In June 2005 we, the Cook Islands Red Cross Youth Peer Educators, decided it was time to to take a new approach to the issue of HIV/AIDS education and related issues for our young people. We developed an HIV/AIDS education and awareness program called the 'Keep the Promise' program. The program is based around five promises - I promise to keep my body safe, I promise to respect myself, I promise to care for myself and those I love, I promise to respect others and treat all people with dignity, and I promise to help make my community a healthy and vibrant place. We used these five promises linked with comprehensive information on HIV/AIDS presented through skits, role play and talking to share the message of safe sex, transmission and prevention, discrimination and statistics with the students.  We also designed a new tool in our fight to bring the issue of HIV/AIDS and at risk sexual behaviour to the minds of ALL students and young people on Rarotonga, Aithutaki and Mangaia. This new tool is called the PromiseCard - a funkily designed credit card style card that is individually numbered, carried the five promises we had built our program around and offered the student cardholder discounts at various youth oriented businesses around Rarotonga. No such card had ever been seen before in our country. Our idea was that we could encourage the students to keep their thoughts on the promises and remember the messages behind them, as presented by us to them at their schools, by encouraging them to use their PromiseCards regularly to get discounts and win prizes.

Through a lot of hard work we pulled off a successful program. We involved many sectors in our community, from having the national art society members contribute designs for the cover of the PromiseCard to an auction selling the balance of artworks not chosen for the cover, to securing the Prime Minister's attendance at the PromiseCard launch to present cards to student representatives from the schools on Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Mangaia to distributing over 2,000 cards to students after presenting them a fun, educational and informative HIV/AIDS module. Our program was on the national television news several times and featured no less than eight times in three local newspapers. You really had to have been living in a hole in the ground on Rarotonga in the last month to have not heard about our Keep the Promise program as there has been so much amazing publicity and support throughout the community. Through our program we have reached almost every primary and secondary student on our island.

Below are some stories from our Youth Peer Educator team members involved in the Keep the Promise program...

Nancy's story:

I want to share two views on our STOP AIDS: Keep the Promise program, a personal view and a story about some students we presented the program to:

The "Stop Aids. Keep the promise." program has been a quiet (at first) yet effective way of spreading the word about HIV/AIDS in a community very much relaxed and laid back yet blinded from facts. We have generated  tremendous  support from all roots of leadership, age, gender, and profession. From the Prime Minister to school prefects, from old to young and from artists, to moving image editors to doctors and firefighters, to wholesale stores, teachers and so forth, just to mention a few. But this has been brilliant from the scale of all that support was given for love, on a voluntary basis.

I work an extra job waiteressing some evenings at a local restaurant. Last week two students stopped me while out to dinner with their family to ask when the Youth Peer Educators would be going around town to take photos of students with PromiseCards to recite the promises so they can win a prize? I told them it wouldn't be fair to the other students if I told them the day. We chatted about the Keep the Promise program and I told them to prepare themselves by memorising the 5 promises. About 10 minutes later they came running to me wearing the “most proud of myself” brightest grinning faces. They both looked at me and signalled to each other of who was going first and took turns in reciting the 5 promises. You should have seen them! I wish I had my camera there. Both girls are students from Takitumu School. One is aged 11 years and the other 10 years.

Nancy Kareroa

Youth Peer Educator and Cook Islands Red Cross member since 1994

Ewans' story:

My name is Ewan Cameron and I’ve been a Cook Islands Red Cross Youth Peer Educator since its formation in May 2004. HIV and AIDS weren’t known to many of my fellow countryman 18 months ago. But since we have established the Red Cross Youth Peer Educators group, there is a big difference in what people in Rarotonga now know as opposed to what they didn’t know about HIV.

We, the YPEs have talked with children from all schools in Rarotonga and sports team. I’ve had people complement our talks, saying things like “I’ve heard of HIV but never knew a male person infected can pass the virus on through pre cum”. I’ve had five year old children come up to me on the street and tell me what HIV stands for. And we’ve had high school students interested in joining the team after listening to our presentation. Personally I feel a lot of joy knowing that people learn from our talks. Our team’s goal from now to the middle of the year is to have clinics set up and available for people to practice getting tested for HIV.

I’m proud to say that since my time as a Youth Peer Educator I’ve been tested and I’m healthy.

Keep the Promise program 2005-06

Most Significant Change –

(As relayed by Ms Nukutau Pokura – HIV Program Officer)

Story #1 – St Josephs School

The St. Joseph’s (Catholic) school HIV-AIDS presentation was the first of the primary level outreach program that the Youth Peer Educators implemented within the Keep the Promise program.  As Program Officer I conducted the introductions and went through the purpose of our visit with a special emphasis on the promotion of the PromiseCard initiative. I explained how by keeping the promises the children could help protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.  When I came to introduce the 5 simple promises, the children recited along with me each and every one of the promises, which was excitingly shocking.  The students recited each promise with ease except for the last promise as they couldn’t get their tongue around saying “I promise to make my community a healthy and vibrant place”. We were blown away because the children had discussed and learned the promises before we even got there. This showed fantastic support and preparation by the school and teachers. The schools’ response to this program has just been astounding in all aspects of the program.

Story #2 – Australian Tourist Couple