ASK Program : LC Prilep

While there exist many initiatives around youth education on HIV/AIDS, few are designed by the youth for the youth. The ownership of the problem is the first step to developing a solution. Based on current statistics, this ownership has yet to reach a critical mass among the youth in Macedonia and the world at large. Most of the essential information has been generated; sadly little of it has been consciously assimilated.

These were the thoughts that inspired the creation of AIESEC’s ASK PROGRAM:
A program created and run by Macedonian young people providing Answers, Solutions and Knowledge around HIV/AIDS issues. Youth in institutions of higher and secondary education are in a unique position to assimilate this information due to their constant engagement in learning. Coupled with this, as future leaders of their societies, the responsibility of change rests heavily on them. Converting these youth into emissaries and champions of HIV/AIDS prevention will be a great contribution to the cause. The challenge of converting these youth rests in providing the necessary motivation and opportunities for them to gain ownership and participate in curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS. For this, we now have ASK PROGRAM, which includes three main objectives:

• Deliver learning opportunities (workshops, working groups, exercises) that will promote the development of emissaries and champions of HIV/AIDS prevention.


• Offer open spaces for discussion and sharing around HIV/AIDS issues between people from different nationalities and Macedonian students of higher and secondary education.


• Increase the ability and skills to prevent HIV/AIDS in the Macedonian youth by exposing them to case studies and practical experiences guided by university students.

AIESEC in the Republic of Macedonia will seek two international university students that have delivered different learning activities to local students in their home countries. The learning activities will use the methodology of ‘peer education’. The international university students will be previously selected and prepared in their countries of origin by the AIESEC offices in the respective countries.

AIESEC will provide a preparation package with all the details they will need to know before coming to the country. The international students will be working full time for the project and will visit high schools in the Prilep region for a period of two months. During the first two weeks, participating Macedonian students, who are AIESEC members, and the two international students, will receive intense training in all the necessary aspects concerning the flow of the project, including youth peer education, psychological advice, and understanding of the current reality of HIV/AIDS in Macedonia. The specific knowledge they will gain during these trainings will later be delivered to local high school students.

Selection of Macedonian students and participating high schools will be based on their commitment to the project and the disposition to provide with the minimum required conditions for the delivery of the sessions. These sessions are planned as in and out-of-class activities, and the only requirements for participation are students’ interest and a basic level of English understanding and speaking.

The presence of the international students is one of the main motivational factors for the local university students to participate in the program, and is also an opportunity for meeting and having chats with young people from different countries with different realities and perspectives. Also it is important to point out that they will bring know how and best case practices of HIV/AIDS prevention from their countries of origin, which will enrich the projects the national students will create to execute within the high schools and the greater community.

ASK PROGRAM will thus evolve from the initial recruitment stage as follows:

1. Local Recruitment: Students will be selected in Macedonian Universities to participate in this project (both students for exchange and local students). Promotion in media is planned to happen as well as information meetings at different faculties. A Board of Advisors with national representatives will be created, available to support the organizing committee in developing the project agenda.


2. Preparation: Macedonian students will be grouped in teams and initial tasks will be assigned. These tasks include research in the concept of leadership and successful entrepreneurs in the country. Exchange students will be prepared for their role based on the preparation package delivered. They will be asked to do the same research as the local students in their homeland, and to facilitate participation in an online platform.


3. Youth Peer Education (Workshops): After the preparation process is finished, the teams of local students will keep constant meetings (working groups/workshops) to discuss and agree on innovative and creative ideas for micro-projects to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in their country. All this meetings will happen with the guidance of the international teams (exchange students). Different workshops will be held also during this period with the purpose of delivering skills we believe are crucial for successful peer educators on the fight against HIV/AIDS (communication, public speaking, etc).


4. HIV/AIDS Day: At this point of the project we expect the local students to have gained the minimum skills and knowledge to put together concrete and feasible micro-projects for the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS within their high schools, universities or communities as a way to impact the rest of the students that didn’t participate directly in the project. During HIV/AIDS Days these projects will be executed.


5. Closing Conference: During the final week of the project in each high school the closing conference will take place. Speeches from some participants will be hosted. A final report of the project will be delivered by July 2008.

As outcomes of the project we are not just counting the abilities, attitudes and values developed by the local students to become emissaries and champions in fight against HIV/AIDS and the execution of the small projects created, but also expecting a written report of the whole experience with interviews and articles that will be used as a tool to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS issues as key topics to be address in Macedonia. For the realization of the project, we will also recruit and select university students to further participate in the ASK PROGRAM by going on an exchange.