INTEGRATED ACTIVITY FLAG:

This activity is linked to the Anglican Church OVC program (#8182), which aims to provide a comprehensive OVC response within the 5 Dioceses in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Western Cape Provinces. The church will provide capacity building and training to members of its volunteer women movements (members of the Mothers Union and Anglican Women Fellowship) and community facilitators to be able to provide psychosocial and material support as caregivers. Siyafundisa is in partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health (#7295), which has developed and is assisting to implement the Peer Education program for all parishes nationwide.

SUMMARY:

Siyafundisa is an Anglican-based Abstinence and Be Faithful for Youth HIV prevention program that focuses on providing information and education to targeted populations. Siyafundisa has established a partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health to develop and roll-out the peer education program, which will be implemented by young people at different parishes across the country. This program will be piloted in 5 Dioceses in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces from August 2006 and will be gradually rolled out to cover all Dioceses starting in March 2007.

Emphasis areas consist primarily of skills-based training for adults and youth, community mobilization and outreach, development of linkages and partners to help sustain and enhance the program, and monitoring and evaluation. Secondary emphasis areas include building local capacity to deliver prevention activities and developing HIV and AIDS policies and guidelines within the church. Issues of legislative interest include male norms and behaviors, reducing violence and coercion and stigma/discrimination. The church has existing stigma reduction programs that are leveraged by Siyafundisa. Prevention activities specifically target men and have a core objective of changing male norms and reducing violence and coercion.

BACKGROUND:

Siyafundisa is implemented in parishes, communities, schools and tertiary institutions through clergy networks, children, youth and family ministries, covering all provinces in South Africa. Siyafundisa targets children and youth with AB messages through information and education designed to develop skills that promote abstinence. Adults are also targeted with information and education to support youth. Special populations include community and religious organizations that can help promote AB prevention, volunteers who can implement AB activities, religious leaders who can impact individuals and families through outreach, and individuals and families who are affected by HIV, AIDS and stigma. A strong focus is given to the training of youth as peer educators and facilitators of some trainings and education programs, and since this a multi-country Track 1 activity covering Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa, some of the trainings will be combined for all three implementing countries. Fresh Ministries has developed a detailed six month workplan (August - January) to show how the targets will be reached, and this workplan is further developed for FY 2007.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

Activity 1: Training of Clergy and Adults: As a form of outreach, adults and clergy will be trained to facilitate workshops around the issues of HIV and AIDS. The adults to be trained include primarily members of the Mothers' Union - the women's group in the church responsible for prayer and family ministries, teaching of Sunday school and mentoring youth organizations; and the Bernard Mizeki members - the men's organization in the church that plays an influential role in mentoring young people and assisting them in spiritual formation.

Activity 2: Workshops: The issues covered in the workshops mentioned in Activity 1 include parent-child communication skills training to discuss the dangers of premature sex, waiting for marriage before starting sexual activities, delaying sexual debut, as well as addressing gender inequalities and gender-based violence and its relationship to HIV infections. Focus will also be given to girls and women to empower them with knowledge

and skills to protect themselves against sexual violence. Given that most gender-related violence is perpetuated by men, emphasis and attention will also be given to men, helping them to understand the role they play in HIV prevention. They will be encouraged to reduce the number of partners and to be faithful to their partners. Life skills programs will be presented for both boys and girls to address the challenges and pressures of growing up as well as helping youth to refrain from harmful behaviors.

Activity 3: Human Capacity Development: The program will also focus on the expansion of internal capacity throughout the target area with recruitment of more staff and HIV and AIDS youth workers, who will be the support team on the ground in the different Anglican Dioceses and archdeaconries. Additional support will be provided by the Diocesan coordinators who are now being compensated by the program. Training for staff and volunteers will include issues of HIV and AIDS peer-to-peer outreach, parental involvement and participation, male involvement, community mobilization, and gender sensitization.

Activity 4: Peer Education: The Anglican Church is utilizing Rutanang, a peer education curriculum for children and youth (age 10 - 13, 14 - 17, 18-24), developed by the Harvard School of Public Health and modified for use by the Anglican Church. It is being piloted in three provinces (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng), which cover five dioceses (Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown, Zululand, Highveld and Christ the King). Through the peer education program, each parish will have 1 supervisor and 15 peer educators. Members of the Anglican Students' Federation will also be trained as supervisors and mentors for the parishes located close to their universities, colleges, and technical colleges. A team of three peer educators will be assigned a group of 20 young people to deliver Rutanang's six lessons. The program will then be rolled out gradually, reaching full scale covering all Dioceses approximately 14 months after launch. The trainings will be replicated with different groups of youth in each parish. Topics covered in the curriculum include; self worth & self esteem, relationships, communication, assertiveness, refusal, asking for help, gender, media influences, personal safety and helping others.

Activity 5: Large-scale dissemination of AB messages: Important commemoration and celebration dates have been identified to disseminate HIV prevention messages and to increase awareness and involvement of the community in the fight against the pandemic. These include: development of sermon notes focusing on themes that build self-esteem for young people and avoidance of harmful behaviors, reduction of sexual partners and healthy relationships. The sermon notes will be distributed to all parishes. World Aids Day and the Candle Light memorial make up the bigger outreach events with posters, t-shirts, pamphlets and fliers being distributed in all parishes. Different parishes and dioceses hold commemoration services and rallies during these events reaching hundreds of people. Church media will also be used to reach people with messages commemorating Women's Day, youth month campaigns and encouraging more young boys and men to get involved in outreach and education. The program will continue to address stigma across all dioceses, reaching people of different cultures and backgrounds, ethnic groups, races, and incomes in rural and urban areas nationwide.

These activities, through the variety of approaches will all contribute to the overall PEPFAR goal of averting 7 million new infections.