ACTIVITY HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

This activity is a wrap around activity supporting a USAID education program, the Northern Education

Initiative, a five-year program with an estimated life-of-program cost of $25 million. In COP09, this activity

will provide services to 15,000 OVC with funding of $2,000,000. In COP08 the target was 15,000 OVC

served. The focus states have also changed from four Northern states (Sokoto, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara)

and two Southern States (Cross River and Lagos) to only three Northern states (Sokoto, Kano, and

Zamfara). The Southern States were dropped prior to program startup for effective provision of services to

the OVC and their caregivers.

The learning center model will also be modified to reflect the realities in providing sound primary education

and reintegrating out of school OVC into formal education in the Northern Nigeria. In addition to providing

education support to adolescent OVC, this group will also be provided with appropriate prevention

messages and linkages to youth friendly reproductive health services. Safe Water Systems and hygiene

education and activities will also be provided to all OVC.

2,000 Teachers and Caregivers will be trained, and teacher capacity will be built to provide Safe Water

System and hygiene education.

ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:

In this activity PEPFAR funds will be used to support an education wrap around that brings resources from

USAID's education program in Nigeria. USAID/Nigeria is procuring services for a new $6 million, 5 year

education activity, The Northern Education Initiative (NEI), that will address issues of quality primary

education in four states (Kano, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina) of the North West Region of Nigeria, a region

where only 15% of children aged 4-12 are literate and only 28% can do basic math. Within this context,

children orphaned or made vulnerable due to all causes including HIV/AIDS are usually worse hit in terms of

accessing education. UNICEF (State of the World's Children 2007) reports an orphan school attendance

ratio of 64% between 1994 and 2005. The OVC Situation Analysis conducted by the USG supported CRS

Scaling up Nigeria (SUN) orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) activity noted that most OVC and

caregivers rated education as the area of greatest need followed by insufficient food. There is also

anecdotal evidence that highlights increased vulnerability of the girl child who falls victim to no/little

education, early marriages and consequent health complications along with increased risk to HIV infection.

The NEI will provide a platform for a wrap-around activity that will provide services to a defined set of OVC.

PEPFAR resources will expand the Access to Services (AS) component of the objectives of the NEI to

serve the educational, psycho-social and health needs of 15,000 HIV/AIDS OVC in the four underserved

Northern Nigerian States mentioned above and two southern states (Lagos and Cross River) over 12

months of implementation. The activity will directly deliver these services to the target population and will

build the capacity of FBOs and community structures to provide psycho-social support and protection and

mitigate stigma. The NEI-AS activity will be a model for further implementation in other regions of Nigeria.

The program will work with both in-school and out-of-school youth to improve access to basic education,

provide psychosocial support, and establish cross-referrals to health services for orphans and vulnerable

children in the NEI catchment areas and extend these additional services to both Lagos and Cross River

States. Key components include technical assistance and training in literacy and numeracy, mentoring, and

psycho-social counseling for OVC which will be given to 4,000 teachers in the six target states; and quality

education and counseling services for 3,000 OVC amongst the 360,000 students in formal education

settings that the NEI component will reach.

The AS component will establish learning Centers to provide English literacy, numeracy and Life Skills

training to 3,000 out-of-school OVCs in non-formal education settings. To enable communities to respond

to the needs of OVC, training will be conducted for 2,500 community members drawn from parent-teacher

associations, CBOs, and FBOs to provide appropriate mentoring and psycho-social support to OVCs. In

addition, AS will:

1) Work with PLWA support groups and other structures linked to USG supported facilities providing

HIV/AIDS treatment and other services to identify eligible OVC for participation in the program.

2) Identify HIV/AIDS affected OVC through linkages and referral systems that will be forged between

teachers and community groups with all large USG supported treatment and care IPs in the six states

(including DOD) to ensure access to education and adequate health for the children being served

3) Utilize life skills curriculum that includes HIV/AIDS prevention and other health education messages in

schools and learning centers;

4) Promote formation of youth clubs in schools and learning centers as vehicles for peer support, mentoring

and counseling;

With an estimated population of about 1m OVC in the six targeted states, the wrap-around portion of NEI-

AS will address the education needs of the target population in the age range of 6 to 15 years of age as

follows: (a) 6 to 9 year olds ready to begin primary school will be supported to join public or Islamiyyah

schools, and will be assisted to mainstream into school just like other children their age; support will include

assistance with school registration and provision of basic needs (uniform, textbooks, exercise books, school

bag, etc.). (b) Children 10 years and above who have received some primary education but have dropped

out will be assisted and either placed back in primary school or in a remedial learning center (English

literacy, numeracy and life skills). (c) Children 10 years and older who have no previous exposure to basic

education will be placed in learning centers to attain basic skills, then mainstreamed into formal education.

Female adolescent OVC will be prioritized with educational services to reduce their vulnerabilities and delay

marriages

Activity Narrative: Capacity building of PTAs/School Based Management Committees (SBMC) and other community

structures, including faith-based organizations, will address protection, stigma and psycho-social issues, to

create a community environment that supports the health and education of vulnerable children. NEI/AS will

utilize existing key geographic entities (Sustainable NGO Network in Katsina, NGO Coalition in Sokoto) to

build program sustainability. Partnerships with indigenous FBOs and CSOs such as Federation of Muslim

Women Association (FOMWAN) and Civil Society Coalition for Education for All (CSACEFA) will be

encouraged to provide psycho-social and health referral support to OVC and work with education NGOs to

support defined needs of OVCs within the formal education systems respectively.

The education component of NEI-AS leverages $6m for this activity in the first year of the five-year

implementation period for the original NEI concept in four northern states.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA:

Activities in the program area are focused on ensuring that HIV/AIDS affected OVC get quality educational

and psychosocial support and that referral systems are in place to address their health needs. It also

mobilizes the focal 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 Nigerian

National Plan of Action on OVC by providing services to 15,000 OVC, training 4,000 teachers and 2,500

community members to address the educational, psychosocial, and health needs of OVC.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES:

This links to HCT, HIV treatment services, and basic palliative care as OVC and their caregivers will be

referred to and from other PEPFAR partners for services as required. Existing PEPFAR/Nigeria activities in

these states are provided by the US Department of Defense, FHI/GHAIN, UMD/ACTION, Harvard/APIN+,

CRS/AIDS Relief, Christian AID, and LMS. NEI-AS will also leverage the competencies of other existing

USG efforts in states where they are located through linkages and partnerships with COMPASS in Kano to

provide educational support; with Immunization Basics in all states to provide access to polio prevention,

with ACQUIRE for interventions with young girls and prevention and repair of obstetric fistula; with the

Ambassador's Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP) to provide scholarships and mentoring to select students,

with SUBEB to develop a policy to mainstream OVCs into formal primary education systems and with

UNICEF to utilize the School-Friendly model in targeted schools.

POPULATION BEING TARGETED:

OVC, OVC caregivers, and vulnerable children and youth in the general population are the direct project

targets, while CBOs, FBOs, school-based organizations, and religious and community leaders are indirect

beneficiaries. The general population of youth will benefit as a result of the life skills training that will be

provided in schools and learning centers.

EMPHASIS AREAS:

This activity has a major focus on wrap-arounds that will primarily provide basic education for OVC including

building a health referral system for the target population. Local organization capacity development is

another major emphasis area. Community mobilization and participation, development of

network/linkages/referral system, and information, education and communication will also be addressed.

The gender vulnerabilities of the female OVC and Child protection issues will also be addressed.

New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity

Continuing Activity: 16332

Continued Associated Activity Information

Activity Activity ID USG Agency Prime Partner Mechanism Mechanism ID Mechanism Planned Funds

System ID System ID

16332 16332.08 U.S. Agency for To Be Determined 7416 7416.08 USAID Track

International 2.0 FS

Development ABE/LINK

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs

* Increasing women's access to income and productive resources

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Economic Strengthening

Education

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Education

Water

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Water

Table 3.3.13: