Salesians carry out activities in many countries in Sub Saharan Africa that have been adversely impacted by HIV/Aids, with a focus on meeting the needs of orphaned children and training vulnerable youth. The presence of these Salesian youth centres offers a unique opportunity to link crucial HIV/Aids prevention efforts with the youth development activities for which Salesians are already well-known. LOVEMATTERS is a programme of lifestyle and sexuality education run for teenagers (13 – 19 years of age) by the Salesians of Don Bosco at Bosco Youth Centre, in Daleside, south of Johannesburg. It provides behaviour change education to South African scholars to help prevent the spread of HIV/Aids infection. The programme is based on sexuality teaching in the context of adult responsibility, a holistic education in human sexuality. Classroom teaching and individual counselling are included.

The programme is currently offered to youth and peer group leaders who then return to their communities and act as behaviour change advocates. Personal development is promoted through communication, self-esteem and self-evaluation courses, setting short and long-term goals, and opportunities to make decisions.

Our programme content is continually improved and adapted to take into account advances in medical research as more becomes known about HIV/AIDs and other sexually transmitted diseases. We also take into account the comments of the participants during the post-programme evaluation which they complete – this enables us to continually update and improve our sessions and tailor them closely what the participants’ need. Our programme has improved significantly since October 2001.

To date (March 2007) 5839 (2680 boys + 3159 girls) young people have participated in the LoveMatters programme since its conception in October 2001. Each year, we have seen an increase in numbers attending and our outreach has extended outside of Gauteng to the Free State, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Swaziland.

Click here to view a detailed Background Report on the LoveMatters programme.