This is an ongoing, Track 1-funded, AB-only activity in prevention

Food for the Hungry International Ethiopia (FHI/E), is an officially registered Christian relief and

development organization and has been operating in five regional states of Ethiopia since 1984. FHI/E

implements PEPFAR-funded HIV/AIDS prevention projects directly and through sub-partners in ten districts

of the country.

In the Healthy CHOICES program, youth leaders are trained on the prevention of HIV/AIDS using a well-

structured manual composed of 12 serial sessions. The content of these sessions focus on life-skills-based

education aimed at building the confidence and self-esteem of youth, developing their communication skills,

increasing knowledge about sexual health and encouraging youth to practice abstinence and hence avoid

the risks of HIV/AIDS. Upon completion of training, each youth leader will in turn reach a group of 13 youth

using the same curriculum.

This program also includes teaching married couples on faithfulness using a structured manual that will be

given over few days. This particular effort is undertaken by making a house-to-house visit, as well as using

various community events.

Apart from shaping youth behavior through the Choose Life curriculum, the project also provides special

attention to females aged 15-24 in such a way that they will be empowered to avoid engagement in cross-

generational and transactional sexual relationships. Sexually active youth, who fail to practice secondary

abstinence are referred for comprehensive prevention service.

In the first six months of FY07, FHI/E and its sub partners reached a total of 53,307 youth with appropriate

AB messages and 9,541 people were trained to provide HIV-prevention education. AB awareness

campaigns were also conducted at mass events like the World AIDS Day. During the same period,

translation to local languages of additional lessons on sexual abuse and trans-generational sex was also

completed, and implementation has been started.

In FY08, the program will continue working to reach more youth with AB messages. Taking in to account

lessons from FY07, the project will revisit the relatively few adolescents who could not commit to abstinence

and provide supplemental sessions on risk-reduction options and further behavioral communication

approaches. The program will also strengthen its referral to comprehensive prevention services. More

influential adults and volunteer health educators will be trained on HIV-prevention programs that promote

abstinence and/or faithfulness.

The program conforms to the PEPFAR Ethiopia prevention strategy by focusing on promoting AB behavior

with the youth and utilizing existing structures, churches, mosques and Sunday school/youth groups to

promote AB behavior and model positive, non-stigmatizing behaviors among the communities.

Other PEPFAR as well as non-PEPFAR partners currently operate in the three regions in which FHI works.

Operational and technical collaboration among these partners is essential for successful implementation of

programs and effecting wider impact.

The program targets youth 10-25 years, and married couples in the geographic areas the partner operates

in. The youth are the primary targets of this project. The project also works with married couples towards

promoting faithfulness in marriage or long-term relationship. Influential adults (such as parents, teachers,

religious leaders and other influential people) are instrumental in communicating HIV/AIDS prevention

messages and hence bring about the desired behavior change.

By focusing efforts on empowerment of adolescent and young adult women to refrain from engaging in

unhealthy sexual behaviors, the project seeks to increase gender equity. The curriculum focuses on tools

for prevention of transactional and cross-generational sexual relationships and on other situations of

coercive sex, which also addresses the cross-cutting area of gender, male behavior norms, and female

empowerment.