Enfold Starts Peer Education Program in a College in Bangalore!

Peer Education Program

Adolescence is a period of transition – physically, emotionally and socially. As adolescents develop, peer groups help young people gain a sense of their own identity and become their primary social outlet. This, in turn, leads to the development and practice of social skills that will stay with them throughout their lives. Peer education takes advantage of the positive aspects of peer groups by helping young people learn from each other – something they do naturally anyway.

Peer education helps identifying one member of the peer group who receives special training in order to better facilitate a desired change within the group and adapted it in several key ways:

The young people form groups, elect their leaders, draft a working plan, establish rules, identify a range of activities they will undertake and select for themselves the young people that will be trained as peer educators (who receive training on both facilitation skills and sexual and reproductive health).

In this way the peer education process is facilitated and supported, but not directed as with most traditional youth programmes. Young people are not simply involved, but take the lead in all stages of design, implementation and monitoring.

Why Peer Education

Peer educators are not professionals, but they are trained to assist young people who need health information. Peer educators receive special training in decision-making, in imparting information and in making client referrals. In recognition of the work they do in motivating young people to obtain the information and services they need, peer educators/counselors are sometimes called "peer promoters."

Peer promoters usually work with participants in one-to-one or small group settings. But they often have other responsibilities. They make presentations in front of large groups, represent the organizations they work for on boards and councils, and consult with program managers. Peer projects are often part of larger programs that have added a youth-to-youth outreach component.

Q: What are the advantages and benefits of peer programs?

• Peer programs build on evidence that young people already get a great deal of information from their peers.
• Young people relate well to people similar to them in age, background, and interests.
• Peer programs allow for the direct involvement of young people in their own programs.
• Peer programs can be implemented economically.
• Peer programs often reach not only the peer group but also the peer promoters' relatives and neighbours.
• Peer promoters often gain long-term benefits from their experiences. These include an ongoing commitment to responsible reproductive health behaviour, leadership potential, useful employment experience, and personal development.

Enfold will train the peer educators and have monitoring sessions with them. Enfold will provide support to the peer educators for any obstacles they may encounter during the process

Why Enfold?

Enfold Proactive Health Trust, a registered trust in Bangalore since 2002, is the only organization in India that is working with school children, including primary school children, on issues of personal safety since 2002. So far we have interacted with over 25,000 students and adults, discussing issues of life skills, personal safety (including child abuse), sexuality and HIV prevention. A documentary film on Child sexual abuse in India features Enfold's work.