TITLE: Youth Involvement and Education

JGI has implemented interventions to improve AIDS education, care, and stigma reduction and has

provided support to communities in 24 villages within Kigoma district since 2005. HIV prevalence is

estimated at 4%, lower than the national average of 7%. Kigoma accommodates business communities

and refugees from neighboring countries that puts the region at risk of increased HIV transmission.

Sexual values limit youth involvement in, and access to, HIV/AIDS education, which increases risk. The

increasing numbers of community-based secondary schools has encouraged more youth to go to school

away from home. Parents and leaders report increasing risky behavior among girl students renting rooms

near school but with little family financial support. Financial needs and lack of parental control have

influenced girls to engage in unsafe sexual behavior. Schoolgirl pregnancies and subsequent termination

from school are on the increase. Expanding and strengthening life saving skills by training more facilitators

and engaging more peer educators will ensure more young people are reached and will contribute to

reduced HIV transmission among youth.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Trained 23 peer educators from faith based organizations (FBOs) in life saving skills including HIV/AIDS

communication, making informed choices against HIV transmission, creative thinking, peer resistance,

negotiation, self esteem, assertiveness, and ability to cope with emotions. Peer educators reached over

19,900 youth with life saving skills education. Life skills training introduced in schools through Roots &

Shoots clubs, which were well received by students and teachers. Trained 26 teachers and 609 students.

ACTIVITIES:

1. To provide capacity building to youth clubs to improve youth involvement in providing HIV/AIDS

education.

1.1 Facilitate Roots and Shoots clubs in schools to disseminate AB messages and conduct training through

training of trainers, club leaders, matron, and patron teachers and supporting life skills training sessions for

youth in schools

1.2 Support FBOs to provide peer education life saving skills by adopting AB messages into religious youth

movements through: training youth leaders as trainers and peer educators for out of school youths;

supporting delivery of life saving skills training through religious youth clubs and ministries; and collecting

and disseminating printed AB messages for youth and parents. Existing tools and guides developed by

other partners, NACP/MOHSW, will also be utilized.

2. Advocate for FBO acceptance and participation in life skills training approach by conducting annual

review meetings for religious leaders and supporting FBO HIV/AIDS education forum.

3. Improve project management, coordination, and operation by: providing training for district health,

community, and education personnel on life saving skills/behavior change communication; conducting

monthly monitoring visits; conducting annual project review and assessment; facilitating quarterly

coordination meetings by Council Health Management Team and Full Council meetings; maintain data

collection/reporting system at school, village, program, and district levels.

LINKAGES:

AB initiative is implemented through a youth environmental movement (Roots & Shoots) in schools. This

gives the initiative more credibility and acceptance among rural communities and demonstrates the inter

linkages between HIV/AIDS and natural resource management. Root & Shoots is supported by USAID

through Environment and Natural Resources strategic objective. This linkage helps develop further the

population, health and environment concept. The linkage demonstrates the effects of HIV/AIDS in reducing

the human resource ability to take care of the environment and the pressure put on specific tree species

used as traditional medicines alleviating AIDS related illnesses.

JGI implements HBC interventions in villages where schools are located. This establishes a link between

prevention and care and ensures continuum of information flow across different age groups. Implementing

the two initiatives together maximizes effective and efficient use of the resources. JGI implements family

planning interventions for clients at childbearing age and youths. The initiative is supported by USAID

under the Health safety officer. A combination of family planning and HIV prevention life saving skills

compliments one another.

Wrap-around activities will include supporting youth sports events and other forms of gathering (camping

summits) through the PEPFAR funding, and assisting out of school youth to start small businesses by

facilitating access to existing micro-credit schemes supported jointly by JGI and USAID/E&NRM funding.

CHECK BOXES:

The project area covers 24 villages with a population of 178,961 people, mostly farmers and fishermen.

There are two refugee camps (Lugufu I & II) neighboring the villages where there is interaction between the

two communities that influence sexual behavior, and increase risk behavior between the communities.

The villages have easy access to Congo DRC and Burundi where there are no or little initiatives to provide

HIV/AIDS prevention services for young people due to political instability.

In providing life skill interventions the project capitalizes on capacity building for local volunteers, youth

leaders, health workers, and FBOs working in the rural areas. Matron and patron teachers of the Roots&

Shoots program have a key role in supporting youth prevention activities.

M&E: Peer educators, youth leaders, and teachers will be the primary source of information for reports.

Reports are submitted to District Medical Office and GGE project on monthly basis. GGE Monitoring and

Evaluation Officer will be responsible for analyzing the data and maintaining database. JGI will submit

quarterly and annual reports to USAID.

Performance monitoring will also be done through the Council Health Management Team quarterly

meetings and annual by Full Council meetings.

JGI will prepare a written M&E plan and will begin implementation no later than receipt of FY 2008 funds.

The plan will outline procedures for data collection, storage, reporting, and data quality in addition to

outlining plans for data use for decision-making within the organization and with stakeholders. JGI will

allocate 7% of FY 2008 funds to M&E.

Currently, JGI uses data collection forms to track the number and nature of outreach and trainings that

include training assessment forms, AB sessions report forms, and activity plan sheets. JGI will revise data

collection tools as appropriate to harmonize with other PEPFAR AB and OP partners. A monthly

Activity Narrative: supervision matrix will be developed to schedule all supervision and monitoring visits. Technical team will

do annual project assessment and review.

SUSTAINAIBLITY:

The project is implemented in collaboration with government personnel from different departments. Training

will be conducted to improve their skills in different competencies. JGI will engage the community as its

own resource by facilitating volunteers to be peer educators. A built in reporting system within the

government management information system allows continual data collection through MTUHA.

TITLE Jane Goodall Home Based Care Program Kigoma

NEED and COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: There are few community services for people living with

HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in the remote areas of Kigoma. TACARE is the community-based development branch

of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), serving Kigoma Rural District. It was founded 13 years ago; it's health

section in 1997 (family planning, HIV, and child survival). It has excellent relationships in the community,

based on its "Roots and Shoots" natural resources management program. The JGI has been involved in the

implementation of the community-centered conservation project for the last 12 years. The JGI, through its

TACARE project, generated valuable experiences and relationships through working with the local

community. The project demonstrates a holistic approach to community centered conservation that

integrates sustainable agriculture, population, HIV/AIDS, social infrastructure, education, water, sanitation,

and youth-to-youth education.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: TACARE received Emergency Plan funds from the USG in 2005 to integrate

HIV/AIDS interventions into several components of its ongoing projects. The HIV/AIDS education care and

support for the rural community of Kigoma district included mobile Voluntary Counseling and Testing

services, home-based care (HBC), services for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC)

abstinence/faithfulness, and education for youth. Trained HBC program care providers, who are also

community-based distributing agents (CBDA) of family planning methods, have identified about 214 people

in their working areas with long-standing diseases, including HIV/AIDS. The HBC providers conduct home

visits and support family nursing services. Members of the family area also educated on nutrition and

locally available foods that are necessary for the patient, in addition to hygiene measures that are

necessary when nursing the patient to avoid further infections. Stigma reduction support is also provided

through care provider visits.

ACTIVITIES: The project covers 24 villages within a rural district of Kigoma region where HIV/AIDS

pandemic prevails below 5% with town centers being more affected than rural settings. Kigoma has a

porous boarder with Burundi and Congo DRC countries, where HIV/AIDS prevalence exceeds 10%. The

recurrent refugee influx into the region puts Kigoma at a high risk for an increase of prevalence. The

prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the local communities has affected the lives of extended families in Kigoma,

resulting in an increase in death toll, OVC, and widows.

Despite ongoing awareness campaigns in the country, there are still some unfavorable beliefs, attitudes,

and values that affect proper understanding of the diseases and its impacts. Most people know signs and

symptoms of the disease and can roughly identify PLWHA, though the signs are easily confused with other

chronic illnesses. Also, many symptoms of HIV/AIDS are associated with witchcraft; therefore, improper

traditional treatments are used.

The demand for HBC services is still high. Out of 157 CBDA, over 80% received first phase training on how

to provide HBC services to people with prolonged illnesses. With FY 2008 funds, the second phase training

will be done so they can be fully functioning and reach more people.

JGI-TACARE project is requesting funds for FY 2008 to continue with its existing HBC intervention on

HIV/AIDS in rural Kigoma. These HBC funds will be used to complete training of HBC service providers to

ensure maximum effectiveness and successful in reaching a target of 256 patients in their communities. To

ensure higher quality of care, at least two caregivers of each patient will be counseled on appropriate

nutrition and hygiene measures for the patient. Educational materials will be adapted to increase

awareness and reduce stigma among the community. Identified PLWHA who are still strong will be

facilitated to join micro-credit programs established by the TACARE project in villages to facilitate their

involvement in economic production. This will help integration of PLWHA into the community at large, and

will generate income to meet their daily needs for food and other items. USG programs that procure home-

based care kits, vouchers for insecticide treated bed nets, and nutritional supplementation will be accessed.

A project coordinator and support staff will be employed for an entire year in order to carry out the activity.

Office supplies, equipments, furniture, and a vehicle will be procured and used to facilitate office and field

work respectively. A baseline survey will be carried out to assess attitude of the people towards HIV/AIDS

and issues that accompany those attitudes in order to have baseline information. Results of the survey will

be communicated and discussed with the district management health team (DHMT) to help both parties

improve collaboration for current and future services. Field and in-country travel will also be covered as

necessary.

LINKAGES: This program will link with the DHMT to integrate other critical components of HBC into the

comprehensive package of services. The activity will link with other USG programs in natural resources

management, and the TACARE programs in prevention and counseling/testing. This integrated approach

of activities has proven to be effective in producing better results than single standing activities.

SUSTAINABILITY: Efforts to strengthen sustainability are focused on the fact that the project is

implemented in close collaboration with local government personnel from different departments. The sense

of project ownership created among the district managerial levels will help ensure adequate supervision of

the project. Training improves their skills in different competencies. Also, the communities' own people

serve as Community HBC providers, including in and out-of-school youth. Improvement and use of the

village social infrastructure provides long-term support to families and patients.