SUMMARY:

Siyafundisa is an Anglican-based Abstinence and Be Faithful (AB) HIV prevention program that focuses on

providing information and education to young people and adults within the Anglican churches.

Siyafundisa has established a partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health to develop and roll out a

peer education program. This program will be implemented by young people at different parishes across the

country. Emphasis areas consist of building local organization capacity to deliver prevention activities; and

training trainers/facilitators to reach other youth. Siyafundisa addresses gender by focusing on increasing

gender equity in HIV and AIDS programs, addressing male norms and behaviors; reducing violence and

coercion and stigma/discrimination; mobilizing and reaching communities; developing linkages with partners

to sustain and enhance the program; as well as providing information, education and communication.

Siyafundisa targets children and youth, especially orphans and vulnerable children, with AB messages

through information and education. The AB prevention program is designed to develop skills that promote

abstinence for youth aged 10-14, secondary abstinence for older youth aged 15 -24 and provide correct and

consistent condom use for youth at risk and those in long-term sexual relationships. Adults, especially

parents, are also targeted with information and education to support youth as well as information that

encourages mutual monogamy, partner reduction and HIV risk perception. 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, and especially people living with HIV.

BACKGROUND:

Siyafundisa is implemented in parishes, communities, schools, and tertiary institutions through clergy

networks, children, youth, and family ministries. Using FY 2006 funding, this program has been piloted in

five cioceses in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. FY 2007 funding was used to roll out this

program to all dioceses in South Africa. The church plays a significant role in building the capacity and

training members and volunteers from women's movements such as Mothers' Union and Anglican Women

Fellowship. In addition, community facilitators are trained to be able to provide psychosocial and material

support as caregivers. A strong focus is given to the training of youth as peer educators and facilitators of

life skills programs. Prevention activities target men with a core objective of changing male norms and

reducing violence and coercion and young women to ensure equal access to HIV and AIDS information and

related training. Men both young and old are also educated on issues of cross-generational and multiple

concurrent partnerships which are the risk behaviors that fuel the epidemic.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

FY 2008 funding will ensure that the project can continue and expand into all 19 of the dioceses in South

Africa. Initially peer education will be introduced into ten parishes each within nine dioceses and Life Skills

into ten parishes in each of the remaining ten dioceses. Once this expansion is completed, then the project

will introduce peer education into the remaining 10 dioceses (10 parishes each) and additional parishes

within the initial nine dioceses. Complementary to and co-located with the training, the project plans to

partner with a testing organization using mobile VCT services to extend testing to those being trained and

others in their communities.

ACTIVITY 1: Training Clergy and Adults

Adults and clergy will be trained to facilitate workshops around the issues of HIV and AIDS through

structured outreach programs. Training will be conducted for 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

Workshops will include parent-child communication skills training and AB prevention. Young women and

girls will be empowered with knowledge and skills to protect themselves against sexual abuse and violence.

Men perpetuate most of gender-related violence, so emphasis and attention will be given to men, helping

them to understand the role they play in HIV prevention. Men will be encouraged to reduce the number of

sexual partners and to remain 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 risky behaviors.

ACTIVITY 3: Human Capacity Development

The program will also focus on the expansion of internal capacity within the Anglican Church. More staff and

HIV youth workers will be recruited to form the support team in the different Anglican dioceses and

archdeaconries. Diocesan coordinators will provide additional support. Training for staff and volunteers will

include 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 10-14,

15 -19, 20 -24), developed by the Harvard School of Public Health. 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 one

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.

Typically, a team of three peer educators will be assigned a group of up to 20 young people to deliver six

lessons, over a period of four months, from the Rutanang manual. The program will be gradually rolled out,

reaching full scale covering all dioceses and provinces. The trainings will be replicated with different groups

of youth in each parish. Topics covered in the curriculum include; self worth and self esteem, relationships,

communication, assertiveness, peer pressure, alcohol and substance abuse, refusal, asking for help,

Activity Narrative: gender, media influences, personal safety, and helping others.

ACTIVITY 5: Large-scale Dissemination of AB Messages Through Nationwide Church Campaigns

Important commemoration and celebration dates have been identified to disseminate HIV prevention

messages and to increase awareness and involvement of the community in the response to the HIV

pandemic. These include development of sermon notes focusing on themes that build self-esteem for young

people and avoidance of harmful behaviors, faithfulness, reduction of sexual partners and healthy

relationships. The sermon notes are distributed to all dioceses. Different parishes and dioceses hold

commemoration services and rallies and during these events, reach hundreds of people. Nothing the

Church does is "one off." Messages are continuously reinforced in the church, Sunday School, Confirmation

Classes and more. Church media will also be used to reach people with messages commemorating

Women's Day, youth month campaigns and encouraging more boys and young 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 standard of living in rural and urban areas

nationwide.

In FY 2007 the project increased the number of field workers to implement and support (assistance and

quality control) the extension of training by peer educators and life skills facilitators. Further expansion is

planned for FY 2008. The project will continue to emphasize preparation and dissemination of materials to

parish priests throughout all nineteen dioceses to inform sermons, lessons, and more.

These activities, through the variety of approaches will all contribute to the overall PEPFAR goal of averting

seven million new infections.