Profile: James Jobanputra

“Youth is the power for change,” is one of James Jobanputra's mottoes. It is easy to see why: as a medical student, he taught AIDS awareness in Africa, sex education in Scotland, and founded Sexpression, which has become a national network of medical sex education led by students.

James became interested in sex education at the age of 18, when he visited Zimbabwe. “My father is from East Africa,” he explained, “I went back there and the severity of the AIDS epidemic shocked me. I had no concept it was anywhere near as bad.”

So he started teaching AIDS awareness, “I was 18 and felt I could do anything. I had no experience of AIDS education and no teaching experience. Zimbabwean classes typically consist of 60 to 70 pupils and I was teaching their first information sessions on HIV and AIDS. About half of them didn't understand me so I had to rely on pictures and actions.”

James was new to teaching, but he drew on skills that he gained in school community service groups and on teenage holidays with the Winged Fellowship Trust--an organisation which provides holidays and planned breaks for people with disabilities and …