Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Details for Mechanism ID: 4361
Country/Region: Rwanda
Year: 2007
Main Partner: World Relief
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: FBO
Funding Agency: USAID
Total Funding: $429,408

Funding for Sexual Prevention: Abstinence/Be Faithful (HVAB): $429,408

This Track 1.0 activity is linked to supplemental HVAB funding (#7272) for World Relief.

World Relief's "Mobilizing Youth for Life" project aims to 1) engage youth in interactive learning to establish standards of sexual protection, 2) equip influential adults to guide youth in making wise life choices, and 3) obtain commitments to abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage from youth aged 10-24 years old. Since the project's inception in March 2004, World Relief has reached over 400,000 youth through a combination of activities in over 2380 churches, 520 schools, 684 clubs and other community settings. Over the past three years, the project expanded its activities into all 30 districts making it a national HIV prevention and stigma reduction program.

With FY 2006 funding, World Relief continues to expand existing skills-based education activities and introduce interventions that address sexual coercion and cross generational and transactional sex, especially among adolescent girls. The program developed the "Choose Life" (Hitamo Kubaho) curriculum for three different age groups: 8-10, 11-15 and 16-18 year olds. The project also developed and aired radio spots reinforcing abstinence and fidelity. As a partner under CHAMP, World Relief also receives EP funding to provide ABC messages for a family-centered approach, reaching adults as well as youth with age-appropriate HIV prevention materials. World Relief encouraged collaboration of church partners through district level Interfaith Committees, whose members are elected from different church denominations. These committees coordinate HIV/AIDS initiatives in their districts and give leadership and support to volunteers that have been trained by World Relief. The volunteers attribute their commitment to this program in large part due to the support they receive from their church groups and the encouragement of the Interfaith Committees. In FY 2006, World Relief invested resources in developing the capacity of local partners, such as the Association of Committed Teachers (ACT) Rwanda and Rwanda University Bible Group (Campus pour Christ). World Relief trained 284 teachers from ACT in several districts in Kigali, North, East and West provinces. Campus Pour Christ now includes 217 university youth trainers trained by World Relief. These youth plan, implement, and report on HIV prevention activities in six universities. Other FY 2006 activities included a poetry competition on the theme of HIV/AIDS that provided successful participants with school fees for next year.

In FY 2007, World Relief will focus Track 1 funding in the 20 CHAMP districts to ensure integration and coverage in these EP focus areas. The supplemental AB funding from USAID/Rwanda will support activities in 10 additional districts in the country. This youth focused HIV prevention program will continue supporting the youth who have already made a commitment to abstinence, while encouraging other youth aged 10-24 to personally pledge abstinence as a means of protection from the HIV virus and other STIs. With $360,000 in Track 1 funding, World Relief will train 800 youth leaders, peer educators and teachers with the Choose Life curriculum to reach an estimated 20,000 new youth with abstinence-only messages and 60,000 new youth with AB messages. World Relief plans to address the issues of alcohol abuse and GBV as a facilitating factor in HIV transmission by adding a supplement to the Choose Life Manual. This program addresses the key legislative issues of stigma reduction, male norms, and reducing violence. These efforts to delay youth's sexual debut, promote abstinence and increase mutual faithfulness and partner reduction reflect the Rwanda EP five-year strategy to expand abstinence programs in secondary schools and to support youth peer education and parent-child counseling through church networks.