Catholic Relief Services/Uganda implements the Affirming Life, Avoiding risk program with the overall goal

of reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence among youth (15-24 years) and adults (25-49 years) in Uganda. The

program is implemented in 6 out of 19 catholic dioceses, namely Masaka, Mbarara, Kampala, Kasana

luwero, Gulu and Fort portal within a total of 31 church parishes. The strategic objectives include: reduction

in risk of HIV infection by the targeted audience through the promotion of abstinence, secondary abstinence

and fidelity behaviors; reduction in unhealthy sexual behaviors which expose the targeted audience to high

risk of HIV infections such as sexual exploitation and cross-generational sex; and build capacities of

individuals and indigenous community based organizations to effectively lead communities in AB activities.

During FY 2007 as per the semi-annual report, a total of 164 community outreach prevention programs

were organized reaching out to 23,374 individuals directly. These individuals were estimated to have shared

what they learned with a total of 62,436 individuals indirectly through either casual conversations or

organized group meetings. A second accomplishment was a total of 590 individuals trained in life skills

promotion using Education for life curriculum, Faithful House and the Participatory AIDS prevention and

support methodology.

Activities for FY 2008 will be a continuation from FY 2007 and thus have not been updated. Activities will

follow a three-fold approach of: 1) building individual life skills for behavior change; 2) increasing community

participation in AB activities; and 3) scaling up promising practices learned from the 6 participating dioceses

of the AB program.

Building individual life skills

Life skills are a very important aspect towards influencing behavior change among youth and adults; it has

been discovered that a very big percentage of individuals have the basic knowledge about HIV/AIDS as well

as its prevention but are failing to apply the knowledge they have learned to avoid contracting HIV. So the

gap between knowledge levels and practice calls in for life skills building as one of the strategies. The

program will organize and conduct a training for Facilitator Trainers (24 people) using the Faithful House

methodology; these trained Facilitator Trainers will in turn conduct a facilitators training for the clergy,

religious leaders, and catechists; these trainings are expected to reach a total of 150 religious leaders by

the end of FY 2008. These trained religious leaders will be responsible to conduct Faithful House

workshops for married and relating couples with a goal of building strong family structures and networks to

promote faithful behaviors and will reach a total of 1200 people directly (6000 indirect) through a series of

24 workshops.

During FY 2007, the program trained a total of 24 Education for Life facilitators; during FY 2008 it will

continue to organize and conduct life skill workshops for both youth in and out of school plus adult singles

using the Education for Life methodology. A total of 720 youth in and out of school will be reached directly

(3600 indirect) through a series of 24 workshops. The adult singles workshops will reach 576 individuals

directly (1728 indirect) through a series of 24 workshops.

Both the Faithful House program and Education for Life methodology are deep learning methodologies that

cannot be rushed. Time is required for participants to grasp the content, reflect on their own lives before

making a decision on what behaviors to adopt. The Faithful House program requires 5 days to complete the

3 modules while Education for life requires 3 days to complete the 3 stages; however, given different

situations the workshop might be broken down into phases and spread out for a month to have each

module or stage handled over a weekend say Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It is also expected that these

life skill gained during the workshop will benefit an individual holistically not only in terms of HIV prevention

but also through the support networks created after the training, participants learn from what the others are

doing to boost their family income through farming, poultry, piggery; while others form groups to get loans

from the bank for economic development.

Increasing Community Participation.

The aim of this activity is to promote increased community dialogue and participation in behavior change

activities following Abstinence and Be faithful. The program will continue to engage the community in

sensitization and awareness promotion activities such as music, dance, and drama shows. These are

targeted to reach 6000 youth and adults (60,000 indirect). The plan is for each of the six dioceses to hold

one show either during World AIDS day or any other day of their choice. Dissemination of information,

education and communication (IEC) materials, such as brochures, newsletters, t-shirts, and balls, with AB

messages will be distributed to a total of 60,000 youth and adults during the AB major events. Some of

these materials like t-shirts will be produced by the program while others will be obtained from other NGOs

dealing in IEC production and dissemination such as the YEAH campaign, Straight Talk Foundation and the

Ministry of Health.

Clubs are one of our major assets of the program; we will continue to support a total of 15 anti-AIDS clubs

with a total target of reaching to 2000 members. The support will be in form of material purchase as well as

life skills capacity building. Club members will also be engaged in retreats to share experiences as well as

learn from each other on various coping mechanisms to issues like peer pressure, abstinence, career and

how to live your dream, they will also be given health talks from professional guest speakers like doctors,

have spiritual reflections. Each of the 6 dioceses will organize a retreat for its club members and in total

these will benefit 1200 members directly. They will in turn be expected to share all that they learned with

their colleagues who didn't attend (6000 indirect). In addition to retreats, a total of 18 club leaders will

undergo a training organized centrally at CRS office in the use of existing IEC materials such as those from

the YEAH campaign.

Community group discussions for community leaders, religious leaders and youth leaders will be organized

using PAPAS methodology as a gateway into the discussions. These are targeted to reach 1200 people

directly (6000 indirect) through a total of 24 discussions organized.

Lastly the program will continue to encourage, promote and refer youth for VCT services by providing them

with information on VCT sites in their localities as well as offer counseling services to those that might

appear so afraid to access the service. This is more particular with one of our sub partners Gulu

Archdiocese which has a counseling center with a team of well trained counselors. VCT promotion and

referral will be a part and parcel of every AB activity to the community.

Scaling up what works

Activity Narrative: As part of the strategy for sustainability, the program will assess and scale-up what works out of the various

interventions that have been under taken plus what other organizations are doing. First there will be

occasional meetings with diocesan parish priests, pastoral co-coordinators, Bishops and other influential

members of the church to sensitize them about the value of the Faithful House program and the Education

for life program with a view of integrating the program into ongoing church activities such as those related to

premarital and marital counseling. By the end of 2008, we aim to have conducted a total of 12 meetings

reaching out to 600 people directly. CRS believes that these 600 will be able to pass on the information

gained to over 3000 others indirectly. Secondly, since there already exists organizations producing very

good materials with messages of AB such as YEAH campaign, the plan is to reproduce more of these

materials (12,000 copies) and have them distributed to the 6 dioceses in addition to what YEAH already

provides us with.

CRS also plan to join the Uganda Catholic Secretariat HIV focal point office in their annual general meetings

to share what has been learned during the implementation of AB program with the rest of the dioceses that

aren't funded by the program. Dissemination workshops will also be organized during the month of

December 2007 to January 2008 in respective dioceses for key stakeholders with the aim of sharing the

results of the Faithful House process evaluation that is currently being conducted in the six dioceses.