This activity is a continuation from FY2007 and has been updated for targets and budgets only. IYF is

implementing the empowering Africa's young people initiative (EAYPI) project whose goal is to scale up

evidence-based programs that promote healthy behaviors to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among youth,

aged 10 to 24 years in Uganda. Activities comprise training of trainers, and peer educators to promote

abstinence, fidelity and address issues such as partner reduction, stigma, and discrimination while

simultaneously engaging parents, communities and trusted adults in supporting individual behavior change

among the youth. The project is implemented through five youth-serving sub-grantee organizations namely:

The Uganda Red Cross Society; Uganda Scouts Association; Uganda Girl Guides Association; Young

Women's Christian Association, and the Source of the Nile Award. In FY2007, 2,668 unique individuals

were trained and 58,835 people reached with AB messages. During the FY2008 period, 2,606 unique

individuals will be trained to promote AB and 57,190 people (45,105 young people and 12,085 adults) will

be reached with AB messages through four integrated and reinforcing strategic objectives in the 10 districts

of Kampala, Iganga, Kabale, Hoima, Lira, Kayunga, Kamuli, Budaka, Tororo, and Wakiso.

i) Scaling up skills based HIV prevention education, especially for younger youth and girls: At least 2,510

peer educators will be trained using the cascade peer training model and workshop training setting. The

purpose of the training is to equip peer educators with facilitation and communication skills for disseminating

accurate and correct AB messages, and to provide life skills necessary for practicing AB. The training will

also equip peer educators with skills to pass on to the peers on how to deal with peer pressure, and to refer

young people that need other services like VCT, STI management, and social services that address issues

of sexual violence. The trained peer educators will reach a total of 45,105 young people, in and out of

school, through a series of one-to-one contacts, guided group peer education interactions, community

outreaches and enter-education youth activities, all focused on abstinence and behavior change for the

youth (ABY) topics. Other topics to be covered will include VCT, vulnerability of girls to sexual exploitation

and coercion as well as male norms and behavior. The young people will be reached through existing sub-

grantee youth forums like youth clubs, school debates, sports activities, blood donor clubs, jamborees and

expeditions. Resource materials will be provided to the peer educators to help them carry out their work

satisfactorily. These will include activity kits containing games, reference materials and real life stories.

ii) Stimulating broad based community discourse on health norms and risky behavior: In FY2008, a total of

6,360 adults and other community members will be reached through community outreaches. These will

include 40 district level and 120 sub-county level meetings. Working through established sub-grantee adult

and community networks, community participatory dialogue and action planning outreaches will be

conducted with a focus on identifying and recognizing prevailing youth health norms, gender issues, youth

risky behaviors, advocacy issues related to stigma and discrimination, and ways that communities can use

the information to address the identified risk behaviors predisposing young people to HIV. Target audience

includes adult members and volunteers of the sub-grantees, parents, teachers, cultural leaders, scouts and

girl guides masters in schools, civic leaders, politicians, women and youth leaders, community resource

persons, and other volunteer groups. The target audience will be reached through forums such as, the

YWCA adult clubs that comprise parents, influential leaders, and community members; Red Cross

community blood donor clubs; Scouts and girl guides open troops in the communities. These will be

provided with accurate information and AB BCC materials to dispel misinformation, and they will draw up

action plans to address the identified issues. A cadre of community facilitators will be recruited from existing

sub-grantee volunteer staff and equipped with facilitation skills to conduct adult and community meetings.

iii) Re-enforcing the role of parents and other influential adults: A core team of 60 new community facilitators

will be trained in parent to child communication (PTC), who will in turn reach 5,725 parents and other

influential adults through some of the existing forums described above. They will mainly focus on PTC, and

the role of the family. The training of trainers and facilitators in PTC and interpersonal communication skills

will be done using the materials adopted from Safe from Harm curriculum developed by Population Services

International's (PSI) AIDSMark program. Other PSI reference materials will also be used. The trainers and

community facilitators will in turn reach other parents and responsible adults to mitigate the difficulty many

parents, teachers, leaders and other key gatekeepers face in communicating with teens and young people

regarding sexuality and the role of the family in providing an enabling environment for young people to delay

sexual debut or be faithful. The existing sub-grantees structures such as teacher guiders, scout rangers,

YWCA adult clubs, youth mentor, role models and other parent-elder programs will be utilized as forums to

strengthen communication skills, mentoring and role modeling. Furthermore, the adults and the influential

people will be provided with knowledge and skills that will increase their self-esteem and capacity to talk

about youth sexuality, abstinence, fidelity and monogamy, and define parental responsibilities to help young

people practice AB behaviors.

iv) Reducing the incidence of sexual coercion and exploitation for younger people: A total of 6,360 adults

and other community members targeted to be reached with outreaches in ii) above will also be reached with

interventions under this objective by the trained community facilitators and older peer educators. This will

build on activities already implemented in FY2007 that included identification of key influential leaders within

the communities, and risky behaviors and areas for young people. Community advocacy and sensitization

meetings will be conducted for younger and older males. For younger males, the focus will be on

challenging gender norms about masculinity, the acceptance of early sexual activity, multiple sexual

partners and transactional sex, which are among the drivers of the epidemic in Uganda. These interactions

will be a deliberate effort to impart positive gender sensitive attitudes, practices and behaviors in young

males at an early age as a long term strategy to address sexual violence and exploitation of their female

counterparts. For older males, the focus will be to support counseling, peer education, and community

interventions. These two reinforcing approaches are aimed at addressing equitable gender norms in ABY

HIV/AIDS prevention and addressing high risk sex. In partnership with the young, empowered, and healthy

(YEAH) project, the sub-grantees will be oriented in the promotion, use and dissemination of the ‘Be a Man'

media and print materials during community sensitization and advocacy outreaches that promote male

participation to address transactional and intergenerational sex. New networks will be established at

community levels for referral services to augment on the existing ones. All the four strategies and the

activities identified under each one of them are carefully designed to contribute to the overall goal of

behavior change among the youth through abstinence and being faithful.

EAYPI has produced a synergistic alliance of organizations that possess a combined HIV/AIDS prevention

expertise, life skills and peer-to-peer education programming as well as expertise in youth development,

and capacity building. This combination of expertise has enabled EAYPI to scale -up culturally appropriate

Activity Narrative: and technically sound behavior change programs that are contributing to a reduction in HIV prevalence

among the youth in Uganda. The added value of the alliance lies in its ability to support the scale-up of

program activities, to generate program results through the provision and coordination of technical

assistance, leveraging resources and ensuring quality of A and B approaches and messages in the

communities where the affiliates work. EAYPI supports USAID/Uganda strategic objective (SO) #8:

Improved human capacity, the Uganda HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan 2007/08- 2011/2012, and the

Health Sector Strategic Plan 2005/6-2009/10, through prevention of HIV infection among the youth by

influencing sexual behavior to postpone first sex among young people who have not yet initiated sexual

activity, promoting partner reduction strategies and fidelity in youth who are sexually active and to

encourage secondary abstinence. EAYPI plans to reach 198,800 youth with AB messages by the end of the

five year period, thus contributing significantly to the PEPFAR's five year target.

EAYPI will continue to collaborate with the other track 1 ABY partners, the YEAH campaign, Students

Partnership Worldwide (SPW), Walter Reed project, sectoral ministries especially the Ministry of Gender,

Labor and Social Development, and the Uganda Aids Commission. These linkages together with district and

community linkages with the district health office and the health services outlets will ensure that young

people reached by the ABY program can be referred for specialized services like VCT, OVC, family

planning, adolescent friendly health services, and other clinical services. Data from the field will be shared

with the communities and the districts through the regular monthly meetings at those levels.