A new website designed to inform young people living in border
regions of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs) has been launched by IOM Dakar with support from
the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

The website "http://www.frontierejeunesida.org">www.frontierejeunesida.org 
is part of a broader Sida-funded regional programme, which aims to
increase the number of young people knowing their HIV status, to
strengthen the knowledge and competence of young people with regard
to condom use and to improve condom access for both young men and
women.

The programme also aims to decrease the stigma and
discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS, to involve all
actors in the fight against HIV/AIDS and STIs and to ensure
behavioural change. 

As part of this three-year programme, information on
reproductive and sexual health is being made available to young
mobile populations living in more than a hundred villages scattered
along Senegal's borders with Guinea, Mali and Mauritania, where
cross-border trading is commonplace.

Senegal has maintained one of the lowest HIV prevalence levels
in Africa, with HIV prevalence at 0.7 per cent. Higher rates of
infection have nevertheless been recorded in and around the towns
of Tambacounda and Kolda and in other border areas, particularly
among young people and migrant women.

For more information, please contact:

Jean-Paul Toto

IOM Dakar

Tel: +221 33 869 62 00

E-mail: "mailto:jptoto@iom.int">jptoto@iom.int