INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW - Through the Scouting for Solutions (SfS) project, PATH is working

with Uganda Scout Association (USA) to reach an estimated 150,000 young people aged 12-15 years with

HIV prevention messages through various activities. These activities are built around three strategic

objectives namely: reaching young people with information and skills for HIV prevention; engaging

parents/guardians and other protective adults in creating a supportive environment for behavior change;

and building capacity of scout associations to develop, implement, and monitor large-scale HIV prevention

programs. Working with USA, PATH is providing information and skills to promote abstinence until

marriage, fidelity and monogamous relationships, avoidance of unhealthy sexual behaviors and gender

equality among scouts in Uganda.

HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF YEAR 4: During Year 4, the activities implemented included

information and skills building for scouts through two issues of the Scout Voice newsletters (80,000 copies),

and camporee edition (1500 copies produced during the annual National camp), development of 4 new

activity packs and training of 13 scouts in pilot amateur photography (Shootback) to document scouting and

community level activities with cameras they had won in national scout competitions where HIV prevention

messages were included. National capacity for training was built through training of 43 national scout

trainers in SPLASH! (this is none cascade training methodology that involves practical experiential

knowledge and skills), held jointly for Uganda and Kenya; training of 800 scout leaders on additional

modules on Management and Supervision, Little Magnet Theatre, Activity Pack 3 (on HIV and AIDS) and 4

(Care and Support and Stigma Reduction) and Counseling. These scout leaders were able to reach 64,000

boys and girls aged 12-15 years. A joint creative workshop was held to develop a comic book to add to the

repertoire of information materials available for young people. 163 rover scouts were trained on supervision

to assist the District Executive Commissioners (DECs) who have limited time to carry out effective support

supervision to schools due to heavy workplan since most of them are head teachers or self-employed. An

experience sharing meeting was held with 48 ABY partners in Kampala to share lessons regarding

implementation of PEPFAR activities in Uganda. Parents and guardians were involved in creative

workshops to develop activity packs and in school committees. Although the transfer of teachers has been a

challenge, the project continues to train new scout leaders to ensure continuity of scouting activities in

project schools.

DETAILS OF YEAR 2009 ACTIVITIES: During this final year of the SfS project, PATH will identify lessons

learnt as well as challenges for reaching even more young people. This project will focus on issues of cross-

generational and transactional sex between young people and adults as well as behavior change for HIV

prevention. The scouting principle of respect for self and others is the basis for young people to help protect

themselves and others from HIV infection. To provide information and skills to the scouts, Activity Packs 5-8

which have already been developed and pretested, will be finalized and distributed to schools during

training of scout leaders. Activity Packs 5 and 6 address issues of ASRH, healthy relationships, cross

generational and transactional sex, gender-based violence including sexual abuse and its implications.

Packs 7 and 8 focus on abstinence, negotiation for safe sex and life skills. Three new editions of the Scouts

Voice newsletter will be produced (two regular editions plus a camporee edition during the national

competitions). Themes for the newsletters will be developed by the scouts during creative/editorial

workshops. However, one edition will be dedicated to discussing male circumcision which is increasingly

being seen as a way to reduce HIV infection among men. In Year 5, rover scout will assist the scouts to

use Little Magnet Theatre (LMT), a theatrical approach to share critical HIV prevention information and

messages on promotion of gender in scouting to the school and outside communities including their

parents. The scout leaders have already been trained to develop stories and generate discussions on

topical issues such as abstinence, faithfulness and partner reduction and condom use for those who are

sexually active. Scouts who participate in 3 LMT performances will be given a badge while certificates will

be awarded to the troops with exemplary performances. The project will continue to award the Red Ribbon

HIV and AIDS badge. Those scouts who complete activity packs 1-4 will be awarded the Red Ribbon

badges with the stars in Year 5. Completion of activity packs 5-8 will see a scout earn all the three stars.

The Merit and proficiency badges to promote gender equity which were to be produced in Year 4 will be

produced this year. These will feature cookery, housekeeping, baby care and handiwork. The objective of

these badges is to expose boys and girls to activities that are traditionally reserved for the other gender. In

Year 4, 13 scouts were trained on Shootback on a pilot basis and given cameras to go and take photos.

These scouts will start a pilot program on amateur photography that includes provision of films and

notebooks to record interesting activities for scouts and communities. The films will be sent back to USA for

development and the best photos will be used for making a scouts calendar for Year 2009. The photos are

also used to trigger discussions on HIV prevention, gender issues and care for environment among other

scouting activities. Through Shootback, the scouts will record and share their stories on HIV prevention and

also take the skills they learned through the newsletter editorial to another level. The best photos will earn a

photography badge.

In 2009, SfS will continue to strengthen the capacity of USA to provide HIV prevention information to the

scouts through the following activities: A refresher training will be held for all the 2,500 scout leaders to

update them on the Activity Packs 5-8. This will be done with support from the national trainers who were

trained in Year 4. Even with free primary and secondary education, there are still young people out of

school and this leaves them out of the mainstream HIV prevention messages. In Year 5, 300 Rover Scouts

will be given orientation on how to reach the out-of-school youth who constitute one of the most vulnerable

youth due to the ever-increasing number of AIDS orphans. They will be expected to recruit one female and

male patrol each who will be provided with skills and information for HIV prevention. Each trained rover will

recruit and manage at least two patrols - one of boys and the other for girls. A module for HIV prevention

and other topics such as drug and substance abuse will be developed for use by rover scouts to assist them

in working with out-of-school youth. The project will deliberately target schools among the Internally

Displaced Persons (IDPs) populations in the north which are accommodating children from displaced

families. The teachers from these schools will be trained on counseling, HIV prevention, the negative impact

of teenage pregnancy. Advocacy activities will include working with parents and guardians and provision of

orientation workshops for head teachers and education officers to be more supportive of project activities

and also support policies that allow teenage mothers to go back to school. The Parliamentary Scouts

Committee will also be used as advocates to facilitate SfS in achieving its objectives. Sexual violence and

Activity Narrative: abuse against women and girls have been shown to be a major driver of the epidemic so the project will

continue to promote of gender in scouting as a way of making men and boys more gender sensitive and

also recruit more female scout leaders and girl scouts. The policy on prevention of Sexual Harassment and

Abuse among scouts will be disseminated together with the gender advocacy toolkit to all stakeholders to

support protection of the girl-child. Sharing of information and lessons learnt with other ABY partners will be

done by sharing meetings which will be held bi-annually. Project Leadership Group comprising of PATH

country Director, SfS project director, National Executive Commissioners of KSA and USA and the Chief

Commissioners of Kenya and Uganda will meet twice in the year to ensure adherence to project goals and

objectives. 2. CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA: During this final year of the project, SfS

will continue to put emphasis on providing information and building life skills for scouts to enable them to

avoid HIV infection. PATH and its partners consider this an important contribution to HIV prevention in both

Uganda and Kenya as experiences have shown prevention is best strategy to beat the HIV epidemic. As

scouts move towards adolescence, they are faced with peer pressure and choices of whether to get

involved in relationships that might encourage them to be sexually active. The project is equipping them

with information and skills which will help them to make healthy choices including whether or not to use a

condom. This approach is in line with the PEPFAR program of comprehensive ABC approach to HIV

prevention. The project will continue to address gender issues, especially gender-based violence, because

of its proven contribution to the spread of HIV among communities in Africa including the two project

countries. It is important that scouts are grounded in scouts' principles of respect for self and others so they

can start to learn treating women with respect. By working with parents and policy makers, the project will

ensure that both boys and girls are in an environment that supports them to make healthy choices without

undue pressure. Building the capacity of Scout Associations' to implement and institutionalize HIV

prevention in their day-to-day activities is the best strategy towards sustainability of HIV prevention since

the epidemic will be with us for a long time while prevention resources cannot be guaranteed. 2.

GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE: The project is working in 812 sub-counties and 117 counties in 59 districts

which are spread in all the four regions of the country. 3. LINKS TO OTHER RESOURCES: The work that

PATH is doing through the Scouting for Solutions project has attracted the attention of policy makers such

as Members of Parliament. With support from USA, the MPs are setting up a caucus of Scout Members of

Parliament who will constitute an important avenue for lobbying resources from the government to support

HIV prevention in schools. In some districts, the visibility given to scouting through the SfS project has

generated support to scouting activities from Chief Administrative Officers and Education Officers. In some

districts, local councils have given scouts land for camping or office space in government offices. These

efforts to leverage other resources will continue in Year 5. 4. POPULATIONS BEING TARGETED The

primary target of SfS project is male and female adolescents aged 12 to 15 who are involved in the scouting

movement, their teachers in primary and secondary schools, and community leaders and volunteers in the

rural and urban areas. Other target audiences include parents, guardians, and policy makers 5. KEY

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES ADDRESSED The Sexual Harassment and Abuse prevention policy will contribute

to the work going on under the domestic violence bill by localizing efforts to operationalise the bill. The

project will also contribute towards effort to allow teenage mothers to return to school. 6. STAFF

SUPPORTED BY PEPFAR: To strengthen institutional capacity of USA, the project supports keys

personnel responsible for project implementation. These include a BCC Officer, the M&E Officer and the

Data Management Officer, the driver for the project vehicle and the security guard. In addition, the project

supports part of the National Executive Commissioner's time (30%), accountant (40%) and Admin Officer's

time (40%) to ensure projects reports are maintained according to donor requirements. In addition, the SfS

project support office running costs as part of institutional support ($1,136 per month).

New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity

Continuing Activity: 14238

Continued Associated Activity Information

Activity Activity ID USG Agency Prime Partner Mechanism Mechanism ID Mechanism Planned Funds

System ID System ID

14238 4388.08 U.S. Agency for Program for 6748 1061.08 Scouting for $705,000

International Appropriate Solutions (PATH

Development Technology in ABY Track 1)

Health

8448 4388.07 U.S. Agency for Program for 4845 1061.07 AB Track 1/ $1,071,918

International Appropriate Round 2

Development Technology in

Health

4388 4388.06 U.S. Agency for Program for 3336 1061.06 AB Track 1/ $900,806

International Appropriate Round 2

Development Technology in

Health

Table 3.3.02: