http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/401475
Most girls targeted in this campaign are denied of the opportunity to higher education and are forced to premature marriages and get married to elderly men who had had multiple sexual partners. Unfortunately their marriages do not last long and are dumped and left with big responsibilities of caring for their siblings. Sex becomes a means of survival for these girls and this again increases probable to HIV exposure. This campaign will also target in school girls so that they are adequately skilled and be able to make wise choices and decisions.

This campaign intends to reach 50 girls as direct beneficiaries and 500 girls indirectly.

Project Progress (15-30 June 2008)
1. Establishment of three girls clubs.
Three clubs has been established so far and these are Manja volunteer girls club, Misesa young women for change and Che Nsomba club. Members of these clubs will be involved in voluntarism and will be recruited as peer educators. The trained Peer Educators will be expected to reach out to more girls and young women on HIV/Aids issues, sexuality, gender and women’s right.

2. Planning meetings.
Planning sessions have been taking place with girls involved in this project and community members (parents and local leadership). Basically this activity was aimed at identifying information gaps and better understands sexual and reproductive health needs of girls.
]]> Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:24:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/401475 -15.7833333 35.0 -15.7833333 35.0 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399477 My name is Christabell Opudo, I come from Nairobi Kenya. I have been engaged in youth activities since 2006 focusing on advocacy on positive living and reaching out to young people by sharing information on HIV/AIDS. I realized that so many young people are not aware of their HIV status, since they have not taken the initiative to get tested and more so the young people who are living with that I met were trying very hard to empower themselves so at to live positive. Their efforts seemed tireless since they had not reached out to their fellow youth who they were involved into day to day activities. This did not only jeopardize their efforts to live positively with HIV but promoted stigma of all types among the young people.
Activities carried out:
Identification of volunteers.
These exercise was to help in identifying volunteers that would work together to achieve the projects objectives.
This was done through referral by group leaders in the identified constituencies Makadara and Kibera where the TASC project will cover.
The call was made to reach out to individuals who are interested to be volunteers to join the Together against stigma project with the qualities listed below:

1. Age 18-35 years (definition of youth according to Kenyan constitution)
2. Peer educator with knowledge on HIV/AIDS
3. A member of a youth group based in Nairobi
4. Ready to offer 2-4 hours per week when called upon on specific days
5. Active email address and phone number
6. With knowledge of either Makadara or Kibera constituency environs
7. Effective communication/facilitation skills will be an added advantage
The total number of volunteers who responded to this programme was 25 and due to the fact that the project was to cater for 15 volunteers, adjustments had to be done to be able to accommodate all the volunteers and this was possible as all the volunteers were taken through the grant made and also the activities involved.

Capacity building for volunteers
To be able to have effective volunteers who respond to the needs of the projects it is wise to build their capacity through trainings that focused on the project objectives to be ale to improve their way of handling the programme activities.
The 3 days capacity building training focused on training 25 participants on the topics below:

Day 1
1. Basic facts on HIV/AIDS Definition, modes of transmission,
2. Prevention and treatment, immune system, stages of HIV illness, signs and symptoms
3. Stigma definition and forms of stigma
4. Manifestation of Stigma,
5. Interventions to combating stigma

Day 2.
1. Volunteer trends definitions.
2. Volunteer wheel
3. Volunteer Recruitment Selection and induction
4. Volunteer support, training and retention
5. Volunteer Evaluations and policies

Day 3.
1. Project management definition, objectives role of coordinator.
2. Managing resources,
3. Evaluation and report writing.
4. Facilitation skills
5. Overview Stay Alive youth group, TASC project and policies
6. TASC plan of action
7. Group work,
8. Evaluations

Allocation of duties and assignments
The participants divided duties and activities amongst themselves. The work force was dived into 2.
1. Members from Kibera community
To organize a youth dialogue focusing on HIV/AIDS and stigma related to it, at the Kibera community to be held on the 26th July 200. The facilitators will be the members from Makadara community.

2. Members from Makadara community.
To organize youth dialogue focusing on HIV/AIDS and stigma related to it, at the Makadara community level to be held on the 12th July 2008. The facilitators will be the participants from Kibera constituency.

Regards,
Christabel
]]> Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:44:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399477 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399585
My name is UGIRASHEBUJA Jean Luc; I am a Rwandan medical student at the National University of Rwanda. For 4 years ago, I was voluntarily working on HIV/AIDS issues. I have participated in different anti-HIV activities such as Workshops about HIV and Gender issues, Candle light Memorial March2007 and 2008, HIV Village sessions and Cine-mobile, VCT campaigns, People Living with HIV Sessions and Assistance, etc
Recently I discovered that HIV Test is the only entry point for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. Since then I have already initiated two different projects:

-VCT Campaign Project-GYCA, 2008
-Mobile VCT Project-MTV, 2008

Both of them focus on VCT as an entry point for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.
Courses:
I have done the following courses:

-GYCA courses on Project Management, preparation to the Mexico IAC and Political Advocacy.
-Global Health Learning Centre courses on HIV Basics (Part 1), Family Planning 101, Standard Days Method, Tuberculosis Basics, Youth Reproductive Health, achieved Exemplary level

Activities carried out

The first step of the project execution is Project preparation which includes:

-Contacts
-Training of volunteers and
-Announcement of the Home-based campaign

As we are at the very beginning of the project, we have already made contacts with different government leaders in order to request for permission to implement our project activities. Yet, Rwanda Village Concept Project/RVCP (www.rwanda-vcp.org), Medical Student Association of Rwanda/MEDSAR (www.medsar.org), and Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Rwanda have approved our request. We still waiting for only MUKURA Sector reaction to our request and I believe that all will be arranged by the end of this week.
]]> Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:25:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399585 -2.5808333 29.7116667 -2.5808333 29.7116667 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399569
The goal of our project was to build capacity of young women in HIV prevention and behavior change communication and to enable them to play their roles as agent of change in Prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women. It is my pleasure to inform you that we have start work on our project.

Staff has been hired, briefing meeting with staff was done in first week of the project, and work has been started on materials and manual development for trainings that will be conducted for capacity building of young women.

Before the training a KAP (Knowledge, Attitude, and Perception) survey will be conducted to know about the attitude, knowledge, and perception of young women about HIV/AIDS. We have also start working on preparation survey forms. I hope this project will be s success!!

Regards,
Gulalai
Pakistan
]]> Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:54:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399569 34.0083333 71.5727778 34.0083333 71.5727778 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399167 My name is Amare one of the grantee for GYCA HIV AIDS Small grant,
I am living in Bahir dar, the most beautiful and one of top tourist destination cities In Ethiopia, 560 km away from the capital, Addis Ababa.

Let me say more about me and my works since we all are invited to say about it a little bit. I late to submit b/c I was out of office for long hours

After graduating from Bahir Dar University of engineering in 2006, I started working on youth empowerment, HIV AIDS and Environmental programs.

The reason why I am working on HIV AIDS is that, Ethiopia is one of the top listed countries affected by HIV AIDS and its impact, so I decided to mobilize my peers, the community to play our personal stake in combating its spread, in hindering its social and economical problems.

My plan was to start implementing the program (GRANT) immediately in may, due to some inconvenience I am forced to select my children in august, from June till the mid of august school is closed in Ethiopia since these months are rainy (summer) seasons but for the last two weeks I got my self busy in dealing with the concerned officials to start selecting places that can host our children when they start their job.

Cheers

Amare

]]> Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:34:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/399167 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/395603 Awareness Raising about HIV/AIDS among Young Women

Mission:
To promote awareness among young women about prevention of HIV/AIDS to reduce High risk sexual behavior by behavioral change communication and interventions in Peshawar city of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Project Location:
Peshawar-Pakistan

Project objectives:

i. To know about the knowledge, attitude and high risk health behavior/practices among young women of Peshawar
ii. To strengthen the capacity of 20 young women activists in Behavior Change Communication to enable them to play their roles as agent of change in Prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women.
iii. To promote awareness about Prevention of HIV/AIDS among young women of Peshawar by peer to peer Education.
iv. To reduce high health risk behavioral threats through Behavior Change Communication among young women of Peshawar
Activities:

1. KAP Survey:

A survey on the knowledge, attitude and high risk Sexual health behavior/practices among young women of Peshawar will be conducted to know the level of awareness among young women in Peshawar.


2. Training
a. Selection and Editing of Training Manual and Training Material on Behavior Change Communication and Peer to Peer Education on HIV/AIDS
b. 5 days Training for 20 Young Women Activists to build their capacity in HIV/AIDS prevention, Behavior Change Communication and peer education. These young Women activists will replicate the knowledge in their communities.


3 . IEC Material Development

500 brochures developed on HIV/AIDS Prevention and distributed among Young Women of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.

Output of the Project:
i.KAP Survey conducted and report developed
ii.Training Manual on Behavior Change and Communication for Training of young women activists adapted.
iii.20 Young women activists got five days training on Behavior change communicational and peer to peer education
iv.500 Brochures on prevention of HIV/AIDS developed, printed and disseminated
v.200 young women approached and informed by 20 young trained activists.
]]> Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:57:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/395603 34.0083333 71.5727778 34.0083333 71.5727778 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/368051 The campaign intends to provide education regarding HIV prevention, human rights and gender through skills building and counseling to girls at risk. The program’s peer education will train at risk adolescents to become peer educators utilizing spots, plays, and songs about HIV related issues to facilitate discussions.

PROJECT JUSTIFICATION
Girls Empowerment Network organization has a concern that adolescent girls especially school drop-outs may be at particular risk of HIV infection due to earlier age of sexual onset and higher likelihood of sexual exploitation or abuse. Of interest on this project are educationally disadvantaged girls resident in urban poor areas of Blantyre mainly Soche, Chensomba, Zingwangwa and Chilobwe.

Educationally disadvantaged girls face a unique set of challenges and risks as they move into adulthood. This campaign intends to address the gamut of risks they are exposed to and the challenges they face in independent living, early pregnancies, parenting, life skills, mental and social health, lack of employment, violence (gender based violence) and homelessness.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES
• Increase in knowledge, skills and capability for vulnerable girls and young women to protect themselves from gender based violence, abuse and HIV/Aids through various assertive trainings conducted targeting vulnerable girls.

• To raise awareness on girl-child rights and censure and criticize societies’ beliefs and mores that devalues girl-child thereby creating a supportive environment for girl-child social and economic development. This will be done through conducting sensitization campaigns and community mobilization activities.

• Formation of girls’ network and collective groups to advocate for Girls and women rights and protection. The network is going to provide adolescent girls with a dialogue podium in which girls will learn from each other.

• To reduce exposure to risky sexual behaviors and HIV amongst adolescent girls and teen mothers by providing sustainable survival means or options and providing counseling services.

Project Activities
The following main activities will be conducted during the course of the project;
> Peer Education and HIV/Aids training.
> Sensitization and awareness performances.
> Production and distribution of information materials (IEC)
> Counseling and career talk.
]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 09:06:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/368051 -15.7833333 35.0 -15.7833333 35.0 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/367909
The activities to be accomplished through this project are
1. Identifying 30 children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS to participate in this project.
2. Engages these children in income generating activities:
a. I and local administrators will select locations to host these children that will provide an easy entrance into the market.
b. 15 children will work polishing shoes
c. 15 children will sell items using mobile shops
3. Enabling these children to save a portion of their income in micro banks for further expansion and sustainable use.
4. I will work with Green and Wealthy Ethiopia (non profit making local NGO I am working with) members in tutoring these children since the children should be students to be eligible for this program since we promote and assist education.
5. Provides uniforms and other school materials to these children in order to facilitate their school attendance.
6. Gathers and visits with these children to help them build bonds to their community and each other using special events like holy days.

In the long run we do have plan to establish children village here to assist orphan children on permanent basis


]]> Thu, 08 May 2008 02:36:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/367909 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/365573
I.INTRODUCTION

VCT Campaign is a project made by Mr. Jean Luc UGIRASHEBUJA (GYCA member) in partnership between the Global Youth Coalition against HIV/AIDS and Rwanda Village Concept Project.
VCT Campaign Project aims to provide accurate knowledge about HIV/AIDS, to parents, children, and youth. Particularly, parents will have specific sessions to train them about strategic approaches that they will use for addressing HIV and sexual issues to their children. Children and youth will also be encouraged to ask for advice to their parents when they face a sexual issue. In addition, home visits and provided transportation will encourage VCT.

II. PROBLEM STATEMENT

More recently, there has been a growing recognition that more rural children and youth are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection than ever before. Besides individual behaviors, certain familial and social aspects (cultural constructs; parents’ inability to address sexual issues and HIV/AIDS to their children, gender inequalities, economic power, youth bad groups, demographic factors…) make children and youth more vulnerable to the infection. From interviews on Radio Salus during WITEGEREZA Campaign (a campaign made by Rwandan National Commission for fighting HIV) youth disclosed the inability of parents to discuss sexual issues with them as a major cause for new infections. And according to the UNAIDS 2007 updates, in Rwanda, the proportion of rural youth having sex with multiple partners is increasing while condom use is decreasing. Again Behavioral Surveillance Survey in 2000 (among the youth aged between 15 and 19) showed that minimum age of the first sexual relations is 14 years among girls and 13 years among boys. And condom use is of 10% among youth who are sexually active. As conclusion from WITEGEREZA Campaign, the most effective approach for youth behavior change must start on family level. These necessitate a youth targeted HIV prevention plan to address sensitizations, awareness and behavior change. Thus the VCT Campaign Project tries to engage, enable and urge parents not to wait to talk to their children about sex (HIV) and encourage them to make VCT as an entry point for HIV prevention and treatment.

III.PROJECT OBJECTIVES

-To involve, engage and urge parents in the battle against HIV/AIDS,
-To provide enough accurate knowledge about HIV/AIDS to parents, children and youth,
-To encourage VCT as an entry point for HIV prevention and access to treatment.
-To provide and facilitate transportation to VCT sites and post test assistance.

IV.PROJECT DESCRIPTION

VCT Campaign Project mission is that after the project, more than 95 percent of parents, children and youth will have enough accurate knowledge about HIV, AIDS, transmission, prevention, and treatment. Particularly, parents will have specific sessions to train them about strategic approaches that they will use for addressing HIVsexual
Issues to their children. Children and youth will also be encouraged to ask for advice to their parents when they face a sexual issue. Again, more than 65 percent people from different targeted families will be facilitated for transportation to a VCT site to get tested.

The project execution will be divided into three main steps:

-Project preparation,
-Home-Based campaign and
-Follow up programs.

The project preparation includes contacts, training of volunteers and announcement of the Home-based campaign. The Home Based Campaign is an outreach campaign where health workers volunteers will make house calls in MUBUMBANO Sub-sector. Health worker volunteers will visit families in afternoons. During each visit, the volunteers will provide comprehensive information about HIV prevention, transmission, AIDS treatment, and session specific to parents to enable them addressing sexual and HIV/AIDS issues to their children_youth. At the end of the visit, volunteers will explain the advantages of knowing one’s sero-status and encourage family members to go to a VCT location. If they agree, the project will arrange for transportation and post-test assistance. The last
step of the project will be follow up programs. During this step, we will form anti-HIV clubs into three categories (parents, children and youth) and then hold village sessions in order to train more the anti-HIV club members so that they will continue to mobilize their neighbors for VCT after the project ends.

V.COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

During the project implementation we will involve our target group. After being trained through family visits, and village sessions, we will form anti-HIV clubs and people who will join the clubs are them who will help to mobilize their neighbors. We will make this anti-HIV clubs powerful by training them on different important issues so that they will be able to continue implementing the project activities even after our project time ends.
]]> Sat, 03 May 2008 05:54:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/365573 -2.5808333 29.7116667 -2.5808333 29.7116667 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/364125
• Faith Phiri, Blantyre, Malawi: “Building Capacity of Girls to Reduce Their Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS”
• Amare Abebaw, Bahir Dir, Ethiopia: “Enabling AIDS orphan children to live a continuous decent life in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia”
• Christabell Opudo, Nairobi, Kenya: “Young People Living with HIV/AIDS in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS Stigma”
• Gulalai Ismail, Peshawar, Pakistan: “Awareness Raising about HIV/AIDS Among Young Women”
• Jean Luc Ugirashebuja, Huye, Rwanda: “Voluntary Counseling and Testing Campaign Project”

Over the six months of their project period, grant recipients will be posting regular updates from their projects on this blog. Please check back regularly to read about their projects’ process!

Applications for the 2nd round of GYCA’s small grants program will be available in the fall of 2008.
]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:35:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/364125 42.4330556 -78.7486111 42.4330556 -78.7486111 http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/364405 Phase I September 2007- November 2007 details on: http://projects.takingitglobal.org/togetheragainststigma

Phase II May 2008 -October 2008

MAIN OBJECTIVE
The young people that have already under gone through stigma, shame and discrimination training that highlights the forms of Stigma related to HIV/AIDS in the community will reach out to the members of the community by creating and improving partnerships and cooperation with especially young PLWHA support groups and other youth groups, by holding regular community dialogues, workshops and community activities together.

Compile information in a more youth-friendly way, edit and produce it to be to be able to be understood by all the community members in general in a bid to fight against HIV/AIDS

NEEDS ASSESSMENT:
There is a big gap between the uninfected and infected youth and this hinders the fight against stigma in the community and among the youth, making the PLWHA enclosing themselves in their activities, this is because a lot of young people are not really aware of their HIV status and thus are not committed to supporting their fellow PLWHA. These are basic facts that young people living with HIV/AIDS in Makadara Constituency, Nairobi, Kenya come across in their day to day interaction with their fellow youth.

Central Bureau of Statistics, Demographic and health survey 2003: Chapter 12, subtopic 12.3 focusing on Stigma towards HIV infected people states that education is strongly related to positive attitudes towards those who are HIV+. The proportion of women and men who accept all for measures increase steadily with education as well as with the wealth index

The response we have in relation to HIV/AIDS is over whelming with a lot of young people moving from the ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms and Disease control) practice to SAVER (Safer practices, Access to treatment, Voluntary counseling and Testing, Empowerments, and Reduction of stigma) method while keeping in mind of their fellow members of the community who are not only infected with HIV but also affected. Much has been done on HIV/AIDS awareness but very little is done for PLWHA to gain support from their fellow peers.

The pilot project has been based on in Makadara constituency Nairobi, Kenya, where by primarily identified youth volunteers went through a training that highlighted forms of stigma and discrimination toward PLWHA in the community d to be replicated in other constituencies

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

a.
The young people that have already under gone through stigma, shame and discrimination training that highlights the forms of Stigma related to HIV and AIDS in the community they will reach out to the members of the community by creating and improving partnerships and cooperation’s with especially young PLWHA support groups and other youth groups, by holding regular community dialogues, workshops and community activities together

b.
Compile information in a more youth-friendly way, edit and produce it to be to be able to be understood by all the community members in general in a bid to fight against HIV/AIDS

THE ROLE OF MY COMMUNITY
The community at large has been engaged directly and indirectly, Members of the community have taken the initiative to access trainings and health care services and Voluntary counseling and testing to know their HIV status. It is through his activities that their attitude was noted and the need to spread more information as the situation was within the community members.

Stay alive youth support group members have involved Makadara community members through advocacy activities and skill building workshops as well as organizing dialogues and trainings that focus on the fight against HIV/AIDS. Community stake holders and elders have been engaged in discussions and giving directions and guidelines on how to undertake activities

The major role of the community in this project is to exercise and to practice the skills and information distributed to them.
]]> Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:21:00 EDT http://www.tigblog.org/group/gycablog/post/364405