At the current rate of infection, South African teenagers have a 50% chance of contracting HIV over the course of their lives. Half of South Africa’s new HIV infections occur before the age of 25. Relatively modest changes in adolescent sexual behaviour could substantially curtail the HIV epidemic and there are hopeful signs that perhaps the worst-case projections for the scale of the HIV epidemic in South Africa may yet be averted.

loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV prevention programme for youth, was launched in September 1999, by a consortium of leading South African public health organisations in partnership with a coalition of more than 100 community-based organisations, the South African government, major South African media groups and private foundations.

loveLife combines a highly visible sustained national multi-media HIV education and awareness campaign with countrywide adolescent friendly service development in government clinics, and a national network of outreach and support programmes for youth.

loveLife is a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to youth behaviour change that implements, on an unprecedented scale, the international experience of the past 20 years – combining well-established public health techniques with innovative marketing approaches to promote healthy AIDS-free living among South African teenagers.

View a map of the national distribution of loveLife service facilities and outreach programs.

• A sustained multi-media education and awareness campaign – including television, radio, outdoor media and print – educating young people about HIV and promoting dialogue about sexual health issues.
• The National Adolescent-Friendly Clinic Initiative, a major drive to establish adolescent health services in South Africa’s 5,000 public clinics.
• A national network of 16 multi-purpose youth facilities, known as “Y-Centres”, providing recreation and skills training, as well as sexual health education and care in non-clinical settings.
• A countrywide programme of community-level outreach and support to young people (including 3,500 schools) led by a national volunteer corps of more than 1,500, 18-25 year olds known as loveLife groundBREAKERS.
• A nationally accessible toll-free telephone helpline for young people providing specialised sexual health information, counselling and referrals averaging 300,000 calls per month. The loveLife Games, the largest school sports competition in South Africa, promoting healthy living, self motivation and personal achievement to more than 400,000 school students annually.

loveLife Builds on the Optimism of Youth

loveLife builds on the innate optimism of young South Africans promoting a holistic lifestyle approach aimed at encouraging young people to maintain an AIDS-free lifestyle and to achieve their dreams and aspirations through self-motivation and leadership.

loveLife stands for…
Most South Africans under 16 years of age have not had sex and are not HIV positive. loveLife promotes:

• Abstinence
• Delayed initiation of sexual activity
• Reduction of sexual partners among already sexually active teenagers
• And condom usage

Within the context of…

• More open communication about HIV/AIDS, sex and relationships
• Gender relations based on informed choice
• Shared responsibility
• Healthy lifestyle and aspirations

loveLife’s evaluation programme is one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the world – combining a large-scale national surveillance study (repeated at two year intervals) with in-depth surveys at 33 sentinel sites. loveLife is tracking its impact over time not only on attitudes and self-reported risk behaviour among teenagers, but also on HIV, other sexual transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy. The evaluation programme is lead by the Reproductive Health Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand in partnership with the Medical Research Council of South Africa. The Center for AIDS Policy at the University of California at San Francisco provides independent external reviews. The results of the first of this series of loveLife evaluations was published in April 2004 and can be accessed online.

Is loveLife working?
It is too early for definitive evidence of loveLife’s effectiveness. But evidence from the largest national survey of South African youth ever shows that:

• nearly 85% of all South African youth have been exposed to loveLife;
• more than two thirds of all youth have been exposed to at least three different loveLife products;
• there is a strong correlation between exposure to loveLife and self-reported sexual behaviour including increased abstinence, choosing to delay initiating sexual activity and increased condom use;
• participation in loveLife programs is statistically associated with lower odds of HIV, taking into account other likely explanatory factors.

How is loveLife supported?
Major funding for loveLife is provided by the South African government and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, the South African National Lottery, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the Independent Newspaper Group and the Vodacom Foundation.

For further information go to www.lovelife.org.za or email talk@lovelife.org.za.