In School Youth Program (ISY)

The In School Youth Program (ISY) aims to educate students at the Third Form level about the benefits of abstinence. The ISY Program was designed by GHARP and approved in 2008 by Guyana’s Ministry of Education for use in schools. At the beginning of each school year, A.I.D.S. works with school administrators and head teachers to incorporate ISY into each school’s timetable.

The aim of the ISY Program is achieved using a fourteen-module curriculum which deals not only with abstinence messages but with messages that enable abstinence such as self-esteem, values, good decision making, HIV/AIDS education, and refusal skills. The ISY Program has an accompanying manual that specifically written with 14 to 19-year-old youths as the audience, which comprehensively outlines the modules. The Program uses interactive discussions, and role plays, to help reinforce the messages and encourage the young people to come up with possible solutions to these real-life problems.