This is an award-winning training manual on HIV and AIDS, gender issues, communication and relationship skills developed in Uganda. It grew out of a need to address women's and young people's vulnerability to a lack of decision-making in sexual relationships. Stepping Stones forms part of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Best Resources for Community Mobilisation series. Since the first edition in 1995, the Stepping Stones training manual has been widely adapted and translated into various languages. It provides detailed guidance on how to run workshop sessions designed for women and men of all ages "to explore their social, sexual and psychological needs, to analyse the communication blocks they face, and to practise different ways of behaving in their relationships". The goal is to enable individuals, their peers and their communities to change their behaviour, individually and together, guided by the "stepping stones" that the various sessions provide. Originally designed for use throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the Stepping Stones training manual has been adapted for use in Asia, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. Individual sessions are designed for a team of skilled mixed-sex facilitators who work with groups in small-scale community settings. The purpose of the programme is to enable women and men of all ages to explore their social, sexual and psychological needs, to analyse the communication blocks they face, and to practise different ways of behaving in their relationships. The training package is designed to enable people to explore the range of issues that affect their sexual health - including gender roles, money, alcohol use, traditional practices, attitudes to sex, attitudes to death and their own personalities. The main themes of the training manual are: group cooperation; HIV and safer sex; why we behave in the ways that we do; ways in which we can change. The training manual is accompanied by a 70-minute workshop video. The training manual is based on a participatory approach to learning during which participants are encouraged to discuss and share their own experiences. Participation does not require literacy.