In FY 2010, Peace Corps Mozambique (PC/MZ) is requesting funds to implement activities in the areas of Sexual Prevention, OVC Support, PLHIV Care and Treatment Adherence Education and Tracking in all provinces of Mozambique except for Niassa by working with youth (in-school and out-of-school) and adults. Although the requested amount is a 22% decrease from FY 2009, PC/MZ will maintain the same level of activities as in FY 2009 and enhance some of them using pipeline funding.

PC/MZ's Health and Community Development Project aligns with the global spectrum of activities of the USG PEPFAR program in Mozambique and supports the USG strategy of capacity building and sustainable programming through organizational development activities with CBOs and other community- based outreach efforts.

Health Volunteers will continue to provide organizational development support and capacity building to organizations and groups of community health workers at the local level. Education Volunteers will continue to implement HIV prevention interventions in classrooms settings, with boys' and girls' groups, and through other HIV-related community activities.

In FY 2010, funds will support 10 PC/MZ Health Volunteers in supporting prevention, care and treatment activities. In addition, all Volunteers and their community counterparts will be provided with enhanced technical training in areas such as designing and delivering effective prevention activities, financial management for CBOs, program design and management training with an income generation and microcredit component, behavior change communication (BCC) strategies (including the Pathways to Change and RAMP models), and perma-gardening.

The Volunteer Activities and Support Training (VAST) program, a small grants fund that PC/MZ introduced in FY 2007, will be used by Volunteers and their counterparts for community-driven HIV initiatives in the areas of sexual prevention and support for OVC.

The USG will collaborate with the Ministry of Education, the NAC, and various USG Implementing Partners to design and deliver technically sound programs and trainings. Possible expansion of collaboration with two other key ministries in the HIV response in Mozambique will be explored: MOH and MMAS, who work together closely at the District and community levels where health Volunteers are placed.

Collaboration will also continue with USG partners and a number of international and national NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, schools and communities using FY 2010 funding. The international organizations include Save the Children, PSI, IRD, Columbia University ICAP, Vanderbilt University FGH, EGPAF, GHC, the National Christian Council, and Africare. Local organizations include Associacao Desafio Jovem, AFORCOR, ASAS, AJOPEM, CACHES, Tintsalo, PROLIR, Kulima, Karibu and others.

Cross-cutting areas include:

1) Economic strengthening through income generation and vocational training among PLHIV and their families and OVC and their caretakers; 2) Education through the work of education Volunteers who teach in secondary schools and teacher training institutes; HIV prevention and Life Skills training in the school and community setting; 3) Addressing gender norms through girls' and boys' clubs and conferences that promote explore societal norms around gender and promote gender equality

All Volunteers monitor their activities using an electronic activity and outcome tracking tool and report their activities twice a year (in line with USG reporting needs ) using an electronic reporting tool launched by Peace Corps worldwide in FY 2009. Volunteers also train their community counterparts in monitoring and evaluation.

In FY 2009, Peace Corps expanded its work in this area through direct Volunteer placements with international and local organizations that support OVC and strengthening family/household food security through the promotion of perma-gardening techniques. At the community level, Volunteers assist with household and community vulnerability studies and planning community responses to ensure an adequate level of health and welfare for the children identified as vulnerable. Volunteers assist in improving the provision, coordination and quality of basic services for OVCs, including access to health services, education, shelter, legal rights, income generating activities, and food and nutritional support, as well as providing training to communities on a range of health topics, such as nutrition and Perma- gardening, and basic health and hygiene.

Volunteers and their counterparts can apply for small grants (known as VAST) to support small-scale, capacity-building projects among CBOs, FBOs, NGOs, schools and community groups that work with or provide services to local OVC and their caretakers. Given that Volunteers often work through existing programs benefiting OVC, activities that Volunteers conduct in this area, such as vocational training with Life Skills and income generation, are meant to serve as wrap-around efforts and enhancements to more structured interventions such as educational services, food distribution, etc.

In addition to their work in communities, Volunteers will provide technical assistance directly to the organizations and personnel operating OVC centers. Their support activities include the establishment of systems, policies, and practices that ensure the delivery of adequate standards of care and services, as well as developing programs that prepare OVC for adulthood and independence, such as educational and Life Skills programs, skills for income generating activities, and various forms of counseling and therapy that aid children in overcoming trauma.

Approximately 35-40% of all Peace Corps Mozambique health volunteers have an assignment with a PEPFAR-funded care and treatment implementing partner in the field, regardless of the funding source. For FY 2010, five of the ten PEPFAR-funded health volunteers will be placed with PEPFAR-funded care and treatment implementing partners such as ICAP, FGH, HAI, and Care International.

With their counterparts, Volunteers work at a treatment site and community level to develop organizational, human, and programmatic capacity to improve quality of care and treatment services, including psychosocial and adherence support, patient follow up, and treatment literacy. Volunteers help improve program planning and development processes with respect to supporting the delivery of quality care and treatment services, and improving the networking and referral mechanisms between ARV treatment sites and NGOs, CBOs, FBOs, and government departments/institutions. Volunteers also assist with improving site level monitoring and evaluation systems; improving coordination with Provincial and District bodies of the NAC through development of planning and activity implementation systems; establishing community linkages to referral systems at district levels; developing/improving information systems that relate to treatment; and assisting treatment partners in the organization of community networks. Volunteers and groups of community health workers track lost-to-follow-up patients in the community, hold support groups for PLHIV and their families, and work on community-initiated projects in support of treatment. Volunteers, doctors, nurses, and NGO counterparts train the groups of community health workers in partnership with provincial and district level MOH officials to help them better support others in treatment adherence.

Volunteers and their communities will continue to have the opportunity to apply for VAST grants to use towards activities that improve linkages between the health centers where ARV treatment is provided and the communities served by those health facilities.

In line with Mozambique's prevention strategy, Peace Corps volunteers and their counterparts will implement sexual prevention interventions that use effective behavior change techniques (Pathways to Change and the RAMP process) and target young people and adults. Activities will focus on reducing multiple concurrent partnerships and excessive alcohol use.

Education volunteers who will make up approximately 65% of the 130 Volunteers in country in FY 2010, will integrate BCC, prevention and gender awareness messages into classroom lesson plans, and train and support their teacher colleagues to integrate this information into their curricula and develop and support extra-curricular prevention activities and community initiated prevention projects funded with small grants known as VAST grants.

Both health and education volunteers, working in 10 of 11 provinces in Mozambique, will conduct activities such as: Life Skills training (including the topics of gender awareness and equity) for in-school and out-of-school youth, peer education and counseling, especially with community health workers and other community volunteers.

Two health volunteers will be placed with partner NGOs, CBOs, FBOs who are focused primarily on AB prevention interventions. Volunteers will assist in planning and implementing AB prevention activities and strengthening their partners organization's ability to to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate their HIV prevention interventions. Emphasis for these volunteers will be on assignments in Zambezia, Gaza, and Inhambane provinces.

VAST grants will specifically be used to support prevention interventions implemented through JOMA (boys') and REDES (girls') groups at local schools throughout the school year. Each year there are approximately 70 school youth clubs led by volunteers and counterparts. In addition, all volunteers will be able to tap into VAST grants for other prevention activities that are appropriate to their schools, communities, and priority target groups.

All Peace Corps Mozambiqe health Volunteers and their counterparts are trained to conduct activities

with organizations that work with older in- and out-of-school activists and groups who conduct theatre productions and other activities related to prevention. Volunteers may also reach in-and out-of-school youth through their JOMA and REDES clubs.

One USG-supported health Volunteer will be placed with a partner NGO that is focused primarily on BCC interventions with high risk populations (truck drivers, sex workers, drug users and out-of-school youth). The Volunteer will assist in planning and implementing prevention activities and strengthening their organization's ability to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate their BCC interventions. Emphasis for this Volunteer will be on an assignment either in Zambezia or Nampula provinces.

Though youth prevention will always be a key facet of the work that Peace Corps does, in FY 2010 and beyond, Peace Corps plans to encourage and prepare Volunteers and their counterparts to strengthen their adult-focused sexual prevention activities (e.g., condom use promotion, positive prevention activities) using effective behavior change techniques (Pathways to Change and the RAMP process) and actively targeting high-risk adults (ie, serodiscordant couples). In FY 2010, Peace Corps will continue to pursue possible placements with organizations that target MARPs such as sex workers, drug users and truck drivers depending on the placement.

A small USG-supported grants program, know as VAST, will also be used for special school or community events and activities related to other sexual prevention with high-risk populations such as older in- and out-of school youth, and prevention with positives.

Mechanisms to promote quality assurance: Beginning in FY 2009, all Volunteers are trained on how to design and execute individual and/or small group level prevention interventions that are evidence-based or meet a minimum set of standards so that their work is effective and measurable.