Q&A
The Power of You
DepEd & UNICEF
HIV/STI prevention
for high school students
Why do we need an HIV/STI prevention campaign in high-schools?
 The Department of Education and UNICEF are concerned with the rapid increase in
newly-reported HIV-infections in young people in the Philippines. Reported infections
among 15-24 year old Filipinos increased five-fold from 41 in 2007 to 218 in 2009
(Department of Health, National AIDS Registry).
 32% of newly-reported infections are in the age-group of 15-24 year old Filipinos (DoH,
National AIDS Registry, January 2010). This is up from a 17% share of the young
population among newly reported HIV cases in the cumulative recording between 1984
and 2009.
 The most-recent national survey among young people on HIV and STI awareness showed
that 28% of young adults believe that AIDS is curable, 73% thought that they have
immunity from HIV, and overall prevalence of pre-marital sexual activity increased from
18 percent to 23 percent between 1994 and 2002. (Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality
Survey, 2003).
What are the aims and objectives of the Power of You campaign?
 Primary prevention is key to an effective response to the AIDS epidemic. The chain of
new infections will not be broken without comprehensive prevention strategies to keep
adolescents and young people free of infection.
 Therefore, the video aims to raise awareness on STI and HIV among high-school
students. As a result of the video, the objective is for young people to learn, be informed
and be motivated to act to choose life-saving actions, i.e. to prevent STI and HIV from
happening to them or their peers.
 The Power of You campaign focuses on the power of individual choice to make dreams
and ambitions come true. It primarily carries the message for young people to delay
sexual debut and educate themselves and their peers about HIV and STIs.
 The big idea is to inform students that they have the choice to say no, have the right to
information, and have the insight to know the consequences of their actions.
1
How is the campaign going to be implemented?
 The in-school campaign will involve the conduct of learning sessions using an interactive
video. In a learning session, a trained facilitator will guide the students in “Choosing the
Life” of a teenager. The main characters in the video will experience significant
situations which require critical decisions. The students will be asked to decide the fate
of the main character. Each choice will result in a new situation. The facilitator will give
appropriate information bits after each decision.
 The Power of You campaign will initially be piloted in 30 public schools in the National
Capital Region, Cebu, Davao, Zamboanga, Olongapo and Masbate. The campaign aims to
reach at least 12,000 high school students in the first year of 2010.
What results do we expect from the campaign?
 In these pilot schools, expected results include:
o Increase in awareness and knowledge on sexually transmitted infections,
including HIV.
o Increase in understanding of importance of abstinence as a key preventive
measure.
o Increase in understanding where to seek more information on HIV and STIs.
What is new about this campaign?
 The Power of You campaign is an innovative, interactive approach for young people to
learn about risky behaviours, STIs and HIV and AIDS, and enable them to make informed,
responsible choices.
 It uses an interactive video as main medium of learning, which is emotionally charged
with scenes depicting drama and humor in situation that teenagers in the Philippines
may find themselves in.
 The interactive video contains a number of decision points where the young people will
need to decide which way the story will continue for the main character. While the
scenes introduce sensitive issues in a manner which is easy to understand and relate to
for young people, the decision points offer opportunity for discussion between the
facilitator and the young people on issues such as benefits and disadvantages of
different choices in life, possible consequences of one’s actions, and peer pressure. The
young people may also choose to see the alternative story option later, after watching
one side of the story first.
2