The Strengthening HIV Counselor Training Project (SCOT) is collaboration among organizations with a

stake in HIV counselor training in Uganda. It aims at improving the quality of HIV counselor training through

standardizing curricula, building the capacity of institutions to utilize standardized curricula, supporting the

development of accreditation and certification criteria for HIV counselor training institutions, supporting

advocacy for the counseling profession and developing a standardized monitoring and evaluation system

for HIV counselor training. SCOT has continued to work very closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH),

Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), Uganda Counseling Association (UCA), other line ministries, Forum for

People Living with HIV/AIDS (NAFOPHANU), HIV counselor training institutions and development partners

to improve the quality of HIV counselor training and practice in the country.

In FY07, the Home Based HIV Counseling and Testing (HBHCT), Routine Counseling and Testing (RCT)

and HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) curricula have been updated, printed and distributed to

implementing partners. The curricula for HIV Counseling Supervision, Counseling for ART and Positive

prevention counseling have been finalized and training service providers is going on in various sites.

Accompanying training materials (HBHCT video, cue cards and posters) have been completed and are

ready for mass production and distribution to implementing partners. Twenty national level trainers were

oriented in the use of RCT curricula and have so far trained 296 health workers in Jinja and Soroti

Regional Referral Hospitals. In order to build capacity for rolling out training for the recently developed

curricula (ART counseling, HIV counseling supervision and HCT) 20 national level trainers will be

trained per curricula who will in turn train over 800 service providers throughout the country. A total of 85

counselors from various AIDS care organizations received specialized training in child counseling and 79

health workers in government health facilities were trained in HIV/AIDS counseling. Over 263 scholarships

for training counselors are available to support training of service providers in various HIV/AIDS courses

accredited by MOH. SCOT has also equipped the resource centre with computers and furniture and is in

the process of procuring additional resource materials

In FY08, SCOT will continue to improve the quality of HIV counselor training and service delivery in

Uganda. The following targets shall be reached:

- 20 trainers and 200 counselors trained in ART counseling

- 100 counselors trained in HBHCT;

- 400 service providers for RCT in 2 regional hospitals selected by MOH trained.

- 1000 manuals for each of the six curricula developed by SCOT will be Printed and distributed to partners

implementing different curricula.

- 150 scholarships will be given to individuals from stakeholder organizations to attend accredited HIV

counseling courses provided by SCOT partners.

SCOT shall also focus attention on building the capacities of People with Disabilities (PWDs) to deal with

HIV/AIDS related challenges; 20 PWDs will be trained as trainers in HCT and who will in turn train 100

counselors within the PWD fraternity. The National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS activities 2007/8-2011/12

prioritized male circumcision as an evidence based and cost effective strategy for HIV prevention that

complements the ABC approach and early knowledge of HIV status. Currently, the Government is

conducting national dialogue on male circumcision and it acknowledges the challenges of delivering the

intervention including: lack of a policy framework, inadequate infrastructure and human resource capacity to

ensure equitable safe delivery of the intervention, addressing potential gender undertones and behavioral

dis-inhibition due to a false sense of security among circumcised males. In order to achieve the desired

outcomes and targets, SCOT has a role in updating the training curricula and accompanying IEC materials

for counselors and community mobilisers. In addition, a training needs assessment conducted by SCOT

in 2006 revealed inadequate skills in areas of child and adolescent counseling, couples counseling and

nutritional counseling. SCOT will work in collaboration with MOH, Mildmay, PIDC, TASO, and Uganda

Association of Nutritionists (UGAN), to develop new curricula in the identified areas and train 20 trainers for

each new area. The 20 trainers will in turn train 200 service providers per new curriculum.

The Strengthening HIV Counselor Training Project (SCOT) is collaboration among organizations with a

stake in HIV counselor training in Uganda. It aims at improving the quality of HIV counselor training through

standardizing curricula, building the capacity of institutions to utilize standardized curricula, supporting the

development of accreditation and certification criteria for HIV counselor training institutions, supporting

advocacy for the counseling profession, and developing a standardized monitoring and evaluation system

for HIV counselor training. SCOT has continued to work very closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH),

Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), Uganda Counseling Association, other line ministries, Forum for People

Living with HIV/AIDS (NAFOPHANU), HIV counselor training institutions and development partners to

improve the quality of HIV counselor training in the country.

In FY 2007, SCOT and ACQUIRE project have worked with MOH, PHA care organizations (TASO, PIDC,

MJAP, JCRC, Reach out, Mildmay) and PHA networks, particularly NAFOPHANU, National Community of

Women Living with HIV/AIDS (NACWOLA), Uganda Network of Young Positives Associations, & Uganda

Young Positives to strengthen HIV prevention counseling in the country. 51 trainers and 123 service

providers have been trained in Positive prevention (PP) counseling. A PHA Peer counseling and educators'

curriculum has been developed and pre-tested. SCOT is yet to train additional 400 service providers and

200 PHA peer counselors by the end of the year. Accompanying training materials for Positive Prevention

curriculum have been finalized and printing of 750 participants' manuals, 100 facilitators' manuals, 750 cue

cards and 500 sets of health education charts will be completed by the end of year.

SCOT has recruited a substantive M&E officer to spearhead the M&E functions of the project. The M & E

system at SCOT has been reviewed; data collection tools will be shared with partners. In addition, a

repository database has been developed to keep track of training activities by SCOT and partners. A joint

program review of the SCOT project will be conducted by the end of FY07.

In FY 2008, SCOT together with ACQUIRE project shall continue to support AIDS service organizations and

PHA networks to implement the Positive Prevention program by training 250 counselors in Positive

Prevention counseling and 250 PHA peer counselors. In addition, SCOT will collaborate with Reach-Out

Mbuya to complete the curriculum for discordant couple's intervention and support the training of 20 trainers

(TOT), who will in turn support the training of 200 service providers from other partners. In order to

strengthen support supervision for HIV counseling, SCOT will support the training of 60 HIV counselor

supervisors. A total of 1000 copies of training materials per curriculum (Positive Prevention and discordant

couples) will be printed and distributed to various implementing partners.

To ensure quality of counseling training and service delivery, SCOT in collaboration with Ministry of Health

(MOH) will strengthen the capacity of major HIV counselor Training institutions namely AIC, TASO Training

Center, PIDC, MJAP, JCRC, Reach-out and Mildmay to implement HBHCT, RCT, ART, HIV Counselor

supervision, Positive Prevention and HCT trainings and other SCOT accredited courses in the country. This

will entail developing a joint accreditation system and common certification framework for to HIV counseling

courses (HBHCT, RCT, ART, HIV counselor supervision, HCT, and PP curricula). SCOT will continue to

contribute to the professional growth of counseling in Uganda, by supporting institutional growth of Uganda

Counseling Association (UCA)and work with line ministries to advocate for the establishment of the

counseling cadre in the Public service. Support will be provided to UCA to develop an information booklet

on Ethics and Code of Conduct for HIV counselors. In addition, SCOT will continue to support the annual

counselors conference and facilitate meetings for the technical working committees for the HIV

counseling consortium. SCOT Secretariat will hire a full time program officer to coordinate activities of the

national HIV counseling consortium