The Children's AIDS Fund's (CAF's) Preserving the African Family in the Face of HIV/AIDS Through Prevention is a five-year, multi-country Track 1.0 Abstinence and Being Faithful for Youth (ABY) initiative providing youth, ages 10-24, with the optimum environment in which to grow and be nurtured in order to live HIV-free lives. The project is a partnership between CAF and two local implementing partners, Expanded Church Response (ECR) and Helping Hands Africa (HHA). ECR will operate through its key sub-partner, True Love Waits, and their combined network of communities, which encompasses over 12,000 points of presence throughout Zambia, coordinated by three umbrella organizations (the Christian Council of Zambia, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia, and the Zambia Episcopal Conference). HHA will operate through a network of over 165 congregations. Together, the partners will work in the following seven provinces: Lusaka, Southern, Northern, North-Western, Central, Copperbelt, and Luapula. These areas were selected because of the existing outreach and network of the two sub-partners. In order to avoid project activity overlap, CAF's sub-partners will interact with each others' project leaders, make site visits, and hold monthly meetings to review and evaluate achievements, and identify strengths and weaknesses for the purpose of improvement and capacity building.

Due to the delayed approval of the Cooperative Agreement, work plan, and subsequent signing of IP contracts, project activity began on July 1, 2006. Nevertheless, those FY 2006 activities not initiated prior to the end of FY 2006 will be rolled over to FY 2007 and scaled-up during the fiscal year.

In FY 2007, CAF will continue to explore possible linkages with other AB partners working in Zambia such as Y-CHOICES (#8922), Health Communication Partnership (#8905), Empowering Africa's Young People Initiative (#8899), and RAPIDS (#8945). In addition, CAF will continue its membership on the newly formed Prevention of Sexual Transmission Working Group supported by the National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council (NAC) and participate in the ABY partner meetings for learning, coordination, and standardization of AB related activities. CAF will also work closely with existing government structures such as the NAC, Provincial AIDS Task Forces, District AIDS Task Forces, and neighborhood Health Committees.

In FY 2007, CAF will conduct community -based activities at district level. CAF's strategic objectives will be realized through five core strategies: Peer Education, Community Mobilization, Media and Communications Outreach, Establishment of Referral Systems, and Capacity Building.

The peer education strategy will engage 100,000 primary and secondary school-level in-school youth. Supplementary activities including community youth discussions, video showings, youth campaigns, national conferences, and sporting events will be implemented to sustain engagement with youth participants. Additionally, 10,000 tertiary-level students will be reached through age-appropriate messages and activities. To enable the on-going peer education activities, preparatory training will be given to 1,000 peer facilitators to equip them with the skills and age-appropriate materials and messages to engage out-of-school youth.

The project will also mobilize and educate religious and community leaders and adult parents/caregivers to participate in reaching youth, as part of the community mobilization strategy. The community mobilization efforts will capitalize on existing networks of community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and faith-based organizations to build new networks where they have not existed, and utilize a variety of fora to reach the general community. Through these efforts, 1,300 leaders and 1,500 youth educators will be trained in their respective communities, creating a network of agents to reach the 110,000 targeted youth.

Key messages targeting adults who have an influence on youth behaviors will be developed and aired through media outreach sessions, under the media and communications outreach strategy. Key messages and materials targeting in-school and out-of-school youth will also be developed and disseminated. CAF will make use of IEC materials already developed by Pact Zambia, Society for Family Health, and Health Communication Partnership. This strategy will promote consistency in AB messaging across sub-grantees and AB related activities.

As part of the referral system strategy, several youth from Lusaka will be trained as voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) promoters to support an anticipated need for HIV testing and counseling support. The VCT promoters will convey messages on the importance and benefits of VCT during the outreach activities. This strategy will enhance uptake of VCT services among young people. Youth will be referred to facilities for VCT testing, reproductive health services, and other forms of support as needed.

Key legislative issues focusing on gender will be addressed during the course of implementation. Recruitment strategies for selecting educators, leaders, and parents/caregivers will take into consideration the different outreach strategies that engage males and females differently. Male norms and behaviors will be addressed on three levels: 1) curricula developed to target in-school and out-of-school age youth; 2) working groups for male youth and adults to address responsible manhood, sexual patterns based on cultural norms, trans-generational sex, and coercion within relationships; and 3) working groups for female youth and adults to address the same issues as well as the specific vulnerabilities of women. Both groups will meet regularly to develop culturally appropriate, sustainable solutions.

Quality assurance and supportive supervision will be ongoing through the monitoring and evaluation processes, to ensure that program quality is maintained throughout the project. Data collection tools have been developed to record attendance at all community outreach activities. These tools have also been specifically adapted to eliminate double counting. Key staff overseeing Monitoring and Evaluation activities will receive on-going capacity building training to ensure that they are adequately equipped to perform the monitoring and reporting tasks. All implementing staff will be trained in the administering of the data collection tools, with on-going support from CAF staff. Bi-annual data quality audits will be held with the sub partners to correct data summation errors prior to programmatic reporting. Finally, quarterly assessments of local partners' proficiency in handling reporting requirements will be executed with remedial steps and additional capacity building provided as needed.

CAF's implementation plan focuses on two primary types of activities: Technical Assistance/Capacity Building (TA/CB) and Direct Program Services (DPS). Technical Assistance/Capacity Building activities will be conducted throughout the grant period by CAF and its subcontractors while Direct Program Services will be conducted by the IPs.

As part of the sustainability and eventual exit strategy, the capacity building strategy will focus on improving IP abilities in program design and implementation, program and financial management, quality assurance, and monitoring and evaluation processes. A capacity building plan will be developed based on the outcomes of an on-going needs assessment and quarterly workshops whereby program performance and capability are reviewed. An additional workshop will be convened to review the outputs of the first and second year of activities, address significant environmental and policy constraints which may impact both roll-out and on-going activities, and strengthen program delivery.