Norifumi Kamo ¹, Mary Carlson ¹, Robert T. Brennan ¹, Felton Earls ^1*

¹ Harvard Medical School

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: felton_earls{at}hms.harvard.edu.

	Abstract

A community-based cluster randomized control trial in a medium-sized municipality in Tanzania was designed to increase local competence to control HIV/AIDS through actions initiated by children and adolescents aged 10 to 14 years. Representative groups from the 15 treatment communities reached mutual understanding about their objectives as health agents, prioritized their actions, and skillfully applied community drama ("skits") to impart knowledge about the social realities and the microbiology of HIV/AIDS. In independently conducted surveys of neighborhood residents, differences were found between adults who did and did not witness the skits in their beliefs about the efficacy of children as HIV/AIDS primary change agents.

Key Words: Adolescent Health, Community Health, Health Education, Health Promotion, HIV/AIDS, Human Rights