1. LIST OF RELATED ACTIVITIES This activity relates to activities in Condoms and Other Prevention Activities (#7027) and Counseling and Testing (#8753).

2. ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION Population Council's (PC) ‘Friends of Youth' (FOY) Project, working in partnership with the Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK) will reach 48,000 youth with abstinence and faithfulness messages through training forty new adult mentors and providing update trainings to all 200 Friends of Youth (FOYs). It builds on tested interventions that are consistent with local cultures of adult-youth mentoring by enlisting the involvement of trusted adults and older youth in the community to act as friends of youth. These FOYs will help to positively influencing safer sexual behavior and changing community and social norms. The intervention employs a behavior change model whose effectiveness has demonstrated effectiveness in delaying sexual initiation, increasing secondary abstinence and reducing the number of sex partners among adolescents. The program links youth with a trained adult mentor at village level. The program will work with 200 FOYs who will use an informal curriculum-based approach using the ‘Life Skills Plus' curriculum. Each of the 200 FOYs will reach at least twenty new youths each month to encourage abstinence and behavior change activities. Additionally, the FOY project will train 50 youth in participatory theatre to enhance their involvement in community HIV education activities. The project will expand its activities to the Embu municipality, which bears close proximity to Nyeri and shares similar cultural practices. These activities will contribute to our results of HIV preventive behaviors among youth improved, changed social and community norms to promote HIV preventive behaviors in youth, and models for effective youth interventions tested. Significant changes from FY 2006 to FY 2007 include scaling up to a new project site, Embu municipality as well as integration of alcohol and substance abuse education and related services. This expansion will also enable the FOY project to undertake baseline studies for a subsequent targeted evaluation. Data management will be strengthened through establishing more effective linkages with other service delivery partners. An important addition to the project will be establishing linkages for adolescent care and treatment in both private and public heath care facilities. PC has done extensive work on effective youth interventions and this project will scale up a successful youth-adult behavior change model in selected urban areas in Kenya. Population Council will study the results of this project so that lessons can be learned about this approach to youth HIV prevention. To help improve health services for young people, young people will be served through selected private service providers through a coupon system in which referrals will be made particularly through the youth center for free health services. This activity also includes support to the Family Health Options Kenya who implement activities integral to the program for $80,000.

3. CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA During the 2007 project period, a total of 48,000 individuals will be reached with an intensive curriculum-based life skills training program through 200 FOYS/adult mentors trained. Community outreach programs that promote abstinence and/or being faithful through five project sites namely Nyeri, Nyahururu, Thika, Embu and Huruma slums in Nairobi will contribute to the Emergency Plan prevention targets.

4. LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES This activity relates to PC (FOY) other program areas, FOY AB activities will contribute to achievement of targets in OP activity (#7027), CT activity (#8753). PC-FOY will continue strengthening the referral system that encourages youth to adopt good health-seeking behavior by eliminating treatment cost barriers.

5. POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED This activity will target young men and women of reproductive age who are mainly the FOYs as well as youth including primary and secondary school students. It will continue to identify community leaders who will be instrumental in the recruitment of friends of youth. Religious leaders and program managers will be actively involved in this activity and the trusted adults selected will serve in a volunteer capacity and continue to receive only a minimal honorarium and occasional incentives such as training. This activity will continue to intensively involve teachers through its' in-school programs. The project will extend its coverage to rural communities.

6. KEY LEGISLATIVE ISSUES ADDRESSED This activity will address gender issues by increasing gender equity in its HIV/AIDS programs and will continue to address male norms and behaviors, particularly ensuring that there is a greater involvement of male youth in abstinence campaigns in its Life Skills training. It will work largely with volunteers.

7. EMPHASIS AREAS Major emphasis will be on community mobilization. Minor emphasis will be on information, education and communication. Through its partnership with FHOK, quality assurance and supportive supervision will be offered alongside training. Human resources is a minor emphasis as the project has a thin staff structure and relies heavily on the volunteer friends of youth to drive its implementation.

1. LIST OF RELATED ACTIVITIES This activity relates to activities in Abstinence and Be Faithful Programs (#7026) and Counseling and Testing (#8753).

2. ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION Population Council's (PC) ‘Friends of Youth' (FOY) Project working in partnership with the Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK) will reach 20,000 youth with condoms and other prevention education and services. It will train an additional 40 FOYs and establish 10 condom outlets. It will expand its scope of the Friends of Youth (FOYs) to include using the adult mentors (FOYs) to reach sexually active and at-risk youth education and service that focus on sexual risk reduction. The effectiveness of the FOY activity in achieving behavior change for youth through close adult mentorship has been evaluated for effectiveness and shown to result in adoption of safer sexual behavior and is now being scaled up to previous control sites and other feasible areas. The program links youth with a trained adult mentor at village level. The program will work with the existing 100 FOYs who will use participatory approaches to involve youth in risk-reduction education, including condom promotion and distribution. The project will therefore identify and target sexually active youth and other high-risk groups within their target locations. They will increase support to STI treatment for youth by linking them to service providers through an established coupon system that offers youth a significantly subsidized treatment cost and hence eliminates the cost barrier to treatment. STI screening and treatment for individuals with HIV will be intensified. It will also provide reproductive health information for young women testing positive to prevent unintended pregnancies. Referral systems to HIV care and treatment services, including ART will be improved to reduce viral load and the risk of HIV transmission. In addition, behavioral interventions targeting individuals with HIV will be developed to help reduce the risk of transmission. These and other efforts will ensure that Positive Prevention is a key focus among this high-risk group. Additionally, the FOY project will train 200 youth in participatory theatre to enhance their involvement in community HIV education activities. The project content will be further enriched to include intensified education on alcohol and substance abuse. The project will expand its activities to the Embu municipality, which bears close proximity to Nyeri and shares similar cultural practices upon which the project is developed. Data management will be strengthened through establishing more effective linkages with other service delivery partners. An important addition to the project will be establishing linkages for adolescent care and treatment in both private and public heath care facilities. PC has done extensive work on effective youth interventions and this project will scale up a successful youth-adult behavior change model in selected urban areas in Kenya. This activity also includes support to the Family Health Options Kenya for activities integral to the program for an amount of US$50,000.

3. CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA During the 2007 project period, a total of 20,000 individuals will be reached with an intensive curriculum-based life skills training program through an additional 40 FOYS/adult mentors trained. 10 condom outlets will be established.

4. LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES This activity relates to PC-FOY other program areas: FOY AB activities (#7026) will contribute to achievement of targets in this program activity and CT activity (#8753). PC-FOY will continue strengthening the referral system that encourages youth to adopt good health-seeking behavior for STIs and subsequently care as need may be. Linkages will be established with public health care facilities to supplement current linkages that exist with private health service providers.

5. POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED This activity will target young men and women of reproductive age as well as out-of-school youth and partners/clients of CSWs. It will continue to identify community leaders who will be instrumental in the recruitment of friends of youth. Religious leaders will be actively involved in this activity and the trusted adults selected will serve in a volunteer capacity and continue to receive only a minimal honorarium and occasional incentives such as training. Linkages will be established with health care providers in both the private and public sector, particularly nurses. Support from community-based organizations mainly at sub-locational level will continue to be enlisted to ensure that both parents and youth continue to be supportive of this condoms and other prevention

activity.

6. KEY LEGISLATIVE ISSUES ADDRESSED This activity will address gender issues by increasing gender equity in its HIV/AIDS programs and will continue to address male norms and behaviors, particularly ensuring that there is a greater involvement of male youth in condoms and other prevention campaigns. It will also work at reducing violence and coercion through reinforcing desirable behavior in its life skills training. Stigma and discrimination will be addressed through all program activities.

7. EMPHASIS AREAS Major emphasis will be on human resource. Minor emphasis will be made on community mobilization and participation as well as on Information, Education and Communication. Linkages with other sectors, especially the health sector and the development of referral systems will be enhanced. Training of FOYs and youth will be other minor emphases.

1. LIST OF RELATED ACTIVITIES This activity relates to activities in AB (#7026) and OP (#7027).

2. ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION In FY 2007, Population Council's (PC) ‘Friends of Youth' (FOY) Project working in partnership with the Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK) will provide counseling and testing services to 2,500 individuals and train 4 counselors to work in six sites. The Friends of Youth project initiated CT activities in the previous year and will therefore strengthen the CT activities in the areas where they have Emergency Plan supported AB and OP activities. These sites include Huruma in Nairobi, Nyeri, Nyahururu, Thika and Embu. The FOY project also works in close collaboration with existing VCT sites. In its OP activities, the FOY project works with a network of private health service providers to offer STI and reproductive health services to young people. These health providers will receive training in DTC so that they can integrate CT into the other health services, such as STI treatment. This activity will be closely linked with the AB and OP activities in the same region. The project was evaluated in a previous phase and it was found that this adult mentorship model was an effective strategy in transforming behavior among the youth. This activity is now being expanded in scope and geographic coverage within the limits of feasibility. The program will work with 100 youth organizations, and will use participatory approaches to involve youth and adults in risk-reduction education, including education and promotion of the need for counseling and testing. The FOY approach is organized along the Central Bureau of Statistics mapping and each youth organization covers a well defined catchment area to assure a comprehensive coverage. Building on this strategy, the FOY project will explore the feasibility of undertaking door to door testing, under the close guidance of trained counselors. Through the close interaction between FOY and young people, the project will therefore identify and target sexually active youth and other high-risk groups within their target locations and encourage them to learn their status. PC has done extensive work on effective youth interventions and this project will scale up a successful youth-adult behavior change model in selected urban areas in Kenya which now includes counseling and testing. It builds on tested interventions that are consistent with local cultures of adult-youth mentoring by enlisting the involvement of trusted adults and older youth in the community to act as friends of youth by promoting safer sexual behavior and changing community and social norms. Population Council will carefully study the results of this project so that lessons can be learned about this approach to youth HIV prevention.

3. CONTRIBUTION TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA The work of FOY will be comprehensive with an important emphasis on youth. Beyond providing VCT and DTC, they will also provide reproductive health and adult mentorship. Impartation of life skills will support HIV prevention efforts.

4. LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES The CT activities that will be implemented by FOY will be linked to other Emergency Plan supported HIV prevention activities of Population Council (Friends of Youth). These include AB (#7026) and OP (#7027). Community mobilization and IEC activities will be done jointly. The youth programs will be used to encourage clients to have an HIV test.

5. POPULATION BEING TARGETED This activity will target out-of-school youth including street youth.

6. KEY LEGISLATIVE ISSSUES ADDRESED This activity will mainly address gender equity in access to information and health care. It will also address stigma and discrimination through increased information and awareness.

7. EMPHASIS AREAS This activity will have a major emphasis on community mobilization and a minor emphasis in production of IEC materials. FOY will work with adult mentors and youth leaders to enable the youth to access CT and reproductive health services. They will integrate OP and AB information with CT so as to provide a comprehensive package of services. Other minor emphasis areas are in training and human resources.