ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION Building the capacity of Nigerian faith based communities to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS by providing care and support for OVC will significantly improve the quality of life of OVC and caregivers as well as increasing the long-term sustainability of such an effort. The package of services provided under this activity include: supporting OVC access to education, home based care visits, psychosocial counseling, supporting access to basic health care services including access to subsidized drugs, treatment of minor/common ailments, providing appropriate referral to ARV sites, growth monitoring for those under 5 years of age, nutrition support for the most needy of the OVC, legal support, life skills training to increase the capacity of OVC to make more informed life choices, and the acquisition of income generating skills for selected OVC. All suspected cases of pediatric HIV will be referred to AIDSRelief (AR) or other IPs. In addition, the capacity of community members and caregivers to respond to OVC needs will be strengthened.

Another program element involves strengthening the organizational capacity of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria-CSN, and 10 focal dioceses to manage and support local and community based response. The implementation structures of this initiative revolve around CSN, Diocesan Action Committee on AIDS (DACA) and Parish Action Committee on AIDS (PACA). DACA is primarily responsible for daily program management while PACA is entrenched at the community level for social mobilization/service delivery. CSN provides leadership and overall coordination at the national level. This tripartite structure forms the foundation of CRS/OVC sustainability framework. A series of mentoring and capacity building activities aimed at institutional strengthening will be conducted. Partners will receive training including project management, M&E, financial, administration, and management of small grants. The M&E strategy is participatory, community driven and aligned to the national framework within the context of the ‘three ones' initiative. A special emphasis will be placed on developing tools for monitoring services provided to OVC according to the new PEPFAR reporting guidance for OVC. Referral systems will be established with other IPs, and GON to ensure that OVC beneficiaries are receiving services in all 6 core service areas.

The primary direct targets for this project for were initially 6000 individuals receiving at least three OVC services and 510 individuals trained. With plus up funds, 9000 OVC can now be reached. The 510 individuals trained will be newly trained in OVC and will replace volunteer attrition. Indirect targets include 12000 individuals receiving OVC services and 60 individuals trained in OVC. Ten people from LGA will be trained. Each of the 10 people trained will provide step down training to 6 of their colleagues and each of those colleagues will reach 200 OVC with services. OVC will be working in 8 states (Edo, Benue, Kaduna, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Nassarawa and the FCT). Present active 10 sites across 8 states will remain unchanged in COP 07.As of August 2006 CRS-SUN has reached 1669 OVC (836 females and 833 males) using COP 05 funds awarded as a result of the APS.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREAS Activities in the program area are focused on strengthening the capacity of families and communities to provide care and support for OVC. These activities contribute to the USG's PEPFAR 5 year strategy of providing care to 400,000 OVC and are consistent with the Strategic Framework on OVC by providing services to 6,000 OVC and training 510 individuals within faith based structures on care and support of OVC and caregivers. In addition, specific policy and community mobilization capacity building initiatives aimed at leveraging national guidelines and procedures around critical needs of OVC including school fees will be provided for the leadership of CSN, Parish structure and other affiliated institutions.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES This links to 6678 (HTXS), 6682 (HTXD), 6686 (BC&S) and 6677 (HVTB) and 6687 (VCT). CRS7D care and support project is implemented in CRS OVC project States. All OVC families receive community based care and support from the 7D project (6686). OVCs and their caregivers that are positive will be referred appropriately to CRS AIDS Relief (6678) sites for treatment. Infants born to PMTCT clients will be followed up via the growth monitoring component of the OVC activities. Children of support group members in the 7D project will benefit from the OVC activities. Through collaboration and referral networks with organizations like Christian Aid and AR, OVCs will access services and opportunities that are not provided directly by CRS SUN project.

POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED OVC, caregivers of OVC, and children and youth (OVC) of general population are the direct project target while FBOs, religious/community leaders, and community volunteers are indirect beneficiaries of CRS SUN project activities. The general population of youth will benefit as a result of the life skills training that will be conducted in schools. AR will also refer their OVC on ART to the CRS OVC project to ensure a more complete package of care for OVC on ART. KEY LEGISTLATIVE ISSUES This program will strive to address gender issues: specifically increasing women's legal rights through the provision of support for legal fees and advice. Linkages with community efforts to provide assistance in protecting women and children's legal rights will also be strengthened. Effort will be made to address issues related to stigma and discrimination that hamper care and support activities as well as prevention effort. EMPHASIS AREAS The major emphasis area is local organization capacity development. Minor emphasis areas are: community mobilization/participation; development of network/linkages/referral system; IEC and linkages with other sectors and initiatives. The SUN Project will improve the quality of life of OVC and caregivers through direct service to OVC and through capacity building of OVC, households, communities and partners. Education will be supported through partnerships with schools, payment of school fees and provision of materials. Health will be promoted through partnerships with health care centers for growth monitoring and treatment; health education during support group meetings and home visits; distribution of insecticide treated nets, water guard and other materials; treatment of minor ailments during home visits; and referral to health centers. Suspected cases HIV will be referred to AIDSRelief or other treatment centers. Psychosocial support will be provided through group counseling, home visits and integration into community recreational activities. Protection programs will vary among partners to addresses the findings of the Situation Analysis. Income generation programming for caregivers and youth will expand with plus up funding. Partner capacity to serve OVC will also be strengthened. CSN provides leadership, technical support and national coordination. CRS provides mentoring and capacity building including training in project management, monitoring and evaluation, financial, administration, and management of small grants. This support is provided at all levels, for CSN directors, the CSN Health Unit and provincial structures, and the DACA and PACAs in all ten dioceses. These Committees are responsible for program management, volunteer mobilization and service delivery at the community level. Youth will be engaged as peer educators and in program design and evaluation. The M&E strategy is participatory, community driven and aligned to the national framework within the context of the ‘three ones' initiative. Referral systems will be established with other IPs, and GON to track whether OVC beneficiaries are receiving services in all 6 core service areas.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION SI activity relates to OVC (#6688).

CRS OVC project will provide Strategic Information (SI) activities to strengthen monitoring and evaluation in 8 states in Nigeria. Activities focusing on program level reporting, Management Information System (MIS) and quality assurance will enhance monitoring, reporting and overall program management. Program level reporting will be used in data collection and SI tracking to improve programs and services. Monitoring and management of local partners' programs will be strengthened with the use of existing national data collection and monitoring systems and available technology.

MIS assists in the provision of high quality HIV/AIDS care. Within this OVC activity, CRS will continue to strengthen MIS by focusing on several activity areas: training to adapt existing paper records for OVC and care and support activities (CS) to conform to the national system standards; develop system to track number of services each OVC receives to conform to new PEPFAR reporting guidelines. Quarterly supervisory visits will be made for review of the data management system to ensure confidentiality, efficiency, and effectiveness. Tools will be modified as needed to track the clients longitudinally to ensure clients' continuum of care.

Capacity will be built through centralized trainings followed by onsite TA. Trainings will include data management (how to: use reporting forms, monitor paper flow, maintain clients' records, ensure data accuracy and use data to track program progress), and report-writing. A special emphasis will be placed on developing tools for monitoring services provided to OVC as per new PEPFAR reporting for OVC. The QA/QC strategy will include quarterly technical support visits by CRS to partner sites, including the development and implementation of tools which capture program quality and possible gaps for improvement. An M&E Specialist has been hired and will provide technical support and training to partner staff. With technical support, partners will develop the capacity to evaluate their existing data and use this information to influence programming and improve performance. Standard protocols for service provision will continue to be reinforced.

The OVC project will liaise and share data with GON at both national and local government level through OVC working groups in order to keep up to date with the latest GON plans. Through training, capacity building and monitoring visits, sustainable programming in SI will be achieved in the long run. A total of 10 Archdioceses including CSN will participate in SI. Activities will take place in 8 states (Benue, FCT, Kaduna, Plateau, Niger, Kogi, Nassarawa, Edo). There is no geographical expansion in COP07. Services will be expanded within the same states as COP06.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA Improvement in SI management capacity of existing and new partners will ensure effective data use and management. This will contribute towards the GON and USG strategy for the provision of quality and timely information for decision-making. This information will serve as a valuable resource in developing corrective action plans that would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and management of the 7D project. By strengthening the capacity of local partners, SI activities will further increase the sustainability of HIV/AIDS programs in Nigeria. A total of 22 people from 11 partners will be trained in SI.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES SI activity relates to OVC (#6688). In addition, links with the GON and other USG IPs will be strengthened to ensure the provision of the 6 core service areas for the beneficiaries.

POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED The populations being targeted are public and private health care workers, community-based organizations, and faith based organizations.

KEY LEGISLATIVE ISSUES ADDRESSED SI will help in identifying key issues relating to children's rights and gender equity in programming as well as inform advocacy for legislative amendment in address them.

EMPHASIS AREAS The major emphasis area is program level data collection. Secondary emphasis includes health management information systems, training, quality assurance, quality improvement and supportive supervision.