With AB/Y Track 1.0 funding, PATH is implementing the Scouting for Solutions project in partnership with the Uganda Scout Association, with a focus of reaching young people with information and skills for HIV prevention through abstinence and being faithful messages. The SfS project is unique because it is targeting over 150,000 scouts, both boys and girls, aged 12-15 years with HIV prevention messages and building their life skills to empower them to make healthy choices and avoid risky behavior. The SfS project is also reaching parents of the scouts and other protective adults to create a supportive environment for behavior change. The project has a country-wide reach - working in 3150 schools in 45 districts. SfS messages and materials have been shared widely with school communities thus reinforcing the national PIASCY program within and out of school activities. During Year 2, SfS collaborated with other ABY partners through sharing of materials and technical expertise. YEAH materials were distributed together with the Scout Voice and colleagues from IYF participated during the training of scout leaders. A major achievement of FY06 was the training of approximately 2500 scout leaders on HIV prevention. They reached over 58,200 junior scouts. Recruitment of girls in scouting was boosted by training 334 female scout leaders in basic and advanced scouting. Activity packs and newsletters were used to deliver information and build skills among the scouts based on the scouts principle of "learning by doing". Two activity packs were completed and 121,500 newsletters were produced and distributed. A monitoring and data management system was installed to enable USA monitor program activities and share progress with donors and partners. HIV prevention messages were integrated in scouting competitions. In FY07, SfS plans to train 2500 scout leaders to provide information in HIV prevention to junior scouts. Scout leaders will be equipped with skills to reach approximately 64,000 junior scouts with information on how to protect themselves through abstinence and being faithful. Activity packs that emphasize learning by doing will be the main method of delivering information related to HIV prevention and other related issues. Efforts to promote gender equity in scouting will continue with advocacy at the policy level to allow more girls to join the movement at the junior level. Advocacy efforts will target policy makers, education officers, parents and other gatekeepers. Through drama, scouts will magnify project messages to communities within and outside the school. PATH will continue to work with USA to strengthen the organization's capacity to implement and monitor large HIV prevention programs and other scouting activities. SfS will continue to seek ways of closer collaboration with other ABY partners particularly those who are working in the areas of behavior change and gender as well as in and out-of-school youth. This will be done through meetings such as the Partners Leadership Group and the SfS Technical Committee whose members include YEAH, IYF and PIASCY and Girl Guides among others. This will help improve the implementation of project activities through sharing of lessons learned as well as avoid duplication of efforts among other ABY partners. Dialogue with parents and community members will be initiated through activity packs and newsletters. Advocacy with key stakeholders such as relevant government ministries will be actively pursued using the advocacy toolkit and talking points to be developed in FY07. Five New gender sensitive badges sponsored by SfS will be introduced in an effort to allow both boys and girls scouts compete equally. Badges are important in scouting because they provide motivation and recognition of the Scouts' journey of self discovery and attitude formation and behavior change. The monitoring system will be strengthened to capture data from new activities. Straight Talk Foundation and Instituto Promundo will continue to provide technical assistance to the project in newsletters and gender and advocacy areas respectively.

By reaching boys and girls aged 12-15 years, the project is reaching an often neglected target audience, and with its interventions, the SfS project is addressing issues critical to young people in HIV prevention. By building the capacity of USA, the project will by the end of 5-year period reach an estimated 150,000 boys and girls within and outside the school system. This includes providing information and building skills necessary for positive behavior formation, enhancing gender sensitivity among the boy scouts and scout leaders. The project is also reaching vulnerable groups such as girls and out of school youth. Through newsletters and activity packs, SfS is providing the youth with credible sources of information. The project is promoting broad social discourse on healthy norms and risky behaviors, reinforcing influence of parents and other primary care-givers, addressing sexual exploitation and coercion, which places young people at risk of HIV infection.

The SfS project also targets Parents, guardians and other protective adults so that they can provide the youth with the necessary supportive supportive environment for behavior

change. Training is a major component of the SfS project since it provides skills and opportunities for scout leaders and other adults to change their own behavior even as they assist the youth to change. The SfS project aims at building sustainability within the scouts association by training staff in financial and data management. More capacity building will be achieved through provision of equipment. The SfS project is also building the capacity of USA to design, implement and monitor large HIV prevention programs. Partnership will be established and maintained with key government ministries. FY07 activities will also include lobbying with policy makers within the scouting system, including Ministry of Education and Sports, to provide more support for scouting at the district level. Lobbying will also be done among members of parliament and other key private organizations to boost scouting. Parents/guardians and other protective adults who are not only influential sources of knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and values for young people but also important gatekeepers will be engaged in reinforcing the messages scouts are getting from the project. To some extent, the project is also impacting on orphans or those children in difficult circumstances through out of school scouts. It is also exploring ways of linking scouts to counseling services available outside the project. The SfS project targets boys and girl scouts aged 12-15 years, scout leaders who are mainly primary schools teachers, parents and guardians and members of the community. In addition, it is targeting the large pool of volunteers - the national level policy -making bodies, the Area Commissioners and their assistants who manage the scouting movement at the national and district levels. It also targets education administrators and head teachers as gatekeepers to schools as well as policy makers within the scout movement. The project also targets out-of-school youth and youths in difficult circumstances such as those in refugee camps in Northern Uganda. The project will facilitate promotion of gender equity in scouting through revision of scouting policies to make them more gender sensitive. A gender advocacy tool kit developed in FY06 will be instrumental in this process. In addition, the sexual harassment and abuse policy which was developed by World Scouts Bureau/Africa Regional Office will be adopted and operationalized. Plans will be initiated to amend the Boy Scouts Act to accommodate the inclusion of girls in scouting.