Christian youth group YMCA says it is using youth empowerment as a tool to combat HIV/AIDS. The organisation believes when young people are adequately informed and empowered to be in charge of their own lives, they would be able to take the right decisions to protect themselves from the disease. The organization, through its reproductive health project, has therefore trained some young people to serve as peer educators to assist their fellow youth to stay away from AIDS. General Secretary of YMCA Ghana, Prosper Hoeyi, told Joy News said the movement hopes to “change their (youth’s) mindset about some of the beliefs or the false beliefs that they have about HIV/AIDS and the adolescent reproductive health generally.” YMCA across Africa has rolled out a programme to empower the youth to be true citizens and not to be the ones used by selfish adults to perpetuate violence of all forms including ethnic wars, and political upheavals. The group’s HIV/AIDS peer educators programme is active in the Eastern Region and replicated in other parts of the country. Source: Joy News/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana