The YSI team 'Youth Alive, Alert, Enthusiastic' from Presentation College, Carlow linked with Kamoa Community School in Zambia and worked together on a joint project on HIV and AIDs and stigma in both Ireland and Zambia.

Mags Territt, the YSI Guide from Presentation College, travelled recently to Zambia to present and share the Award with the students and staff of Kamoa Community School. The Principal Beatric Nosiku was delighted to welcome Mags.

The YSI team worked with lots of people in their school and also with a number of relevant agencies including Concern, Dublin Aids Alliance, Worldwise and Irish Aid. Doing their YSI project gave the Presentation College students a much greater awareness of the issues relating to HIV and AIDS.

Their project was based on Kaderasmal’s philosophy ‘In the absence of a cure, education is the social vaccine'. The team’s goal was to stamp out stigma surrounding the illness. They wanted to be ‘the social vaccine’ in their school and help change attitudes so that ‘a friend with HIV and AIDS is still my friend’.

They are determined to introduce a ‘Peer Education Programme’ to the junior classes in the school to teach them the facts about HIV and AIDS. The team were very deserving winners of the One World Challenge at the YSI Annual Showcase.

The joint venture was was so successful that both schools plan to continue their partnership and participate in a YSI STEP-UP project on the same topic again in 2012.