This manual is intended to be a flexible training tool that can be used in many different ways, from an intensive one week training course, covering all aspects of gender and HIV/AIDS, to sessions on gender, HIV/AIDS and the media as part of other training programmes, to a modular course run during lunch times over the course of weeks or months.Individuals can also use the manual for self-study, using the handouts and boxes on key information and statistics to build their own understanding and knowledge base as they continue to work in the area of information, education and communications on HIV/AIDS. This "shopping basket" approach should ensure that trainers are able to adapt the material in the manual to suit the specific needs of their participants.

Objectives of the manual:

• Show and create an understanding of the link between gender and HIV/AIDS;
• Illustrate, through examples, how the gender dimension of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been the missing story and/or misrepresented by the media and other communicators;
• Explore how the media and other communicators can contribute towards developing a human rights based approach to covering HIV/AIDS, including the importance of gender equality to countering the pandemic;
• Highlight the opportunity that HIV/AIDS presents in communicating more with men and women on the importance of building a more caring, compassionate society in which men and women enjoy equal rights and equal access to resources and opportunities.

Gender Links website.