This is a continuing Track-1 ABY activity.

Y-CHOICES is an AB activity focused on HIV-prevention. The program is designed to reach in-school and

out-of-school children and youth in urban and semi-urban areas. The program is being implemented in

partnership with 25 local nongovernmental organizations (NGO) across nine regions and two city

administrations.

Specific objectives of the program include: 1) promote healthy sexual behaviors that will lead to decreased

risky sexual activities among youth, families, and communities through the provision of skills-based

knowledge and building capacities of youth; 2) scale up and expand community-focused programs for

behavior change education targeting youth to bring about healthy sexual behaviors and reduce harmful

sexual practices; and 3) improve and strengthen the environment for family discourse on social issues

critical to healthy behavior change and to the reduction of harmful sexual practices by youth and their

communities.

In FY05 and FY06, Pact and its implementing partners reached 1,766,469 secondary school and 720,771

primary school students, 860,089 out-of-school and 386,065 adults. FY07 supplemental funds enabled Pact

to provide 126 primary schools Sports for Life training and small grants to undertake abstinence and life

skills development activities. Community conversation training was provided to out-of-school clubs and

traditional community based organizations as an effort to improve child-parent interaction and quality of the

ongoing Y-CHOICES activities. Gender is a crosscutting theme and is incorporated into all training and

outreach activities. The Y-CHOICES program anticipates 40% female participation.

In FY 08, Pact will expand partnerships to reach old and new school partners, out-of-school youth clubs and

local faith-based associations. The project will support training of trainers in Sports for Life approaches for

100 school children and NGO representatives; and in Community Conversation approaches for 50 NGO

representatives. The project will provide small grants to 25 local NGOs to implement activities in schools

and communities and will provide small grants to 126 schools to strengthen club activities and organize

health clubs in elementary schools.

In order to meet the Y-CHOICES program objectives, various strategies will be employed at different levels.

Pact will strengthen the capacity of its partner local NGO through technical training to enable them to

successfully manage and implement ABY programs. The partners will in turn train AB program facilitators

(peer educators and mentors) in secondary and primary schools, out-of-school youth clubs and traditional

community based organizations. The trained facilitators will also organize and undertake diverse behavior

change focused community out reach programs , including peer learning, mass education, drama, question

and answer contests, adult-child dialogue, community conversation and mini-media broadcast through AB

messages targeted at grassroot-level outlets.

Expected short-term results include strengthened local NGO's capacity to implement effective ABY

programs; increased school and out-of-school clubs and traditional community based organizations

initiatives to combat HIV spread; improved knowledge and skills to transmit HIV/AIDS-related messages to

target groups, and improved life skills and child-parent communication resulting in informed choices and

behavior change contributing to a measurable decrease in HIV infection.

This activity is linked with the MET, Healthy-CHOICES as well as other ABY programs. Its implementation is

coordinated with community-based organizations and government structures in operational areas.

The Y-CHOICES program primarily targets in-school and out-of- school youth and children within the 10-24

age bracket. The program fosters youth-adult partnership in HIV prevention reaching adults/parents who are

members of traditional community based organizations. The participation of adults and parents will address

the prevalent weak child-parent communication practice on sexuality issues. The youth-parent partnership

is expected to promote open communication about HIV/AIDS and sexuality issues at family level and result

in a more supportive family environment.

The emphasis areas of this program are addressing male norms and behavior and increasing gender equity

in HIV/AIDS programs. Through involving parents and adults in the activity the program will strengthen

community and communication between youth and adults. The program actively engages women in

participating in the facilitators program. Those engaged in the program will receive training on behavior

change that will directly affect male norms and female involvement.