Introduction:
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