In response to the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) and their families to improve preventive clinical practice, the Department of Mental Health in the Ministry of Public Health in Thailand launched a counseling service in 1993 in every public hospital in the country. The initial goal of the counseling training program was to train 10,000 counselors in 3 years. As more people got trained, a critical mass of counselors helped the health care system understand its essence. However, technical and administrative problems have caused the return of these counselors to their hospitals. Due to this, the Department of Mental Health set up a technical center in 1996 to support counselors in the northern region. Working with different groups, the AIDS Counselling Center for Training and Research (ACCTaR) develops understanding of problems and practical solutions for the counseling service system. One key program of ACCTaR involved people with HIV/AIDS to help themselves. ACCTaR developed a new counseling training program based on practical models developed by and for the PHA. After 7 years of implementation, most health workers and administrators now consider counseling a core activity in HIV/AIDS prevention and care programs, as well as in other health areas.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has indicated it might place restrictions on how the abortion drug mifepristone is distributed and who can prescribe it. Some possible restrictions include limiting prescription privileges to doctors performing surgical abortions and requiring certification for mifepristone\'s use. It is noted that such restrictions could hamper access to the medical abortion method when it receives final FDA approval. In view of this, abortion access advocates posed several questions on the FDA arguing the proposed restrictions. The executive director of the National Abortion Federation, Vicki Saporta stated that such restrictions would disqualify/qualify physicians and would even disqualify some providers of surgical services from offering services to women, thereby denying access to hundreds of thousands of women. In addition, Saporta considers that, while there is a need to make sure that physicians are educated in this method, it is important that as many women as possible who want access to the medication are able to have it.

The population in the Central African Republic is relatively young, with youths accounting for 43% of its total population, many of whom are sexually active. Young people suffer from a variety of problems such as unemployment, juvenile delinquency, as well as early and unwanted pregnancies. To reach out to young people, the ACABEF, in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health and with financial assistance from the UN Population Fund, launched the ¿Youth Club for Family Planning¿ in December 1994. The major activities in this sensitization campaign for responsible sexuality among the youth included talks and debates, as well as film projections. In addition, condoms are made available through a social marketing program in order to contain the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS.

The Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia has started a ¿Saturday Adolescent Family Planning/Counseling and Contraceptive Service¿ at the clinic. This program enabled adolescents to come to the clinic without fear of being ridiculed by adults for requesting contraceptives and attending Family Life Education (FLE) sessions. In addition, counseling is also provided to those who become victims of unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and others. Another component of the program is training on family planning and FLE. This helps adolescents gain knowledge on the benefits of a small family size, and become agents in their community and motivate their peers to visit the center. Given the present program coverage and the problems related to adolescent sexuality in the country, much remains to be done by spreading youth counseling and reproductive health programs to other parts of the country.

This article presents the findings of a study on the status of information, education and communication (IEC) of reproductive health (RH) in a commune in Nghe An, Vietnam. Interviews, analysis of data and a field study were conducted in preparation for the IEC study. A total of eight organizations (both local and mass organizations), as well as individual women, with their husbands and/or parents, were interviewed. A comparison of the perspectives of service providers and recipients about the information on RH based on the data collected was conducted. Overall, findings indicate that all the organizations and institutions researched have different strong points. The commune committee for population and family planning appeared to have a wide variety of IEC distribution methods available. In addition, the needs among the young personnel of the organizations and institutions for the training on skills to conduct effective IEC activities were identified. At the individual level, women were better informed about RH than their husbands, who considered matters such as health, contraception, pregnancy and delivery to be a woman\'s concern.

In the present study, the persuasive communication of HIV test counselors as cues to action in clients\' decisions to practice safer sex was examined. Results indicated that contrary to expectations, hypothesized relationships inherent in the Health Belief Model (HBM) were not supported for the pre-HIV test survey. However, clients\' perceptions of the severity of HIV/AIDS, their susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, the benefits of and barriers to practicing safer sex, and self-efficacy were correlated with compliance with safer-sex recommendations reported on the post-HIV test survey. Intriguing results revolved around communication cues to action. HIV test counseling session transcripts were content analyzed to determine the persuasive messages used by HIV test counselors that may have cued clients\' health beliefs and safer-sex behaviors. The inductively-derived coding scheme emphasized the complexity of the interpersonal interaction taking place during counseling sessions. Results indicated that in some cases, use of certain persuasive strategies was related to short-term adoption of safer-sex recommendations. These findings bolstered the argument for a move toward reconceptualizing the HBM by centralizing communication cues to action.

This article provides a guide to eliminating barriers to women who seek emergency contraception (EC) in health facilities. The guide, intended for health care providers, suggests the use of a role-play staff session to see how the staff will respond when they receive a request for EC over the telephone. It is noted that even if health care providers know about EC, the receptionist and the front-end people do not. Educating patients about how to ask for EC over the telephone is also recommended. Education could be done by giving patients a telephone script which can be included in EC pamphlets so that patients will know how to ask for care when they call the clinic. In addition, patients especially adolescents should be given advance counseling on the common side effects of EC and should be assured of the drug\'s safety. Aside from making EC available round the clock at health centers, a trial protocol to offer telephone EC prescriptions for new services is also being undertaken.

This paper highlights the work of the Early Childhood Resource Center (ECRC) in promoting changes in gender-role stereotypes in Jerusalem. Established in 1985, ECRC provides training and advocacy in early childhood care, education, and development for the Palestinian Territories and East Jerusalem. In collaboration with other nongovernmental organizations and the New Palestinian Authority, ECRC promoted an integrated system of early childhood programs for Palestine. The Center helps people who work with young children, particularly those in rural villages and refugee camps. Central to the work of ECRC is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in which freedom from discrimination (including gender discrimination) is a basic right. Components of the training program of ECRC are summarized and program results are presented.

This paper briefly describes the experiences of Oxfam GB in Sa Pa District, Lao Cai province, Vietnam on an integrated education program to provide school construction and housing for teachers, community development, and training of primary teachers. The extreme disadvantages that are faced by young tribal girls, particularly in education is what prompted Oxfam to work in these areas. Only a few children from these communities enroll in school and fewer stay and complete their education. Custom and tradition has prevented girls, especially those from ethic minorities, from going to school, and often, parents feel that it is not worth educating their girls. Early marriage is also a major contributory factor. The paper outlines the activities of Oxfam with the District Education Department on primary education issues. Some of the activities carried out include persuading parents to allow their daughters to attend school, providing special classes for girls, as well as scholarship programs, and providing teacher training on how to run community development groups and about ways of involving parents. The last part of the article summarizes the lessons learned from the program.

This paper presents the lessons that were learned in technical assistance during the Preventive Marketing Initiative local site demonstration project in the US. The program has been ongoing for 5 years, with social marketers from the Academy for Educational Development and Porter Novelli using social marketing and behavioral science principles to develop HIV prevention programs for and with local teens. With the success of the program, community-based prevention programs are increasingly being requested since better outcomes resulted from a few dollars of investment. Likewise, funders and prevention researchers were challenged to transfer state-of-the-art prevention technologies for communities to apply it readily. The success achieved by the project, however, provides important lessons that would save time and money for future community-based Prevention Marketing efforts. Among the lessons were the need to seek out or establish conditions in the community that are conducive to success, as well as the need to offer technical assistance that would mobilize communities in developing more effective Prevention Marketing programs.