"Together We Can" Peer Education Program

The Red Cross “Together We Can” Peer Education Program began in Jamaica in 1993 as collaboration between the Jamaican Red Cross and the American Red Cross.

It has proved very successful in Jamaica and has, over the years, been introduced into a number of other countries in the Caribbean. It is recognized as the standard Red Cross peer education methodology in the region and has been supported by the Norwegian and Netherlands Red Cross Societies and by UNICEF.

By the end of 2002 the “Together We Can” Peer Education Program was being implemented in Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St Lucia and in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In 2003 the material was extensively revised and has now been translated into all the regional languages: English, Spanish, French, Creole and Papiamento (for Curacao and Bonaire). It is being used in almost all 16 national Red Cross Societies and in all overseas branches.

We have also introduced the methodology to Central America at the First Red Cross Central American HIV/AIDS Workshop in Honduras in November 2003. We hope that more Central American Red Cross Societies will follow.

The “Together We Can” program has become very well known and respected and indeed won the “Gold Award” at the Washington EdPress Educational Awards Ceremony in 1995 for “excellence in print” and a “Certificate for Outstanding Work in HIV/AIDS Prevention” at the AIDSCAPP Project Awards in 1996.

The results of the TWC methodology have been presented at five International AIDS Conferences (Yogohama 1994, Vancouver 1996, Geneva 1998, Durban 2000, Barcelona 2002) and the methodology has also been introduced and is being used successfully in at least four African countries: Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Lesotho.

We are proud of the advances that we have made with TWC and we thank the Jamaica Red Cross, the Norwegian Red Cross and the Norwegian Agency for Development (NORAD) for their involvement and assistance. We also wish to thank UNICEF for their continued support in promoting the methodology in the region.