Y educationSchool SchoolStatus PrivateSetting (��)-BGB-3111 web UrbanSchoolPublicBoarding school Boarding school Boarding school, but large number of day students Boarding school, but large number of day students Boarding schoolUrbanSchoolPrivateRuralSchoolPublicRuralSchoolPublicSemiurbanLowersecondary educationSchool 6 ?excluded from the studyPublicRuralLower- and highersecondary educationVOL. 11 NO. 1Journal des Aspects Sociaux du VIH/SIDAOriginal Article2009 all six schools were revisited. The researchers checked whether the mailboxes were installed in a correct place on the school grounds and reattached the instructions. Students were gathered and given repeated explanations. It was decided to leave the mailboxes on school grounds for a period of six months, including a three-month holiday period. The schools were revisited in March 2010. In five schools, the mailboxes and instructions were still hanging upon our return. In one school, the lock was stolen for the second time. This school (school 6) was excluded from the study. One hundred and sixty-one letters were collected in the five remaining schools, bringing the total to 186 letters. One school (school 5) accounted for more than half of the letters (83 letters), with the remainder equally divided over the four other schools (Figure 1).remaining 154 letters all contained information on topics related to SRH. Seventy-nine writers identified their sex: 42 were girls and 37 boys. The median age of those who provided their age (n ?15) was 17 (mean 17.9) with a range from 15 to 24 years.General tone of the lettersThe sexual relationships described in the letters can be divided into two distinct groups. First, experimental sex, which takes place unprepared between two young people and is driven by sexual desire (n ?21). Due to their ad hoc nature, these sexual interactions are often unprotected. Second, transactional sex between a young girl/boy and an older man/woman after a process of negotiation (n ?40). This type of sexual interaction is particularly risky for HIV transmission, since older partners are more AnisomycinMedChemExpress Flagecidin likely to be infected with HIV and other STIs, and are likely to have multiple partners. One other type of relationship is described to a lesser extent: sex with someone in a superior function. For example, teachers having sex with students in exchange for marks (n ?3). Sex with soldiers is described by students who live near a military base (n ?5). These sexual relationships are mentioned, mostly in the third person, but are not elaborated upon further. Students are targeted by soldiers, in fact pregnant girls who drop out of school most of time are made pregnant by them. (Girl, letter 75) Relationships with emotional involvement, love or being in love were not described. Rather, it is described that `love’ can be used to take advantage of girls (n ?4). It happens that a boy tells a girl that he loves her and starts conversing while touching her. He keeps telling her `I love you, let’s sleep together’. If she is easy-going she agrees, while in reality the one that makes her pregnant does not care for her. (Girl, letter 47) When writing in general and impersonal terms, the authors almost always describe sex in a negative way, as an act that is wrong and has severe consequences, referring to sexual intercourse as `sex(ual) delinquency’. This could be because in Rwanda the legal age of consent is 18 years, and the legal age of marriage is 21 years (Interpol 2006), while sex before marriageAnalysi.Y educationSchool SchoolStatus PrivateSetting UrbanSchoolPublicBoarding school Boarding school Boarding school, but large number of day students Boarding school, but large number of day students Boarding schoolUrbanSchoolPrivateRuralSchoolPublicRuralSchoolPublicSemiurbanLowersecondary educationSchool 6 ?excluded from the studyPublicRuralLower- and highersecondary educationVOL. 11 NO. 1Journal des Aspects Sociaux du VIH/SIDAOriginal Article2009 all six schools were revisited. The researchers checked whether the mailboxes were installed in a correct place on the school grounds and reattached the instructions. Students were gathered and given repeated explanations. It was decided to leave the mailboxes on school grounds for a period of six months, including a three-month holiday period. The schools were revisited in March 2010. In five schools, the mailboxes and instructions were still hanging upon our return. In one school, the lock was stolen for the second time. This school (school 6) was excluded from the study. One hundred and sixty-one letters were collected in the five remaining schools, bringing the total to 186 letters. One school (school 5) accounted for more than half of the letters (83 letters), with the remainder equally divided over the four other schools (Figure 1).remaining 154 letters all contained information on topics related to SRH. Seventy-nine writers identified their sex: 42 were girls and 37 boys. The median age of those who provided their age (n ?15) was 17 (mean 17.9) with a range from 15 to 24 years.General tone of the lettersThe sexual relationships described in the letters can be divided into two distinct groups. First, experimental sex, which takes place unprepared between two young people and is driven by sexual desire (n ?21). Due to their ad hoc nature, these sexual interactions are often unprotected. Second, transactional sex between a young girl/boy and an older man/woman after a process of negotiation (n ?40). This type of sexual interaction is particularly risky for HIV transmission, since older partners are more likely to be infected with HIV and other STIs, and are likely to have multiple partners. One other type of relationship is described to a lesser extent: sex with someone in a superior function. For example, teachers having sex with students in exchange for marks (n ?3). Sex with soldiers is described by students who live near a military base (n ?5). These sexual relationships are mentioned, mostly in the third person, but are not elaborated upon further. Students are targeted by soldiers, in fact pregnant girls who drop out of school most of time are made pregnant by them. (Girl, letter 75) Relationships with emotional involvement, love or being in love were not described. Rather, it is described that `love’ can be used to take advantage of girls (n ?4). It happens that a boy tells a girl that he loves her and starts conversing while touching her. He keeps telling her `I love you, let’s sleep together’. If she is easy-going she agrees, while in reality the one that makes her pregnant does not care for her. (Girl, letter 47) When writing in general and impersonal terms, the authors almost always describe sex in a negative way, as an act that is wrong and has severe consequences, referring to sexual intercourse as `sex(ual) delinquency’. This could be because in Rwanda the legal age of consent is 18 years, and the legal age of marriage is 21 years (Interpol 2006), while sex before marriageAnalysi.