In England alone, over 1.3 million pupils have received booklets about HIV and sexual health, and more than 1,500 people with AIDS have received practical help at home. Today Oasis Esteem (Formerly known as ACET England) has over 150 associate educators, reaching thousands of pupils a year in one of the country's largest sex-education programmes. The team sees about 4% of all secondary school pupils at some point during their education.

Partnership is a vital element in ACET's work and most associate educators are seconded from other organisations.  In 2002 ACET England took partnership a big step further, joining with Oasis UK, the high-profile Christian agency founded by Rev Steve Chalke, providing youth and community projects both in the UK with Oasis initiatives in many other nations.  Oasis Esteem operations are run from Southwark London under the brand of Oasis Esteem.  This has been an exciting development which has already brought significant advantages to both organisations, sharing the same values with complementary strengths and experience.

CONTACT:Catriona Martin in the Oasis Esteem London office: +44 (0) 207 450 9001 / 9033 or email esteem@oasistrust.org

OTHER OASIS ESTEEM NEWS:

Andrea Mason from Brighton and Ruth Somerville from London have returned from a 3 day training programme  in Kiev, Ukraine. They were invited by the  Anglia Polytechnic University, funded by DFID, to provide HIV education models for social workers, clinicians, psychologists and psychologists working with IV drug users. Most of their current models are medical and they are seeking health educational ways of working with young people. Around 40 attended each day. ACET Ukraine is growing rapidly, with educators in five cities.

Andrea Mason is also involved in supporting prevention programmes in South Africa, mainly in the Eastern Cape -Transkei and nearby parts of South Africa - training many leaders in HIV prevention, and distributing key resources.

Other news from around Britain

Newcastle:

NEAC has grown rapidly since it became independent of ACET England, with steadily increasing home care referrals and local statutory funding, caring for growing numbers of women and children, many of whom are from ethnic minorities. NEAC has now expanded into prevention, working in schools, young offenders institutions, homeless projects and among churches. NEAC’s new Think 4 Yourself programme has been popular with both teachers and pupils.

CONTACT: Helen Anderson: neac@lineone.net
Tel: 0044 191 281 5200

Danny Brierley leader of Oasis Youth Inclusion Project, with Dr Patrick Dixon founder of ACET