ACTIVITY UNCHANGED FROM FY2008

The Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) SUCCOUR Project provides comprehensive HIV prevention and

OVC care and support services. During COP 09 CSN will continue to provide training support to all 13

arch/diocese across 10 states. Coverage areas of the activity are: Awka, Onitsha and Nnewi A/dioceses

(Anambra), Bauchi Diocese (Bauchi), Calabar and Ogoja Arch/diocese (Cross River), Abakaliki Diocese

(Ebonyi), Enugu Diocese (Enugu), Kano Archdiocese (Kano), Jalingo Diocese (Taraba), Lokoja Diocese

(Kogi), Ijebu Ode (Ogun) and Lagos Archdiocese (Lagos). The dioceses were selected based on their

experience in managing HIV/AIDS programmes, and can rapidly scale up to provide comprehensive HIV

prevention and OVC care and support services over a one year period.

SUCCOUR prevention programs will implement AB activities in line with the National Prevention Plan using

behavioral change strategies to ensure that the target population is reached with AB messages using at

least four AB strategies. These are (a) peer education model where "faithful house'' (marital counseling with

five models) for married couples, "'choose life'' (with four modules) for youths, and support group for

PLWHA (who will also receive referral to counselors for adequate and correct information on preventive

measures); (b) community awareness where AB messaging will be given during mass; (c) peer education

plus model where schools form anti AIDS clubs, drama, games, and quizzes and use the activities to give

prevention messages and (d) school based approach.

This activity has the following components: 1) organizational and programmatic capacity strengthening of

CSN and partner (Arch)dioceses; and 2) promotion of behaviors that reduce the risk of HIV infection among

by youth and young adults in target communities.

Organisational and programmatic capacity strengthening of CSN and partner (Arch) dioceses: Each one of

the following trainings—central advocacy training; central ‘'Faithful house'' training, central ‘'choose life''

training, central OVC protection, and central home-based care/OVC support training—will take place at the

national level. Subsequently, a step down training will reach from the diocesan level to parish volunteers

and home-based care teams. These volunteers will be recruited by the 13 diocesan teams with the active

collaboration of the parish priests. 180 volunteers will be trained.

Behaviours that reduce risk of HIV infection adopted by youth and young adults in target communities. This

activity includes advocacy visits to 13 Arch/Bishops and 65 community leaders. Muslim leaders and Imams

will also be targeted. Through Sunday sermons and short seminars, the SUCCOUR Project will empower

parents and adults to support young people to abstain from sex and equip them with skills that will help

them adopt healthy life choices. People will be reached with Abstinence and Be faithful messages through

priests, parish action volunteers, men, women, and youth church societies. The 13 diocesan teams will

sensitize the major men and women societies in the church, Catholic Men Organization (CMO) and Catholic

Women Organization (CWO) with monthly talks and seminars. Each of these has about 80 persons at

monthly meetings. 160 adults will monthly receive this sensitization and will reach 5 young people in their

households with AB messages. The AB activities will be structured in such a way that each person is

reached with at least three AB services: Peer education, community awareness campaign, a school based

approach, and peer education plus. Sensitization of clergy and religious leaders will also be carried out. 20

priests per partner arch/diocese will be sensitized during sensitization seminars making a total of 260

priests. Each priest will reach 500 people at mass each week over the course of the year. These 130,000

individuals are not hearing a one-off message, but are hearing the message from trusted advisors,

continuously over time.

Funding will also go to the development and distribution of IEC materials. Posters, handbills and pamphlets

with HIV Prevention messages will also be used to reach the targeted audience. Abstinence clubs will be

established for adolescents in the communities, while singles and couples forums will reach unmarried and

married adults, respectively. Youth peer educators from selected parishes and schools will be trained to

provide support and counseling to their peers and to organize regular HIV/AIDS awareness activities. The

abstinence clubs established in schools will be provided with books and IEC materials to establish an

information corner, to include such materials as posters, handbills and pamphlets with HIV Prevention

messages. A monthly stipend will support the activities of abstinence clubs in selected parishes and schools

from the diocesan budgets in the form of a small grant. Funding will go to community recreational activities.

13 arch/diocesan teams will organize a football tournament," Choose Life Football Cup" and cultural

dance/drama competition for youth. At each of these events, 300 persons will be reached with AB

messages through talks, songs and the distribution of IEC materials.

Adolescents and unmarried adults totaling 840 individuals already trained at a "Choose Life" seminar will

reach 19,500 persons with abstinence messages only. 13 couples (one from each partner diocese) will be

trained centrally with the Faithful House curriculum. The program is a catalyst to happy and lasting

marriages that prevent HIV infection using the concept of "Faithful House". Each trained couple will cascade

the training for another five couples. Each of the 13 partner arch/dioceses will be supported to train 15

couples (30 individuals) in marital counseling, totaling 195 couples (390 individuals) trained in AB

prevention (the Faithful House curriculum) during a five day training program with additional monthly follow-

up over 6 months. The trained couples will train a minimum of five couples each totaling 975 couples (1950

individuals). Therefore, 2,366 individuals will receive comprehensive marital counseling training. Parents

and especially fathers/husbands will be provided with information and resources to enable them to offer

gender-sensitive information and play an active role in educating their children and friends on AB.

Subsequently, refresher training would be conducted for the initial 30 couples. Each of the 13 partners will

be supported to initiate youth activities in two primary and two secondary schools with Anti-AIDS youth

clubs. These clubs are designed to decrease stigma and discrimination against PLWHA.

1,040 young people attending schools will receive repeated and concentrated training in "A" only. Of these,

520 will be from secondary schools where they will be trained in secondary abstinence and a similar

number from primary schools that will be trained in primary abstinence. Each member of the club will on the

average reach 15 other school attending youths with community mobilization+, IEC and peer

Activity Narrative: education/counseling service, and a total of 15,600 youths reached with three "A" strategies. The

Family/Human Life Unit of the CSN, which focuses on promoting human dignity, strengthening family values

in accordance with the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and educating youth in preparation for

wholesome family life, will bring to bear its expertise in "AB" behaviour change programming through peer

education and life skills building. The Youth Animation Unit of the Church will facilitate linkages to the vast

network of Catholic youth organizations to increase peer outreach and youth involvement. AB prevention

trainings will be conducted for 300 PLWHA, who are serving or have leadership potential to serve as

Support Group leaders. Those trained will counsel and communicate information about AB prevention to

support groups, households and communities. Each leader will reach 50 people, for a total of 15,000 people

reached. Those willing to disclose their status as part of AB prevention will be supported with additional

training and support. Each of these support group participants will receive community mobilization, peer

education and vulnerability reduction strategies, and active recruitment and involvement of 13 PLWHA (one

per diocese) will be encouraged among the partner dioceses in line with the GIPA principle.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA:

The SUCCOUR project will contribute to prevention of new infections through Abstinence and Be faithful

strategies to reach 25,000 persons and 15,000 persons to be reached with abstinence only strategies within

the national response.

POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED:

Target populations of the A/B Prevention messages include adults, children and young people between the

ages of 15-24 years, PLWHA, HIV/AIDS affected families, and community leaders. This includes both girls

and boys from primary school through university students, as well as adults of both genders. Other target

groups include the Catholic clergy and laity, who will be reached with abstinence programs that include

behavior change communication, building life skills, youth support clubs, and awareness outreach through

extracurricular activities.

Direct targets include delivery of AB services through outreach programs to 25,000 individuals, 15,000 of

which will benefit from A-specific services through the clergy, catechists and peers; and 4506 individuals

receiving training.

LINKAGES AND SYNERGIES WITH OTHER USG SOURCES: All cases of HIV will be referred to

AIDSRelief (AR) or other IPs. Monitoring tools developed in the CRS 7D/SUN Projects will be used. The

new PEPFAR reporting guidelines will be incorporated in the M&E tools. The series of mentoring using the

present SUN/7D experience and capacity building processes aimed at institutional strengthening will be

conducted. Experience will be leveraged from the CRS/7D project.

EMPHASIS AREAS: Gender issues mainstreaming into partner capacity strengthening is essential to

addressing some of the disparity that has placed women at greater disadvantage. The SUCCOUR project

will promote the active participation of both men and women through the Women's, Men's and Youth

societies, ensuring they are adequately represented in stages of planning and implementation.

Prevention activities will target both sexes with behavior change communication promoting healthier

concept of maleness among youth. This will reduce the vulnerability of women and girls to abuse, sexual

coercion, rape, and sex trafficking. Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (MIPA) with

increased participation of people living with HIV/AIDS in program design and implementation contributes to

the reduction of stigma and discrimination and ensures that programs are sensitive to the needs of the

target population. 1,500 persons will be trained in HIV stigma reduction strategies. By establishing a

symbiotic relationship with support groups in communities, the dioceses will be able to refer clients to these

support groups and also call on members of the support groups to participate in providing counseling and

home based care services, as well as to share their expertise during trainings. The level of involvement of

PLWHA in a diocesan program will be used to assess the performance of the dioceses for qualification to

receive grants.

New/Continuing Activity: New Activity

Continuing Activity:

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Addressing male norms and behaviors

* Increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs

* Increasing women's legal rights

* Reducing violence and coercion

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $51,646

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Economic Strengthening

Education

Water

Table 3.3.02:

Activity description.

As this activity was TBD under COP 08, this is the first full narrative.

The SUCCOR Project is designed to increase information on HIV prevention through Abstinence and Be

Faithful messages, provide quality care and support services for HIV-infected individuals and their families,

and provide support for orphans and vulnerable children in 13 dioceses spread over 10 states in Nigeria

(Anambra, Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Kano, Taraba, Kogi, Ogun and Lagos). These services will

be provided alongside capacity building and strengthening activities for a sustainable community-based

response to HIV and AIDS. The goal of the project is to provide integrated high-quality HIV/AIDS

prevention, care and support services in communities. The goal will be achieved through the following

strategic objectives: 1) Increase the capacity of CSN and partners to implement HIV/AIDS prevention, care

and support programs in target communities and 2) Provide integrated HIV/AIDS prevention, care and

support interventions to individuals and households

CSN will provide both leadership and overall coordination at the national level. The implementation

structures of this activity evolve around 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 in the community, responsible for social mobilization and service delivery. All OVC within a

household will be enrolled in the program. Services to be provided are vocational support, health care,

psychosocial support, OVC protection and economic strengthening. All children requiring legal aid or

support especially in matters of denial of rights will be referred to the JDPC/Caritas units of the Church. In

COP09, linkages will be sought for nutritional and educational support with USG supported wrap-around

activities in sites where these co-exist with SUCCOUR Project. The primary direct targets for this project are

4,500 individuals receiving OVC services and 1,300 caregivers trained. 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 following project activities will be implemented during COP 09: Community Mobilization, Capacity

Building of partner dioceses and caregivers, and Care and support for OVC (Provision of Nutritional

support, Access to basic healthcare services, Access to education, Legal support, Income Generating

Activities and Life skill training).

COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION: CSN will support the dioceses and provinces to mobilize the community

using the institutional mapping exercise to identify stake holders involved in OVC activities or those with

potential to become involved. Subsequently community stakeholders meetings will be held and that will

facilitate the formation of the community care coalition.

CAPACITY BUILDING: The first component of this program is to strengthen institutional capacity of CSN,

Provincial and diocesan capacity for effective and improved HIV/AIDS and OVC service delivery. 180

individuals will be trained within CSN, 5 provinces, 13 focal dioceses, however, seven dioceses will benefit

from the initial start up while others will join in the second year of the program. This tripartite structure forms

the pivot of SUCCOUR sustainability framework. Provincial and diocesan project staff/officers will receive

training of trainers (TOT) in Advocacy, OVC protection, Nutrition and home based care and step down these

trainings at the different dioceses to volunteers and care givers. Additional trainings will be organized for

CSN, Diocesan and provincial staff on Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, Financial,

Administration, and Management of Small Grants. Parent Child Communication Training will also be

organized for 1,300 Parish Action Volunteers (PAV) in all 13 dioceses.

CARE AND SUPPORT

This component is to provide care and support to orphans and vulnerable children. A total of 100 Parish

Action Volunteers (PAV) in each diocese who have been trained in nutrition and OVC care and support will

carry out monthly visits to the identified OVC in their homes to provide psychosocial and spiritual support to

the OVC and their caregivers. They will also monitor physical well-being of the orphans. The PAV will be

provided with incentives in the form of training opportunities, annual award for best PACA/PAV, and items

such as T-shirts and bags. OVC and caregivers will also be provided with food supplements on the project.

Nutritional support: As a follow up on step-down nutrition training to the OVC caregivers, CSN will support

the dioceses and provinces to raise community awareness about good nutrition and advocate against

cultural beliefs and practices that promote poor nutrition. There will be nutritional counseling session on

locally availably foods grown that are rich in nutrients for HIV-positive and OVC born to HIV positive

mothers. There will also be monthly growth monitoring for OVC under 5 years in the dioceses; severely

malnourished OVC will have access to ready-to-use therapeutic supplement known as PlumpyNut.

Health Care Services: Volunteer health workers within the dioceses will provide basic healthcare services to

OVCs. This includes access to subsidized drugs, treatment of minor/common ailments, monthly health

talks and growth monitoring. OVC will be provided with insecticide treated nets, safe water supplies,

antihelminthics, multivitamins and worm expellers. There will be appropriate referral to clinical sites for

immunization and growth monitoring for those less than 5 years of age. Linkages will be established with

Catholic and non-Catholic health facilities and the diocesan teams will be provided with a fund for medical

expenses incurred by OVC. All suspected pediatric HIV cases will be referred to AIDS Relief (AR) or other

IPs.

Education Support: CSN will work with dioceses and provinces to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and

disabilities in order to stop stigma and discrimination that often prevent OVCs from attending school. There

will be provision of block grants to identified schools ready to accommodate OVC. Uniforms and writing

materials will be provided.

Legal support: OVC sometimes becomes entangled in complicated legal issues due to lack of succession

planning by their late parents or guardians This often results in them being dispossessed of their inheritance

by relatives or neighbors. CSN proposes to refer such legal issues to the Justice Peace and Development

Activity Narrative: Commission (JDPC), a unit in CSN that specializes in handling such social legal matters.

Income Generating Activities and life skills training: Income generating activities will be provided for heads

of child headed households. Life skill training will be provided for out of school children.

Monitoring and Evaluation Plan

CSN will ensure regular monitoring of project activities throughout the project period. A special emphasis

will be placed on using tools developed by the CRS/SUN project for monitoring services provided to OVC

per PEPFAR reporting requirements for OVC. Monitoring and Evaluation training data will be channeled

from the PAV and PACA to the Diocesan Teams on a monthly and quarterly basis, while the diocesan

teams will also report quarterly to the Provincial Program Managers (PPMs). The diocesan HIV/AIDS and

Referral coordinators have the responsibility of aggregating the data collected from diocesan, PACA and

PAV activities and transmitting it to the Provincial Program Managers (PPMs). They will be guided by the

PPMs and the M&E coordinator who will provide on-the-job mentoring for this function. The diocesan teams

will also be encouraged to carry out basic analysis of the data and use the output to improve their planning.

From the PPMs, the data will be channeled to the Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator who has the

ultimate responsibility for collating and analyzing it and preparing quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports

of activities desegregated according to various criteria such as program area, level of implementation, and

expenditure item, and for the submission of quarterly monitoring reports to USAID.

Priority will be given to the harmonization of monitoring and evaluation approaches to allow for aggregation

of SUCCOUR project data with data from other sources. Reports will also be sent to GON in Project areas.

Linkages and Synergies with Other Agencies and Sectors:

The CSN Health Unit will work to strengthen relationships with other NGOs, FBOs and CSOs, including

those already partnering with the Church on HIV and Health programs at various levels. CSN and its

partners will build the capacity of Catholic health institutions by facilitating and fostering linkages between

Dioceses and Catholic health institutions and government health facilities. It will also link the Church with

other community based service providers, enhancing collaboration between facility-based providers and

community programs. Partner dioceses will be encouraged to form partnerships with governmental and non

-governmental agencies working within their catchments including SACAs, LACAs and government health

facilities, so as to increase service delivery and avoid duplication of efforts. All suspected cases of pediatric

HIV will be referred to AIDS Relief (AR) or other IPs. Referral systems will be established with other IPs,

and GON to ensure that OVC beneficiaries are receiving services in all 6 core service areas.

Linkages between SUCCOUR project dioceses and other Catholic and non-Catholic FBOs already working

on related projects, including the existing CRS/NG supported 7D Community Based Care and Support

project and the SUN project, will maximize reach while avoiding duplication of efforts.

Efforts will be made both at national level and state levels to establish linkages of diocesan community

responses to public sector programs such as poverty reduction programs, the universal basic education

program, and youth employment schemes in the National Directorate of Employment, as well as increased

large-scale private sector involvement in Church programs.

Target Population: The chief target groups will be orphans and vulnerable children. A secondary target will

be families of those affected by HIV/AIDS and care givers, with a focus on support to family members,

particularly in child-headed households.

In COP 09 the CSN/SUCCOUR project will serve 4,200 OVC, train 1,300 caregivers to provide services to

OVC, and train 13 organizations in programmatic and institutional capacity building. This will contribute to

the PEPFAR Nigeria target of a total of 400,000 OVC served over a 5-year period.

Capacity-building activities: Targets of these activities in the SUCCOUR project are national, provincial and

diocesan staff, and parish volunteers. Ultimately, the beneficiaries of these capacity-building activities will

include all persons of all faiths resident within the geographical coverage area of the project who access

services from the PACA.

For Care and Support activities: OVC, care givers of OVC, and children and youth (OVC) of general

population are the direct project targets while FBOs, religious/ community leaders, as well as community

volunteers constitute indirect beneficiaries of SUCCOUR project activities. The general population of youth

will benefit as a result of the life skills training that will be conducted in schools.

Key Legislative 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. Also, efforts will be made to address

issues related to HIV/AIDS prevention and stigma and discrimination that hamper care and support

activities.

Emphasis areas.

The major emphasis area is local organization capacity development. Minor emphasis areas are:

community mobilization/participation; development of network/linkages/referral systems; information,

education and communication and linkages with other sectors and initiative.

New/Continuing Activity: New Activity

Continuing Activity:

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Addressing male norms and behaviors

* Increasing women's legal rights

Health-related Wraparound Programs

* Child Survival Activities

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $258,752

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Food and Nutrition: Commodities $13,334

Economic Strengthening

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Economic Strengthening $27,778

Education

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Education $100,000

Water

Table 3.3.13: