Documenting Student Representation of Indigenous HIV/AIDS Information and Integration Into the School Curriculum

Introduction

Most writing on HIV prevention is skewed towards medical diagnostic studies, save for a few that focus on awareness and education. For as long as the HIV/AIDS pandemic lives with humanity and claims lives enormously, redemption has to continuously emerge from research variation to minimize the pathetic losses. Adolescents in developing countries have been hit hardest in 2013 with 570 girls aged between 15-24 infected weekly in Uganda, 468 for Kenya, 491 for Tanzania and only 25 for Rwanda (UNAIDS, 2013). In 2016, HIV prevalence increased four times among adolescent girls than boys aged 15-19 and 20-24 in Uganda (Uganda AIDS Commission, 2017). The often-recorded antecedent factors include 25% teenage pregnancies (Uganda Bureau of Statistics & ICF, 2017), children born with HIV, cross generational sex, early sexual debut, multiple sexual partners, gender based sexual violence and sharing sharp unsterilized objects (Uganda AIDS Commission, 2017; UNAIDS, 2015; Weiler, 2013).

Although numerous research studies advocate for Information, Education and Communication [IEC] to minimize spread of HIV/AIDS among adolescents (Ybarra, Emenyonu, Nansera, Kiwanuka & Bangsberg, 2007; World Health Organization, 2013; UNAIDS, 2016), there is still little documentation of indigenous HIV/AIDS information interventions (Ministry of Education and Sports, 2011; UNAIDS, 2016; UNESCO, 2014; Vu et al., 2017; World Health Organization, 2016). Much of the available literature on HIV/AIDS prevention is hugely tilted towards Western knowledge production. This paper aims to evaluate whether indigenous information bases can positively complement HIV prevention efforts among adolescents. First, the paper discusses the question of whether the delegitimization of indigenous knowledge by colonial hegemonic influence is a justification of a knowledge gap in contemporary HIV prevention efforts.

Second, the paper will provide and analyze the definition of indigenous HIV/AIDS information to show that it is equally important as Western information. Third, using the Anticolonial discursive theoretical lens as dialogue, the paper examines that knowledge is not solely the production by the colonizer but equally resides among marginalized groups, and the review of existing literature profoundly explains the legitimacy of indigenous HIV/AIDS information. Fourth, the paper shows that after a theoretical validation of the relevance of indigenous information, an ethnographic study among students reveals diverse names of HIV/AIDS that depict how society describes the indigenous nature of HIV/AIDS information. The fifth part analyzes integration of indigenous HIV/AIDS information in the curriculum as a strategy to vocalize indigenous knowledge in HIV prevention among school-going adolescents. This paper concludes that indigenous HIV/AIDS information can positively complement HIV prevention efforts, if well integrated in the curriculum for adolescents. Indigenous HIV/AIDS information extends beyond mere local description of the pandemic; its epistemological, axiological and metaphysical bases are central to developing a sustainable HIV/AIDS prevention curriculum.