AHI's work with peer educators is based on two beliefs: 1) adolescents need to be aware of the various factors that influence their experiences; 2) only teenagers who know and value themselves, who are aware of options and who are skilled have the capacity to practise safer and responsible sex. To achieve its goals and objectives, AHI links peer education with other strategies:

• advocating for adolescent health issues through the media and among community leaders
• increasing access to education and counselling on sexuality for adolescents in and out of school using newsletters, health-clubs, videos, etc.
• providing reproductive health care services specifically designed and directed at adolescents
• creating opportunities for the empowerment of adolescent girls through decision-making, assertiveness and vocational skills training
• increasing access to materials and technical assistance for parents and sexuality programme implementers locally.

Inspite of study review data from WHO showing that sex education is most effective when given before young people become sexually active, a major problem that continued to confront AHI's programme was strong opposition stemming from the erroneous belief that access to sex education "corrupts" adolescents. To correct this myth, in 1997 AHI organized a community-based advocacy seminar with support from the Ford Foundation. The meeting focused on the fact that sex education reduces misinformation and confusion among adolescents, delays premature sexual intercourse and enhances the ability to practise safer sex among teens who are already sexually active.

Participants included key policy-makers such as the Director-General, Directors and Assistant Directors from the Ministries of Health, Education, Information and the Women Affairs Commission; national and state PTA chairpersons; Lagos State local education district administrators; school principals; and local medical health officers.

It emerged at the seminar that policy-makers and educators face many constraints in discharging their regular duties. They should be conscientized to see adolescent reproductive health as worthy of their time and attention, independent of official bureaucracy and politics. Moreover, policy-makers are not necessarily well informed about adolescent health. They require training, exposure and information whereby they can become potential advocates for adolescent reproductive health.

Participants concluded that information sharing between advocates and policy-makers is essential to provide a common basis for collaboration as well as the possible intensification of adolescent health activities. Also, sex education programmes are best designed as a collaborative effort involving the inputs of parents, teachers, adolescents themselves, and health and social workers. Advocacy campaigns ought to be continuous and sustained. The following recommendations were made:

• Comprehensive education on sexuality should be incorporated into school curricula at all levels.
• Clubs, peer educators and counselling groups should be formed in all schools in Lagos State; these would serve as models and training channels for other children both within and out of school.
• Opportunities should be created for training and re-training educators who address sexuality so as to improve their counselling skills.
• Each school ward/local government area should be provided with health educators and guidance counsellors.
• Parents themselves should have the right values and act as role models for their children.
• The State Ministry of Information should develop strategies to persuade the mass media to play down programmes with heavy sexual undertones.
• A state policy on adolescent reproductive health must be promulgated.
• A workshop involving adolescents, educators, parents and policy-makers should be designed to facilitate interaction and to elicit perspectives from the various interest groups.

With these recommendations made by the policy-makers at the seminar, AHI envisages that sex education will now be integrated into the curricula of different school subjects. They also expect that this will allow for more participation of young people in promoting reproductive health.