UN estimates state that there are over 36 million people in the world today living with HIV/AIDS. Seven out of ten of these men, women, and children live in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to test results from the year 2000, the average HIV-positive rate in Niger is approximately two percent, though some regions have rates as high as five percent. Although this number may seem low with respect to HIV/AIDS rates in the countries that border Niger, it cannot be attributed to general public awareness of the virus or any national campaign to quell the spread of HIV. More likely, the probable reasons are the same simple factors that have kept Niger at the bottom of the development scale since independence; the harsh climate, poor infrastructure, and lack of access to shipping routes that have stifled commerce and slowed development in Niger to a snail's pace are also responsible for buffering the region against the spread of HIV/AIDS. The current level of HIV infection in Niger is at a critical piont where prevention through education can halt the spread of the virus. But if aggressive steps are not taken immediately, HIV has the potential to explode throughout the population, creating an unbearable burden on a nation already ranked second-to-last on the UN Human Development Index. Extant problems in Niger include poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, poor healthcare, lack of arable land, desertification, and overpopulation. In a country struggling to feed its 12 million people, the compounding effects of HIV/AIDS has the ability to decimate entire communities and further weaken the fragile foundations of development and progress.

The traditionally defined gender roles of a Nigerien family put women in charge of all food preparation, childcare, water procurement, and other domestic duties, while the primary duty of village men is to provide for the family through either farming or monetary means. The short rainy season in Niger drastically limits the amount of agricultural production and leaves the male labor force unemployed for up to seven months of the year. To cope with the lack of constant income, many of the men leave their homes during the dry season between November and June, traveling to other West African countries in search of money for their families. The most popular destinations for these exode populations are Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, and Cote d'Ivoire - places with the highest HIV rates in West Africa.

Unmarried men often spend years away from their families working in markets or in manual labor to make enough money to send home to their parents. These men are at especially high risk for HIV contraction. They are young, single, uneducated, and sexually active. Prostitution is common and even socially acceptable in many coastal cities where as much as 20% of the sex worker population is HIV positive. In a recent study at a gold mine located in Niger, where the entire working population is comprised of young men on exode, a random sampling of prostitutes living around the mining camp yielded an HIV positive rate of over 90%. Men of exode age and prostitutes are two of the most important populations that need AIDS education.

Eventually, men return home from exode with enough money to marry and start a family of their own. These men can transmit the virus to their wife or wives, who in turn pass it along to their children during childbirth or through breast milk. Children orphaned by HIV/AIDS must be cared for by other family members whose resources are already stretched tenuously thin by the other many hardships faced by Nigeriens. The spread of HIV through the extended families of Nigerien villages has the potential to decimate entire regions of the country.

Cultural sensitivity is an important factor when considering AIDS education. Nigerien culture, heavily influenced by Islam, discourages the discussion of sexually transmitted diseases and the shame associated with a positive test result for the HIV virus discourages many people from getting tested. The lack of education about the spread of HIV, the opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS, basic prevention methods, and lack of access to testing all point to a dire need for greater emphasis on AIDS education.

Despite all this, HIV/AIDS is a problem that can be dealt with in Niger. Nationwide education campaigns that target high risk groups, integration of AIDS education into the school curriculum, and aggressive efforts to reach adults and children at the village level, are some of the first steps toward stopping the spread of HIV in this country where the majority of people already struggle to survive.