GOLD Peer Education Development Agency, a not-for-profit organization based in South Africa but operating in Botswana and South Africa, has recently won the internationally acclaimed Commonwealth Education Good Practice Award for helping education in difficult circumstances.

At the heart of GOLD is the belief that The message giver is the strongest message. Information alone does not change people; people change when others around them change.

GOLD Peer Education Development Agency is a non-profit organisation that is equipping community based organisations to implement programmes in line with the GOLD peer education model. Our core strategy is to develop the GOLD peer education model and facilitate its multiplication and quality implementation within selected communities in the sub-Saharan region.

GOLD (Generation of Leaders Discovered) is a pioneering intervention strategy that responds to the root factors causing the HIV/AIDS pandemic amongst young people through an approach that encompasses both a prevention and future leadership strategy.

The GOLD peer education model is implemented within a developmental framework by skilled peer education facilitators working for implementing organisations, who equip adolescent leaders to influence their peers and younger children. The model is implemented within a cluster of 2-5 schools within one geographical area. It is a rigorous, quality-assured approach to youth leadership in HIV prevention, risk behaviour reduction and school-community-based support for vulnerable youth.

THE NEED FOR GOLD PEER EDUCATION

If, by 2025, millions of African people are still becoming infected with HIV each year, experts suggest that it will not be because there was no choice. It will not be because there is no understanding of the consequences of the decisions and actions being taken now, in the early years of the century. It is not inevitable. It will be because the lessons of the first 20 years of the epidemic were not learned, or were not applied effectively. It will be because, collectively, there was insufficient political will to change behaviour (at all levels, from the institution, to the community, to the individual) and halt the forces driving the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The extent of the epidemic and the destiny of Africa will largely depend on how we respond and invest into Africa's young people now. The GOLD Peer Education Model offers Sub-Saharan Africa a strategy that capitalises on this window of opportunity to decrease the impact of the epidemic on adolescents. GOLD aims to prevent new infections amongst youth, provide support for affected youth and secure a generation of young leaders to bring about community transformation across Sub-Saharan Africa for decades to come.

VISION
"We see a generation of young African leaders confronting the root issues of the HIV and AIDS pandemic, through uplifting their communities and imparting vision and purpose to present and future generations".

MISSION
To collaborate with viable organisations in the implementation of GOLD peer education across sub-Saharan Africa through participatory:

• Researching and Developing best practice peer education methods and resources
• Capacity Building of implementing organisations through training, mentorship and programme support
• Quality Asssurance of implementation through assessment, monitoring and verification

WORKING DEFINITION OF GOLD PEER EDUCATION

GOLD peer education is the process whereby skilled facilitators assist a group of suitable young people to:

• role-model health-enhancing behavior;
• educate peers in a structured manner;
• recognize peers in need of help and refer them for assistance;
• uplift their communities through: advocating for resources and services for themselves and their peers; acts of service; and raising awareness of important issues affecting youth