Gender and Health Education: Youths Familiarity on Sexual Transmitted Infections in Bagamoyo District, Tanzania

The growth of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, STIs, and RTIs infectious to women than men resulted in a global concern on gender vulnerability. Gender norms and health education were first to come to light in the United States and European countries between the 1980s -1990s. Around the 2000s, African countries adapted health education to the school curricula. Tanzania, for instance, in 2005 incorporated health education on the area of HIV/AIDS, drug abuses, and reproductive health as new topics in schools. This study evaluated the implementation by exploring youths' familiarity by employing the coaching method by adopting outreach-research design and mentorship approach to youths. Data collection methods were informal discussion, interviews, and survey questionnaires. Purposive sampling was done on 500 participants. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed through excel program and thematically, respectively. Findings indicated that females who attended Clinic had a familiarity to some extent. The majority, 87%, lack understanding about STIs and RTIs but were aware of HIV/AIDS infections. 80% of females were either already infected with STIs and RTIs or had HIV positive.  87% of both young women and men were infected with either Syphilis, Gonorrhea, or HIV/AIDS, and 77% of victims experienced reproductive complications. 20% of school girls and boys had infectious diseases associated with fungi infections. The study concludes that gender and healthcare education is vital to students and youths in Tanzania. The study recommends the establishment of Moving Desks-Gender Healthcare Centre. Need-based youths’ healthcare research should be done, and findings translated into health-gender policy.