Description

UNICEF correspondent Steve Nettleton reports on a UNICEF-sponsored program that teaches life skills to Turkmen students in their regular school lessons.

Transcript

Life-Skills Lessons Turn Turkmen Students Into Role Models Steve Nettleton: Everyday after school, seventh-grader Jeren Yovbagshiyeva sit down with her family for afternoon tea. Today, instead of the usual talk about her progress in class, she has something different to discuss. Her school has just had a special lesson about the risks of drug use and the dangers of HIV and AIDS. It was a session that has spurred her to action. Jeren: I was really struck by how drugs can destroy your whole life. So I really feel it’s important for me to share this information with my friends and relatives. Steve Nettleton: Jeren is what her teachers call a “pioneer”. She is expected to take her knowledge from the classroom and spread it throughout her community. Critical information in Turkmenistan, where only one in eight women of further AIDS is able to identify the ways HIV can spread. It's one component of a UNICEF supported effort to teach what are called life skills in schools across Turkmenistan. Life skills education involves making young people aware of the risks they face as they grow up and teaching them how to make decisions to keep themselves healthy. Reda Soyunova: We want the students to know how to protect themselves. They should know to go to the doctor's office. They need skills to help them in their future life. Steve Nettleton: UNICEF has helped provide teachers specific training and life- skills and assisted schools and building resource centers featuring computers, maps and games. UNICEF has helped provide teachers specific training in life skills, and assisted schools in building resource centres, featuring computers, maps and games. Life skills are taught not only in the classroom, but also in youth clubs, where students take part in sports, art and health activities.. Ultimately, it comes down to young people sharing with other young people, urging them to avoid risky behavior. Jeren: If young people don't know about the risks they face they might not think drugs and HIV are really harmful and they might get exposed to it. So it's good that our teachers give us training and enough information so we can protect ourselves. Steve Nettleton: Skills that will give these children and advantage in safely finding their way to adulthood. In Geokdepe, Turkmenistan, this is Steve Nettleton reporting for UNICEF Television. Unite for Children.