The Scaling-Up Together We Can (TWC) project uses three outreach strategies—curriculum based

interventions, peer to peer outreach, and edutainment events—to provide Haitian youth with knowledge and

essential skills to avoid HIV infection. Partnership building, capacity building of the Haitian Red Cross

(HRC), and the engagement of adult stakeholders such as parents and teachers are also key elements of

the project.

TWC is a Track 1 ABY (abstinence and be faithful for youth) program active in two other countries

(Tanzania and Guyana) in addition to Haiti. The project has been operational in Haiti since June 2004 and

works in close collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Health (MOH) and National AIDS Program (UCC)

and has recently established a partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Youth. TWC is implemented in Haiti

by the HRC which is a local (indigenous) organization. The activities in this country funded narrative are

new and represent an expanded technical and partnership role for the American and Haitian Red Cross

Societies. The project addresses gender issues through assuring 50% of its staff from project coordinators

to peer educators are female. Curriculum and adult outreach interventions directly address cross-

generational sex, multiple sex partner and early sexual initiation norms and behaviors. The project is

currently seeking to improve female youth's access to life and job skills.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

ACTIVITY 1: Haitian youth in other areas of the country should benefit from TWC HIV prevention

messages. In 2007 the ARC and HRC propose work to support indigenous NGO and CBO networks that

target out-of-school youth. Both Red Cross Societies will provide technical assistance to USAID's

Education Project, (IDEJEN) to incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention activities into their ongoing program which

includes job and life skills. ARC will work through their Haitian Red Cross counterpart organization to roll

out the TWC curriculum which is being successfully utilized in Haiti. ARC and HRC will provide training of

trainers to IDEJEN to assist it in establishing a peer education program. To maximize the impact of this

training, ARC and HRC will assist IDEJEN by further adapting the TWC curriculum for low literate youth

incorporating innovative, yet evidenced-based approaches to reach out of school youth including role-

plays, theater skits, games and other highly participatory interventions. In this manner, ARC and HRC will

utilize TWC's participatory, skill building approach to introduce HIV prevention activities through IDEJEN's

network of 12 CBOs. Technical assistance will be provided to 20 IDEJEN field managers to gain skills in

the technical areas and learn effective approaches for promoting abstinence and being faithful to youth

between the ages of 10-24. IDEJEN Field Managers will be trained in all components of the TWC

curriculum which emphasizes abstinence (including secondary abstinence), being faithful to one's partner,

and other healthy behaviors including condom use for high risk youth in accordance with Emergency Plan

guidelines.

Both Red Cross Societies will also assist IDEJEN in the training of 60 adult stakeholders and adult

volunteers in IDEJEN and its CBO network. This technical assistance will enable education managers and

CBOs to better increase their skills in planning and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention programs within their

ongoing vocational training programs for out of school youth. Improvements in programming will promote

messages among partners to support interventions which reduce risky behavior and reduce HIV/AIDS

transmission.

ACTIVITY 2: The HRC will benefit from job skills training manuals and methodologies currently used by

IDEJEN. This will help the HRC further reduce the incidence of HIV among its in and out of school youth

beneficiaries by better addressing economic factors influencing behavioral risk factors of Haitian youth.

These objectives will be accomplished through the sharing of documents, lessons learned, observational

visits to IDEJEN sponsored cyber centers, as well as through training that can be included as part of the

TOT training outlined in Activity 1 above. ARC, HRC and IDEJEN will also examine approaches for linking

HRC youth beneficiaries to IDEJEN sponsored cyber cafes and job and life skill trainings. The targets are

to train 20 Field Managers as TOTs in establishing peer education program for promoting prevention

through abstinence and/or being faithful and 60 adult leaders/volunteers in community mobilization for

gaining parent involvement and community support for IDEJEN's CBO network in HIV/AID prevention

activities..

These results contribute to the Emergency Plan 2-7-10 goals by preventing new HIV infections among

Haitian youth through the improvement of knowledge, attitudes and skills pertaining to HIV/AIDS. The

project addresses gender issues through assuring 50% of its staff from project coordinators to peer

educators are female. Curriculum and adult outreach interventions directly address cross-generational sex,

multiple sex partner and early sexual initiation norms and behaviors. The project is currently seeking to

improve female youth's access to life and job skills.