Addis Ababa University (AAU) continues strengthening HIV/AIDS, STI, and TB prevention, care and treatment activities within the AAU community in COP 2010 to avert new HIV infections and serve the campus and city with services for comprehensive care and treatment. AAU plans to continue reaching 30,000 academic students primarily in the age range of 18 to 24, and 5,000 acadamic and administrative staff in the age group of 25 to 49 through HIV/AIDS prevention and care and treatment programs in Addis Ababa and nearby towns. With this direct funding in COP 2010, AAU plans to train 4,000 students in AB/OP sexual prevention, including mainstreaming a male gender norms initiative and gender based violence. In addition, AAU plans to engage 400 students through their HIV/AIDS certificate curriculum training to work on community outreach programs to reach a larger audience with AB and OP messages, and motivate service uptake of STI treatment and ART.

Benefiting from this direct funding, AAU uses different strategies to achieve the overall objective of the project. AAU uses Modeling and Reinforcement to combat HIV/AIDS (MARCH), HIV/AIDS certificate curriculum training, tailored IEC/BCC material production, workplace HIV/AIDS intervention, and national capacity building through pre-service training to graduating health care students. AAU strives to create an effective link between behavioral change communication programs and prevention commodities such as condoms, VCT, STI, and comprehensive HIV care/ART services. Housing a large teaching hospital, a strong and effective referral system for the AAU community to access comprehensive services is also a priority. As of October 2009, AAU's referral Black Lion Hospital had 2,600 patients currently on ART.

As part of a broader strategy, the MARCH approach is employed to shape student behavior using an entertaining and engaging printed serial drama showing the benefits of positive and responsible sexual behaviors, and the negative consequences of irresponsible and unsafe sexual practices. Lessons-learned from the evaluation of the MARCH program conducted by the National Defense Force will also be applied to AAU in 2010. Students completing a 64-hour certificate training serve as reinforcement agents around MARCH and organize community outreach programs every month. Community outreach activities create opportunities for community dialogue to reinforce positive characters in the printed serial drama, and to link new service seekers with STI, HCT, ART and other related services. Tailored and evidence-based IEC/BCC materials, serving as glue between service seekers and HIV-related services, accelerate the behavior change among students, academic and administrative staff. Under this activity culturally sensitive and tailored IEC/BCC material such as posters, brochures, leaflets, and news letters are to be produced and properly disseminated to reach target audiences. Capacity building to graduating health care students and direct technical assistance to the Ministry of Health contributes to national sustainably to address HIV/AIDS. Implementing workplace HIV/AIDS helps to reach academic and administrative staff in a distinctive manner for their unique environment. This workplace HIV/AIDS program trains AAU management staff, faculty and department heads in managing potential and existing problems related to HIV/AIDS in the AAU workplace. In COP 2010, AAU plans to create a synergistic communication among the different stakeholders in the university to link behavior communication programs with prevention commodities, HIV testing and STI and ART treatment options.

As a historical and leading Ethiopian academic institution, AAU is one of the main contributors to development of the health workforce through its contribution to national policy development and strategic planning, its large and wide range of pre-service programs for all health cadres, its contributions to local science, and its advanced degree programs that create the next generation of health system leaders and educators. AAU hosts a broad range of other PEPFAR-supported efforts including Johns Hopkins University (JHU) support for care/ART and human resources for health (HRH), Ethiopian Public Health Agency (EPHA) support for community mortality surveillance, a TBD mechanism for a new Master's in Hospital and Health Management, the MPH in the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program through EPHA, CDC, and the Ethiopia Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI), laboratory technologist training, a Master's in Biostatistics, and a new degree program in biomedical engineering. The Minister of Health chairs the governing board of the College of Health Sciences that oversees a broad range of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, laboratory, veterinary, and public health institutions contained within AAU.

In addition to the support to AAU through a range of partners, direct USG funding to an indigenous governmental partner like AAU simultaneously optimizes cost-efficiency and promotes sustainability. Monitoring and evaluation is approached through the CoAg review process, regular sites visits, and through other partners' interactions with AAU to triangulate information.

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This activity has had a significant budget increase. Prevention funding for university students includes 90% for OP and 10% for AB.

Objective 1. AAU proposes to strengthen the existing behavior change communication targeting 30,000 students and 5,000 staff members by:

Strengthening the existing MARCH peer education project and linkages with comprehensive services, including condom access, VCT services, STI management, RH/FP, care and treatment;

Producing tailored IEC/BCC material focused on the lives of AAU students;

Providing HIV/AIDS certificate curriculum training to 400 AAU students;

Organizing outreach programs to reach 30,000 AAU students to increase their knowledge about HIV/AIDS, factors that indirectly promote risk behavior, prevention methods through mainstreaming messaging on gender-based violence and male gender norms;

Producing 12 editions of "Life 101" comic book and print and distribute in 144,000 copies to AAU students;

Producing 12 editions of "Beg Tera" newsletter and printing and distributing 144,000 copies to AAU students;

Organizing 225 student-led peer discussions and other reinforcement activities targeting 30,000 students in all 16 campuses;

Developing and disseminating different IEC materials to augment other BCC activities organize and undertake different campaigns on World AIDS Day, New Years, etc.

Objective 2: AAU proposes to strengthen the existing workplace interventions targeting over 2,000 faculty and 3,000 administrative staff members in 16 campuses by:

Undertaking formative assessment on AAU staff and faculty members on HIV/AIDS and service uptake;

Supporting existing staff anti AIDS clubs at different campuses;

Producing different strategically designed BCC materials targeting AAU academic and administrative staff;

Organizing different anti AIDS campaigns for special occasions, commemoration, and holydays.

This activity has had a significant budget increase.

Objective 1: AAU proposes to strengthen the existing behavior change communication targeting 30,000 students and 5,000 staff members by:

Strengthening the existing MARCH project;

Producing tailored IEC/BCC material;

Providing HIV/AIDS certificate curriculum training 400 AAU students;

Organizing outreach programs to reach 30,000 AAU students to increase their knowledge of basic facts about HIV/AIDS, factors that indirectly promote risky behavior, and prevention methods through mainstreaming gender-based violence and male gender norms;

Producing 12 editions of "Life 101" comic book and printing and distributing 144,000 copies to AAU students;

Producing 12 editions of "Beg Tera" newsletter and printing and distributing 144,000 copies to AAU students;

Organizing 225 student-led peer discussion and other reinforcement activities targeting 30,000 students in all 16 campuses;

Developing and disseminating IEC materials to augment other BCC activities;

Organizing and undertaking different campaigns on World AIDS Day, New Year, etc.

Objective 2: AAU proposes to strengthen the existing workplace interventions targeting over 2,000 faculty and 3,000 administrative staff members in 16 campuses by:

Undertaking formative assessments on AAU staff and faculty members on HIV/AIDS and service uptake;

Supporting existing staff Anti-AIDS clubs at different campuses;

Producing strategically designed BCC materials targeting AAU academic and administrative staff;

Organizing anti-AIDS campaigns during special AAU occasions, national holidays and commemoration days.

Referring 600 students and staff members to STI and HCT service sites by strengthening existing VCT and STI treatment in health centers on two campuses;

Initiating mobile VCT services to provide friendly services to 2,000 AAU students and 200 staff members;

Initiating linkage with service providers in AAU and its vicinity to make client-friendly services accessible to AAU community members;

Encouraging correct and consistent condom use to sexually active community members by expanding and diversifying existing condom outlets to 24 by the end of the year;

Reaching 300 AAU community members through strengthened STI assessment and treatment services.