The International Youth Foundation (IYF) is implementing the Empowering Africa's Young People Initiative (EAYPI) project whose goal is to scale up evidence-based programs that promote healthy behaviors to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among youth, aged 10 to 25 in Uganda. The project is implemented through 5 sub-grantee organizations: Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS); Uganda Scouts Association (USA); Uganda Girl Guides Association (UGGA); Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Source of the Nile Award (SNA). In FY06, 527 unique people were trained and 2511 individuals reached with AB messages. Other achievements included, completion of a qualitative study, developing of ABY focused peer education training manuals, establishment of an M&E and financial system and provision of 4 start-up sub-grants. Building on FY06 activities, 2497 unique individuals to promote abstinence and being faithful (AB) will be trained and 55,300 people (42,000 young people and 13,000 adults) reached with AB messages through 4 integrated and reinforcing Strategic Objectives (described below) in the 10 districts of Kampala, Iganga, Kabale, Hoima, Lira, Kayunga, Kamuli, Pallisa, Tororo & Wakiso.

Scaling up skills based HIV prevention education, especially for younger youth and girls: At least 2200 peer educators will be trained using the cascade peer training model. The purpose of the training is to equip peer educators with facilitation and communication skills for disseminating accurate and correct AB messages and life skills provision for practicing AB. The training will also equip peer educators with skills to deal with peer pressure, and for referral of young people that need clinical and social services for sexual violence, STD management etc. In addition, A team of 97 trainers and in life planning skills and peer education approaches in relation to AB, who will be charged with training of peer educators. The trained peer educators will reach a total of 42,000 young people, in and out of school, through a series of one-to-one contacts, guided group peer education interactions, community outreaches and enter-education youth activities, all focused on ABY topics. Other topics to be covered include VCT, vulnerability of girls to sexual exploitation and coercion as well as male norms and behavior. The objective will be to provide young people with accurate and correct AB information with the purpose of minimizing early sexual debut and increased abstinence. The young people will be reached through existing sub-grantee youth forums like youth clubs, school debates, sports activities, blood donor clubs, jamborees and expeditions. Support materials such as activity kits containing games, reference materials and real life stories will be provided to peer educators as a guide in performing their duties.

Stimulating broad based community discourse on health norms and risky behavior: In FY2007, a total of 6700 adults and other community members will be reached through community outreaches specifically, 40 district level meetings and 120 sub-county level meetings. Working through established sub-grantee adult and community networks, community participatory dialogue and action planning outreaches will be conducted in selected sites with a focus on identifying and recognizing prevailing youth health norms, gender issues, youth risky behaviors, advocacy issues related to stigma and discrimination, and ways that communities can address the identified risk behaviors predisposing young people to HIV. Target audience includes adult members and volunteers of the sub-grantees, parents, teachers, cultural leaders, Scouts and Girl Guides masters in schools, civic leaders, politicians, women and youth leaders, community resource persons, and volunteer groups. The target audience will be reached through forum such as, the YWCA adult clubs comprising parents, influential leaders and community members; Red Cross community blood donor clubs; Scouts and Girl Guides open troops in the communities, and be provided with accurate information to dispel misinformation, relevant AB BCC materials, and draw up action plans on identified issues. A cadre of community facilitators will be recruited from existing sub-grantee volunteer staff and equipped with facilitation skills to conduct adult and community meetings.

Re-enforcing the role of parents and other influential adults: A core team of 26 trainers and 154 community facilitators will be trained in parent to child communication, who will in turn reach 6600 parents and other influential adults through some of the existing forums described in SO 2, but focused on parent to child communication (PTC) and the role of the family. The training of trainers and facilitators in PTC and interpersonal communication skills will be done through a partnership with Population Services International (PSI) AIDSMark program utilizing existing Safe from harm curriculum and other PSI reference materials. The trained cadre of trainers and community facilitators will

in turn reach other parents and responsible adults to mitigate the difficulty many parents, teachers, leaders and other key gatekeepers face in communicating with teens and young people, regarding sexuality and the role of the family in providing an enabling environment for young people to delay sexual debut or be faithful. Here, a parent is defined as a "trusted adult' by the youth and communities and also in view of the high percentage of orphans. Sub-grantees already have existing structures such as teacher guiders, scout rangers, YWCA adult clubs, youth mentors and role models and other parent-elder programs that will be utilized as forums to strengthen communication skills, mentoring and role modeling. Furthermore, with adults, the aim will be to increase their self-esteem and skills to talk about youth sexuality, abstinence, fidelity and monogamy, and define parental responsibilities to help young people practice AB behaviors.

Reducing the incidence of sexual coercion and exploitation for younger people in the project sites: A total of 6700 adults and other community members targeted to be reached with outreaches in SO 2 will also be reached with interventions under SO 4, by trained community facilitators and older peer educators. This will build on activities already implemented in FY06 that included identification of key influential leaders within the communities, as well as identification of risky behaviors and areas for young people. Community advocacy and sensitization meetings will be conducted for younger and older males. For younger males, the focus will be on challenging gender norms about masculinity, the acceptance of early sexual activity and multiple sexual partners and transactional sex, which are among the drivers of the epidemic in Uganda. This will be a deliberate effort to impart positive gender sensitive interactions, attitudes, practices and behaviors in young males at an early age as a long term strategy to address sexual violence and exploitation of their female counterparts. While for older males, the focus will be to support counseling, peer education, and community interventions. These two reinforcing approaches are aimed at addressing equitable gender norms in ABY HIV/AIDS prevention and addressing high risk sex. Similar to strategic objective 2-3, activities for this strategic objective will target young males and other community members through the sub-grantee established structures described in SO 2, 3 and 4 above. In partnership with YEAH, the sub-grantees will be oriented in the promotion, use and dissemination of the ‘Be a Man' media and print materials during community sensitization and advocacy outreaches that promote male participation to address transactional and intergenerational sex. New networks will also be established at community levels for referral services provision to augment on the existing referral networks.