SUMMARY: World Relief (WR) Haiti's Mobilizing Youth for Life (MYFL) program will continue focusing on

abstinence and be faithful (AB) interventions through churches and schools that mobilize youth, church

leaders, parents and schoolteachers. Specific target populations include children and youth, girls, boys,

primary school students (aged 10-24), secondary school students (10-24), adults, men, women, out-of-

school youth, religious leaders, volunteers, teachers, and faith-based organizations. The activities will take

place in towns and villages in two, and possibly three, regional departments: the West, including Port-au-

Prince, and the South East, including Jacmel. The expansion to Artibonite Department (including Gonaives)

has been postponed due to security issues. This will be revisited in the coming year.

BACKGROUND:

These activities are part of ongoing HIV awareness and prevention efforts initiated in 2000 that were scaled

up beginning in 2004 with central funding from The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

The activities described here began in 2004 with PEPFAR funding. WR Haiti implements the activities in

close collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the community, but without any other official

partners. The support given to this project by the MOH is evidenced by our agreement with the MOH in

which WR will mobilize the church on health topics, including HIV/AIDS. WR has also been accepted as the

representative of the Protestant Churches to the MOH. Because WR is known as the pioneer of church

mobilization related to behavior change based on abstinence and being faithful, we are invited to participate

in all youth-related activities and curriculum development by MOH. Program activities address gender

issues with the goal of achieving equal participation of girls or women and boys or men (currently, 40% of

participants are female), and ensuring that at least 30% of the HIV program staff are women. In the church

context, we promote not only respect for women but comprehensive gender equity. WR's peer educator

curricula for youth age 10-14 and 15-24, Choose Life, address gender-based violence and sexual coercion.

They empower youth to resist sexual coercion and equip them with life skills to make wise choices as they

grow up. Microfinance activities within WR Haiti allow young women to access credit, thereby empowering

them to resist solicitation and combat vulnerability associated with economic need. The vast majority of our

microfinance clients are women.

ACTIVITES AND EXPECTED RESULTS: We will carry out four main activities in this program area.

ACTIVITY 1: The first activity is to mobilize and educate youth in churches through peer education and

youth clubs. These activities build the capacity of the youth to educate and influence each other. Sports

activities also play a major role in mobilizing the youth in church communities. The regular contact the youth

have at clubs, meetings and social events helps them to sustain their commitment to AB behaviors.

ACTIVITY 2: The second activity is to educate youth in schools through HIV education. The project will

also explore peer education in schools during FY07 and FY08, with ongoing relationships between the peer

educator and staff for support and strengthening. By promoting abstinence only to pre-adolescents and

abstinence and be faithful to older youth, the project seeks to reduce the number of youth having sex before

age 15. MYFL Haiti targets youth aged 10-24. Special emphasis will be placed on encouraging children

aged 10-14 to choose abstinence before marriage as the best way to prevent HIV and other sexually

transmitted infections (STIs), consequently delaying sexual debut. Youth who have had sexual experience

will be provided counsel and referred to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) centers. It is known that a

sizeable number of youth in the target population have reported being sexually active. These will be

encouraged to practice secondary abstinence. Referrals and linkages between AB outreach and counseling

and testing outlets will be strengthened. Youth in schools will be encouraged to join after-school clubs that

continue dialogue, engage in community service to people living with AIDS, and provide accountability for

avoiding AIDS.

ACTIVITY 3: The third activity is to train adults to support youth AB activities. Training influential adults

helps the youth to sustain their AB behavior commitments through support, encouragement and advocacy.

It also helps parents and teachers think about their own lives as important role models to youth. Sunday

school teachers are trained to provide AB education in Sunday school activities to target church youth who

do not attend church youth group meetings. Parent meetings will be held in schools, to advocate the

importance of the commitment of youth to A or B, to encourage support of their decisions, and to stress the

importance of modeling healthy sexual behaviors in the home.

ACTIVITY 4: The fourth activity is community mobilization through mass media, including continuation of the

radio program and the distribution of pamphlets and magazines with AB messages and information about

STIs and issues relating to HIV/AIDS. Behavior change messages are reinforced when they are repeated

from multiple sources, which helps to facilitate longer lasting change. In addition to WR's published

curricula, which have been widely accepted by WR's partners and which maintain the quality of training

interventions and integrity of AB messages, WR Haiti regularly writes and distributes pamphlets and

magazines that encourage interest and determination of youth to upholding their commitments.