UNICEF Turkmenistan and the Youth Union run training on life skills and AIDS preventionAshgabat, Turkmenistan, 22 Sept 2005 – The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, working with Turkmenistan’s Youth Union, organised training from September 19-22 for law enforcement personnel working with young people, focused on life skills education and AIDS prevention. Three UNICEF-sponsored national trainers, spent four days with 28 juvenile justice personnel from all five provinces of the country, including district-level officials, discussing the concept and relevance of life skills education and AIDS prevention for young people. “The training was very useful. Now I will go to the schools and give lectures on life skills to explain to the children and young people. We knew what AIDS was before the workshop but now we know much better ways to teach children and young people about such things,” said one of the participants. During the discussions, special attention was given on how best to pass on the life skills and AIDS prevention messages to the most vulnerable groups of young people. The training theme of the workshop will now be built upon at a second seminar planned for November 1-4 that will introduce the same participants to methods of teaching other juvenile justice professionals on how to pass on life skills to adolescents. “These events are important because they will empower youths by giving them information and knowledge on life skills and how to protect themselves against AIDS. The important thing is to have an intersectoral approach and in recent months we have seen this happening. I would like to thank the Government for their commitment,” said Mahboob Shareef, UNICEF Representative in Turkmenistan. This month’s workshop took place with the full cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mr Shareef said he regarded the event as another constructive outcome of the joint collaboration between the Government of Turkmenistan and the United Nations Children’s Fund. UNICEF remains committed to working with the government to help it fulfil its national priorities and international obligations covering children’s rights. For more information, please contact Ms. Gulyalek Soltanova, UNICEF Communication Officer, at: Phone: +99312 425681/82/86/86 Fax: +99312 420830 Email: gsoltanova@unicef.org
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