The goal of Hope CI is to contribute to reduce the impact of HIV infection in 5 regions of Côte d'Ivoire over a period of 5 years. Its specific objectives are strengthen the national HIV response to: prevent new infections for youth, strengthen the organizational and the technical capacities of 24 local CBOs/FBOs to implement effective prevention interventions and to provide quality care and support to OVC and their families.

For a more cost-effective and sustainable response, HCI will mobilize human, material and additional financial resources from communities, public and private corporations; plan interventions to provide multiple services.To facilitate longer term leadership and devolution of responsibilities to local and national organizations, HCI will: select local CBOs/FBOs and build their capacities; mobilize the surrounding communities to support the activities of CBOs/FBOs, and strengthen coordinationand cooperation through participatory processes and communication.

To ensure sound project monitoring and evaluation, HCI will support:

-

Site analysis to determine baseline data,

-

Routine study of the program at the end of 2012; to assess the level of changes in beneficiaries lives.

-

Sub partners M&E focal points trainings

-

Programs evaluation on a semiannual basis, through review meetings and discussion groups on findings.

-

Annual audit on the quality of interventions and data reported.

Monitoring and evaluation interventions will cost 15% of the global budget.

Vehicle

Through COP 11: 5 New requests in COP12: 5 Planned vehicles for life of mechanism: 10 (4 cars, 6 motorcycles) 2 vehicles ($ 44,444/vehicle) and 3 motorcycles ($ 2,800/motorcycle) used to coordinate activities for in-country travels.

In FY2012, HCI will work with 8 Support Groups of PLHIV in Abidjan.

The target populations will be: OVCs HIV infected parents/tutors; PLHIV peer educators; local PLHIVs support Groups; and communities.

The expected results for FY2012 are: i) 2,000 PLHIV provided with care and support; ii) 2,000 PLHIV reached with a minimum package of PwP interventions; iii) 300 PLHIV provided with food/nutritional support; iv) 75% affected households provided with bed nets and water purifying material; v) 100% of affected households provided with early TB testing; vi) 50 community counselors trained on PwP interventions. Those results will contribute to reach the national targeted goals: 80% of PLHIV clients provided with HIV prevention and care and support through 2015.

In accordance with PEPFAR and the national strategy, HCI will:

Support the government to define a package of community PwP interventions; the PLHIV support Groups in improvement of the quality of data collection; and FBO/CBO-led HIV testing centers and outreach in communities for strengthening referral systems and service networks.

Assist the Support Groups in the provision of psychosocial support trough individual/group counseling; social support through nutritional counseling; spiritual support through referral to interfaith organizations.

To reduce the mother-child HIV transmission, STIs and to improve the quality of life of the PLHIV, PwP interventions will be implemented such as: promotion of the use of PMCT services; condom use; early testing for cervical cancer; counseling on hygiene; treatment adherence education; referral for early TB testing and the HIV testing for families.

Services will be delivered through home visits, support groups sessions with PLHIV and community mobilization.

HCI will collaborate with the ministry of national education for the institutional strengthening of PLHIV organizations within the teachers body.

To improve the quality of services, HCI will train and supervise PLHIV peer educators and conduct an assessment on the quality of services.

Support groups will establish partnerships with HIV testing and treatment/care and support centers. PLHIV in pre-ARV phase and under ARV treatment will be referred from the testing/care centers to support groups for counseling help retain them in HIV services which may include complimentary home-based care and support services. Families of PLHIV will be referred from the support group to the care center for HIV testing and access to ARV treatment if needed.

Links will also be established with: i) maternal and to child health and reproductive health services to improve the access to these services to address other vulnerabilities such as unwanted pregnancy and to prevent or detect cervical cancer; ii) nutritional assessment, counseling and support programs for the referral of PLHIV with poor nutritional status or with food insecurity; iii) socio economic support programs/institutions for access to means of livelihood activities.

Sub-partners will be supported in the identification of families who have no access to clean water; IEC/BCC on personal and environmental hygiene; and provision of water purification materials (WASH estimated cost: $ 17000).

The adolescents living with HIV/AIDS will be educated in abstinence, rights and ART adherence and well-being for those on and not initiated on ART. Their parents will also be trained in parent-child communication.

In FY2012, HCI will work with 24 CBO/FBO in 22 sites: Abidjan, Tiassalé, Alépé, Sikensi, Grand Lahou, Dabou, Jacqueville, Divo, Lakota, San-Pedro, Sassandra, Soubré, Tabou, Aboisso, Grand-Bassam, Adiaké, Dimbokro, Daoukro, Bongouanou, Bocanda, MBahiakro, Prikro.

The target populations are: OVC, especially adolescents; their parents/tutors and families; community counselors; social workers; CBO/FBO; social centers; and communities.

The expected results for FY2012 are: 12,000 OVC provided with care and support; those eligible will receive nutritional support; and 100 community counselors trained in care and support. Results will contribute to reach the national target which is to provide quality care and support to 90,000 OVC by 2013.

HCI and APROSAM will assist the Government in the strengthening of HIV prevention among OVC, support social centers and OVC platforms to strengthen the referral system and community networks that assist OVC. Additional activities to streamline coordination of interventions, train CBO/FBO for higher quality services and strengthen local governance structures as national information system specifically, will be implemented. Support for sub-partners to integrate effective gender programming to combat gender-based violence, for example will involve TA and sharing of tools. Lastly, a focus on leadership within communities to participate and sustain the response will serves as a central component of interactions and service delivery platforms.

Emphasis on ways to address child protection issues and increase access to medical services for HIV infected OVC will remain as important programmatic considerations. Parents living with HIV/AIDS will be referred to PLHIV supports groups assisted by the project, for access to palliative care and PwP interventions. To measure the quality and success of the OVC portfolio, a routine assessment will be conducted. The CSI tool will be used prior to and after services in order to identify areas of improvement for OVC well-being. A A household survey will be conducted to measure the impact of the project on the living conditions.

To face the challenge of current sociopolitical insecurities, HCI led on site training workshops and close coaching with sub-partners. However, the past crisis has impacted the program by cutting off access to select sites; health centers and the showing changes in clients needs. By way of a solution, work-plan revisions have adapted to the unknowns in the CI context.

To improve the quality of services, HCI will: assess the capacity of sub-partners to provide quality services, train community counselors with national training modules and conduct annual assessment on the quality of services. Sub-partners will be supported in establishing partnerships with health centers caring for mother and child to improve families' access to health and reproductive health services. Emphasis will be placed on the identification of severly malnourished OVC, for nutritional counseling and support programs (Estimate cost: $ 271,600). Sub-partners will be supported in IEC/BCC activities for families on hygiene and for providing water purification materials (estimated cost: $ 201 600).

Other capacity building activities include education of OVC on HIV/AIDS and STI prevention and training of parents in communication.

COP 2013 funding for this continuing activity is requested in the additional budget code of PDCS to strengthen:

- Promotion of HIV testing for children

- CSI evaluation for HIV-infected children

- Documentation of referral and counter-referral between health facilities and communities

- Care and social services (economic strengthening, psychological support, etc.) for HIV-infected children

These actions are in response to a recent OVC/PDCS consultation that recommended strengthening links between health facilities and communities through social centers and families.

HCI will use nationally accredited curriculum and JHU/CCP field-tested tools to provide education and outreach activities to youth, parents and older adults with the goal to facilitate more informed and healthy decision making which can prevent HIV/AIDS in these targeted groups. Special consideration of the needs and vulnerabilities of women and girls will be an integral part of each intervention. Strategies will include:

i) Promotion of parent-child communication for ages 9-12 using the Families matter approach that strengthens the communication between parents and their children on sexuality. ii) Promotion of abstinence and correct use of condoms through SUPER GO Strategy targeting out of school and non schooled youth from 15-19. This will help to strengthen adolescents skills supporting the adoption of healthy behaviors. iii) Promotion of Fidelity, correct use of condoms and testing will also be a focus prioritizing females in the 20-24 age range, to promote behaviors such as couples monogamy, voluntary HCT and consistent correct use of contraceptives (female condoms/ the negotiation of male condom).

Hope CI will implement the program in a number of geographical areas. Families matter! approach will be used in NZi Comoé Region; Sud Bandama Region, Bas Sassandra Region. Promotion of Abstinence and Promotion of Fidelity, correct use of condoms and HIV testing will be extended to the Region of Lagunes.

Interventions for different age groups aim to address the key drivers of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in CI. These include early sexual debut among youth, multiple concurrent partners, ignorance and misperceptions about risks and limited access to information and services related to their sexuality and RH issues.

Target populations vary from 4000 parents, aged 25-49, that will be reached including 3000 women to other age groups. We will also focus on those aged 30-34, most infected group; and 4000 pre-teens ,9-12 years. 15-19 years: 8000 persons, with 80% of young women and among ages 20-49 years, 19,000 persons. Including 9000 persons will be reached (20-24 years:, with 80% of women) and 10 000 persons will be reached (couples with 5 000 women of 25-49 years and their partners);

Families matter approach activities will involve parents, through five evidence-based sessions, on a weekly basis over 5 consecutive weeks. For promotion of abstinence; fidelity and correct use of condoms, activities will be carried out weekly with groups of 25 people or less, through sessions, from the national curriculum Education through Abstinence. JHU/CCPs facilitation spots tools on « Super Go », spots on HIV testing, and, HOPE CIs image boxes will also be used.

To ensure linkages with other vital programs, parents will be referred to RH services for complementary information and eligible children for additional OVC services. Those in most need will be supported in IGA, especially young women and where risks are identified access to HIV and cervical cancer testing programs will be available.

Training on the Families matter! approach, will target 16 sub partners facilitators and training of 25 peers educators on the fidelity promotion module in addition to 150 peers educators from its sub partners on the full range of content areas

With COP 2013 funding in the new budget code of HVOP, Hope Cote dIvoire will extend sexual prevention activities previously funded only under HVAB for 9- to 12-year-olds to include 13- to 19-year-olds. The objective is to strengthen parents competencies in sexual/reproductive health, HIV, and parent-child communication to enable them to guide their children, as appropriate by age bracket, toward later sexual debut, limiting sex to a single partner who has been tested for HIV, correct and consistent condom use, and HIV testing and counseling services. Hope CI will also use HVOP funding to conduct peer education and community mobilization promoting condom use and ready access to condoms for among higher-risk sub-populations such as truck drivers, farmers, hair dressers, domestic workers, and traders at lorry parks (ages 20-49)