics that a peer educator should have good knowledge on are sex, sexuality and gender, gender-based violence including sexual harassment, HIV & AIDS, drug and substance abuse, mental health, STIs, contraceptives pregnancy and any other topics that can affect them and their peers.

Peer educators must be aware of the clinics, information sources, and SRH supportive related services available in their area. In addition, they should.

• Share and generate information amongst peers at colleges.
• Manage and provide leadership in Peer Educators’ Clubs.
• Facilitate discussion forums during club meetings.
• Manage and update Resource Centers.
• Networking with other local structures from the community that can provide support
  to students.
• Build behavioral skills of other peers.
• Monitor and evaluate peer education activities.

HOW AND WHEN TO DO PEER EDUCATION

a. Discussion Forums

A very critical role for peer educators is to facilitate discussion forums. For SAYWHAT Peer Educators are expected to facilitate discussion forums at least once a week. The discussion forums must focus on sexual and reproductive health issues. There must be adequate preparation and research on the topic for discussion. Peer educators must be able to talk about sexual attitudes, behaviors, and the consequences of unprotected sex. Discussion Forums will allow participants to open and speak freely about their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. The community will be able to share ideas and support each other. In preparation for the meetings Peer Educators must:

• Mobilize the participants – students and other peer educators.
• Choose a topic for discussion – e.g., STIs, HIV and AIDS etc.
• Provide the facilitator – a peer educator, a resource person, a lecturer or any person who is knowledgeable on the subject at hand. Focus group discussions can be guided by SRH related toolkits like the SAYWHAT positive living toolkit, SAYWHAT manual, Aunty Stella etc.

Preparing for a Group Discussion (GD)

When you are preparing for a GD, you should:

• Define the objectives of the GD.
• Determine the topic/issue for discussion.
• Select an appropriate venue, depending on the nature of the GD.
• Determine the number of participants attending the discussion (This should be a manageable number)
• Estimate the length of the discussion.
• Select a facilitator.

Guidelines for Organizing a Group Discussion

• Group discussions work best with around fifteen participants. The minimum size is six people, and the maximum size is 15. This group size enables everybody to participate.
• Group discussions usually last between thirty minutes and two hours.
• People will participate in a group discussion more easily if they share important characteristics.
• Discussions with groups of adults will work best if participants have similar education, authority, or political position, enabling them to talk openly amongst themselves.
• Hold group discussions in a place where the participants feel comfortable and where they can talk openly. Consider how the location may influence the discussion. For example, participants may not feel able to talk openly about the attitudes of service providers towards young people if the discussion is held in the local health center!
• The note-taker should sit where they can easily see and hear all the participants.
• Mobile phones can help record discussions if participants are comfortable with this. If recorders are used, the note-taker is responsible for operating the recorder. Make sure that all participants understand who the note-taker is, what information they are writing down, and how it will be used.

b. Information & Knowledge sharing

There is a lot of diverse information on sexual and reproductive health including, STIs and HIV/AIDS available for students in colleges. It is also the role of the peer educators to source the correct and relevant information and then share with others. Information to share can be available from different centers and formats. It becomes the responsibility of peer educators to network with strategic organizations, hospitals, clinics, and other service providers to source information to share with other students. Examples of some of the information, education, and communication materials on SRH include but are not limited to pamphlets, fact sheets, newsletters, journals, posters, and videos.

c. Networking

Peer Educators must be well networked with a lot of organizations, referral groups, and support networks for support and resource provision. Peer educators must be proactive and participate actively at national and regional level. It is important for peer educators to network with other peer educators from different communities including colleges, to share experiences and learn from each other. Peer education is also about students networking with the local community, adults, college staff members and working together to reach a common goal of improving the health and well-being of the students. This would also contribute to continuity, effectiveness, and sustainability of all peer education programs. Peer educators must also create partnerships with individuals and groups that are strategic and have a similar goal. It is important for peer educators to undertake a mapping of possible partnership organizations within their locality.

d. Resource Centers and Information Dissemination Activities

A resource center is an information hub, where information and resources on Sexual and Reproductive Health including STIs and HIV and AIDS is sourced, stored, and distributed systematically.

• Resource Centers must be accessible to all students at any time.
• Resource Centers must always be youth or peer friendly for all health services. It must be managed by the peer educators themselves.
• Resource Centers should have information materials as well as resources like condoms for students.
• It must also be a confidential area that allows for open interaction amongst peers.
• Peer Educators and other students must be identified with their Resource Center for it to be effective.

Besides Resource Centers, peer educators may use various other methods of information dissemination Activities that provide students with both education and entertainment are referred to as edutainment. Edutainment is one of the most interactive and enjoyable ways of disseminating information for students.

• Dramas
• Awareness raising events.
• Sports
• Group discussions
• Role plays
• Youth friendly corners/ centers
• Songs
• Poster-making
• Quiz
• Debates and Speeches
• Workshops
• Film-showing

d. Advocacy

Advocacy may be referred to as the process of speaking up and drawing the attention of communities to a certain important issue and with the intended effect of directing decisions makers towards a solution. Advocacy can also be defined generally as set of actions meant to inform a certain decision. Advocacy is more effective if a group knows exactly what they want to gain or achieve by the advocacy.

The following are some simple general steps in advocacy.

Step 1: Identify the problem and see the real cause of that problem, as well as the possibility of the situation to be changed. Information gathering on the problem may include research, visits to key informants and assessing risks possible supporters and hindrances. There is also a need to identify the purpose for which the advocacy is being done.

Step 2: This second stage involves the collective decision making by the people affected to act or not and planning on how to make and sustain the action.

Step 3: Take actions and evaluate.

Methods of Advocacy

• Meetings
• Drama, songs, and slogans
• Press statements or releases
• Posters and fliers
• Public meetings
• Demonstrations
• Conferences
• Petitions

e. Leadership

Leadership is a process of positively influencing others to accomplish certain objectives and direct organizations/institutions in certain direction that makes them more cohesive and coherent; leaders are the people who carry this process by applying their skills, values, character, knowledge, and beliefs.

• Reproductive health needs critical leadership that is willing to positively transform society and to be positively transformed by society.
• The student community should be empowered to appreciate that they are the owners of their problems and can actively participate in providing solutions.
• Leadership in reproductive health needs to be gender-sensitive because more women than men experience challenges associated with SRHR.

Peer leadership

In SAYWHAT, peer educators are seen as leaders, hence are referred to as peer leaders. These individuals should be:

• Trustworthy
• Effective communicators
• Motivational to encourage member followers to develop their personal skills.
• Able to solve problems.
• Open to change and criticism.
• Punctual, among other character traits

f. Facilitation

Peer educators must be equipped with facilitation skills that will allow them to be able to train their peers. They should also know how to deal with different types of peers/participants and be able to handle sensitive discussions.

There are certain features that are expected if one is to become a good facilitator. These include: –

• Showing respect to the people one is working with.
• Believing in people’s capacities, including the capacities of women, youth etc.
• Listening attentively and respecting other people’s opinions
• Readiness and willingness to learn from participants.
• Confidence and knowledge about issues under discussion
• Creativity and ability to improvise with local resources.
• Flexibility and ability to adapt tools and approaches to different situations.
• Sensitivity to participants’ feelings and understanding of group dynamics.
• Ability to help participants, organizing and analyzing information.

MONITORING AND EVALUATING PEER EDUCATORS’ ACTIVITIES

Monitoring and Evaluation is one element that the Peer Educators should take as their responsibility so that the college-based interventions are effective. Monitoring of a program or intervention involves the collection of routine data that measure progress toward achieving program objectives. It is used to track changes in program performance over time. Its purpose is to permit stakeholders to make informed decisions regarding the effectiveness of programs and the efficient use of resources.

Monitoring is sometimes referred to as process evaluation because it focuses on the implementation process and asks key questions:

1. How well has the program been implemented?
2. How much does implementation vary from site to site?
3. Did the program benefit the intended people? At what cost?

Monitoring is:

• An ongoing, continuous process
• Requires the collection of data at multiple points throughout the program cycle, including at the beginning to provide a baseline.
• Can be used to determine if activities need adjustment during the intervention to improve desired outcomes.

Evaluation measures how well the program activities have met expected objectives and/or the extent to which changes in outcomes can be attributed to the program or intervention. The difference in the outcome of interest between having or not having the program or intervention is known as its “impact,” and measuring this difference is commonly referred to as “impact evaluation.”