Peace Corps Guyana supports Guyana National HIV/AIDS Strategy 2007-2011 and the Mission's PEPFAR goals. This is achieved through close collaboration with the Mission's PEPFAR team, International agencies, Government agencies and local organizations. HIV and AIDS education continues to be an integral part of Peace Corps Guyana's Community Health and Basic Education Initiative Projects. As such, HIV prevention and AIDS education falls within specific objectives of each of these projects.

Within the Community Health Project Plan Goal 1 focuses on youth developing and practicing healthier lifestyles through health education/awareness sessions, training of peer educators to work with groups in their communities and creating alternative activities for youth. Community Health Goal 2 is aimed at improving adults' knowledge, attitude, and practices pertaining to personal and family health through health education sessions and other educational activities, which will boost their quality of life. Several organizations, most recently including Guyana's Ministry of Health, have begun to use edutainment methodology in their programming. Edutainment has proven to be an effective way to gain attention of Guyanese audiences young and old in schools, public spaces or community meetings and give them messages that will stay with them. Volunteers will involve drama and song into their health clubs, science curriculum, life skills sessions and HIV-related literacy into their work.

The Basic Education Initiative Project Plan's Goal 1 similarly focuses on empowering youth, but mainly through life skills education sessions. Volunteers work with school administration and teachers to ensure the Health and Family Life curriculum, designed by Guyana's Ministry of Education, is added to the academic timetable. Goal 3 of the Basic Education Initiative Project Plan assists with the promotion of efficient and effective access to learning resources, which will allow youth to make healthy choices and be involved in alternative activities. Additionally, volunteers often work with out-of-school youth using the out-of-school youth manual, developed by USAID-funded Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) Project. This manual is used by many non-governmental organizations and peer education groups and has proven to be an effective and culturally-appropriate intervention.

PEPFAR Programming at Peace Corps Guyana main goals are 1.) Continue to develop better Peace Corps Response volunteer sites that further the organization and national response goals. 2.) Provide comprehensive, practical training in HIV/AIDS-related topics, gender norms and other relevant Peer Education skills during Pre-Service and In -service Training 3.) Supply guidance and resources, through technical assistance, proposal writing assistance, financial resources and technical resources that equip volunteers to implement sustainable HIV-related projects. Continued PEPFAR funding will greatly assists Volunteers and moreover, their communities in providing necessary HIV prevention activities in underserved and low resource areas throughout all ten administrative regions of Guyana.

Peace Corps Guyana's PEPFAR programming involves the key issue of Gender, namely equal access for all to services, raising awareness about male norms and behaviors and skills training with women to increase access to income-producing activities. The volunteers work with women's shelters, drug rehabilitation facilities, community-based gender groups and with in-school and out-of-school youth.

Peace Corps Guyana is testing and may adopt several cost efficient strategies such as, providing 'add-on' PEPFAR training days to Post-established conferences and implementing regional workshops to reduce the cost of volunteer transportation. PEPFAR team at Peace Corps Guyana is planning trainings with the long-term vision of their full integration into the continuum of training, e.g. Behavior Change and Peer Education training sessions.

Peace Corps Guyana will ensure that activities are implemented as planned through site visits, meetings with partner organizations and careful review of Volunteers' trimester reports. Work continues to improve the data collection systems and monitoring and reporting mechanisms for Volunteers to insure accurate, quality data is captured. Volunteers are also involved with M & E systems strengthening activities in the health sector and non-governmental organizations.

Programming responding to yellow-lit activities- Guyana PEPFAR Interagency team has adopted OGAC Prevention Technical Working Group recommendations for the sexual prevention portfolio.

Peace Corps/Guyana supports the National AIDS strategy in the area of sexual prevention and capacity building of local organizations. Volunteers are assigned to community health, primary literacy education, and information technology projects in 9 of Guyana's 10 regions and place a particular emphasis on targeting young people. Through these projects, Volunteers target in and out-of-school youth between the ages of 8 to 18 years, and women and men in settings such as church groups and health centers with AB prevention messages. Volunteers and their counterparts receive pre and in-service training to mobilize and train youth and other "connectors" in their communities to conduct peer education, one-on-one talks, small group discussions and public awareness campaigns. Trainings focus on developing life skills, promoting behavior change and addressing gender roles and norms. Peace Corps uses materials developed through the USAID-funded Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction and Prevention (GHARP) Project, the Peace Corps Life Skills manual, the Health and Family Life (HFLE) curriculum and other evidenced-based curricula. Volunteers also facilitate listening discussion groups through the Merundoi Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS (MARCH) project.

In addition, Volunteers build the capacity of local NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, schools and public ministries to develop and implement HIV prevention activities through staff training and systems strengthening. One Peace Corps Response Volunteer (Volunteers who have completed a full term of service and return for 6-12 month assignments) will be recruited specifically to build the capacity of a local NGO that provides support for in-school youth.

Volunteers and their community counterpart have access to funds for community-based projects through the Volunteer Activity Support and Training (VAST) program.

Volunteers submit trimester reports on their activities to Peace Corps/Guyana. Peace Corps/Guyana staff also conducts site visits to monitor the progress of activities conducted by Volunteers and their counterparts

Programming responding to yellow-lit activities- Guyana PEPFAR Interagency team has adopted OGAC Prevention Technical Working Group recommendations for the sexual prevention portfolio.

Peace Corps/Guyana supports the National AIDS strategy in the area of sexual prevention and capacity building of local organizations. Volunteers are assigned to community health, primary literacy education, and information technology projects in 9 of Guyana's 10 regions and place a particular emphasis on targeting young people. In Guyana, 73% of out-of-school and 63% of in-school youth are sexually active (AIDS Indicator Survey 2005). Poverty, illiteracy, and lack of legitimate employment place many young women at risk for early sexual activity as a way of earning a living. To address these issues, Volunteers target vulnerable groups with small-group behavior change interventions integrated into existing community structures, such as women's groups, men's groups, church groups, workplace programs, women's shelters, drug rehabilitation facilities, and programs for out-of-school youth. With these community partners, Volunteers work to strengthen life skills, address male norms and behaviors, and provide income-generating skills training for women and at-risk youth. Volunteers leverage existing successful interventions, such as the Out-Of-School Youth Manual and curriculum developed by the GHARP Project, the Merundoi Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS (MARCH) radio program, and the Ministry of Health's HIV/AIDS through Edutainment model. If monetary resources are needed, Volunteers and their communities have access to a small grants fund to support community-focused activities.

In addition, Volunteers work with government organizations, local NGOs, CBOs, and FBOs to build their organizational capacity to target most at risk populations. Specifically, three Peace Corps Response Volunteers (Volunteers who have completed a full term of service and return for 6-12 month assignments) will be recruited to work with a female drug rehabilitation centre, local NGO and the Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction Program. These Volunteers will strengthen staff's capacity to implement small-group behavior change interventions with high risk populations as well as provide organizational capacity building support to the organizations.

Volunteers and their community counterpart have access to funds for community-based projects through the Volunteer Activity Support and Training (VAST) program.

Volunteers submit trimester reports on their activities to Peace Corps/Guyana. Peace Corps/Guyana staff also conduct site visits to monitor the progress of activities conducted by Volunteers and their counterparts