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Beauty, Blessing, Gift and Faith are the names of four among hundreds of teenagers who belong to Youth Against AIDS (YAA) clubs run by the Jesuit AIDS Project (JAP) in Zimbabwe. They live up to the promise of their names, sparkling with enthusiasm to be agents of change in their world. I met them towards the end of 2007 at a YAA outreach at St Peter Kubatanta, a Jesuit school in Highfield, a poor and overcrowded, 'high density' neighbourhood in Harare.

JAP was founded in 1997 to stem the destruction caused by HIV and AIDS. "We wanted to stop it rather than pick up the pieces all the time," explains co-founder Ted Rogers SJ. "We turned to schools to use the club's approach and developed a training programme over the years." The project trains young people as peer educators to run YAA clubs. There are 26 schools, four parishes and three orphanages involved, mostly in Harare and its environs, but also farther afield. Hundreds of YAA members, hailing from both slums and wealthy neighbourhoods, attended the tenth anniversary celebration of JAP on 24 November 2007 at Prince Edward School in Harare.

The key to the success of JAP is the insistence that young people themselves take over the promotion of awareness. They teach, counsel and support each other. "It is vitally important that the clubs are run by young people themselves - the staff and facilitators provide backup", says Fr Ted. "The process of coming up with solutions has to involve youth." Young people repay the trust placed in them by Fr Ted and Christine Mtize, JAP co-founder. "There are many of you working to help others live positively", said Fr Ted at the 10th anniversary celebration. "Thank you!"

This is an edited version of an article originally published by Danielle Vella in the March 2008 newsletter of the African Jesuit Aids Network, www.jesuitaids.net.