Uganda RTC Received Big Funds for Stay Alive
Experience has shown that it is easier to teach skills for preventive behavior before such behaviors are actually practiced. On this basis, the Stay Alive program in Uganda designed a proposal for the Civil Society Fund, which is managed by the Ugandan AIDS Commission, a National body that controls all HIV/AIDS activities in the country. The proposal requested funding for Stay Alive’s activities in the Mukono district and listed USAID, Irish AID, DFID, and DANIDA as developmental partners.
The project is a comprehensive integrated methodology combining the strength of participatory learning about HIV/AIDS with empowerment and social change. It focuses on skill development with regard to relationships, communication, integrity and responsibility, and combines it with an innovative approach to Parent/Guardian sessions that enhance effective Parent-Child communication. Theatre in developments sessions further enable communities to identify problems that fuel the spread of the epidemic to their young children and find solutions to them.
School and Community Parent heads will mentor participants and help increase their capacity to analyze and understand HIV/AIDS and child communication issues that affect them. The project is based on the premise that shaping the skills, knowledge and attitudes of participating children will help them find suitable homegrown solutions to problems causing and caused by HIV/AIDS. This approach will provide a sustainable solution to fighting HIV/AIDS in the next generation. The project uses participatory tools and techniques like pictures, role playing, skits, songs, games, testimonies, narratives and essay writing about the skills and concepts learned in the Stay Alive lessons.
On the 13th and 14th of March 2008, the Stay Alive group was privileged to be one of the 37 organizations that benefited from this fund and participated in the CSF Award Conference. The objectives of the conference were to finalize the work plan and budgets, sign sub-grant agreements, and to clarify CSF grants management expectations and reporting requirements. During the course of the conference. objectives were finalized as outlined below:
PROJECT GOAL
The overall goal of this project shall be to strengthen individuals, families and communities in fulfilling their responsibilities in protecting themselves and their families against HIV/AIDS by helping them adopt and maintain HIV/AIDS resistant behaviors.
Our Objectives
• By the end of the Year 2008, 30,000 Parents/Guardians will have held discussions with their children on sensitive topics, including age-appropriate discussions on sexuality to reinforce HIV/AIDS avoidance behavior.
• By the end of the Year 2008, 60,000 children will have been taught the skills, concepts and actions to increase consequential value-orientated thinking and responsible decision-making to empower them to avoid HIV/AIDS.
• The project shall cover the four sub-counties of Mukono district-- namely Nakifuma, Buvuma, Mukono and Buikwe-- and will directly benefit 60,000 youth, 30,000 Parents/Guardians, and 2000 teachers in 200 school and religious settings. (Each school/ religious body is estimated to have an average of 300 children and 10 teachers. Uganda Districts Information Handbook- Expanded Edition 205-2006 Pg 110—Mukono District)
In 2006 alone, over 4 million people worldwide were newly infected with HIV. The pandemic continues to race across the globe, fueled in part by stigma and silence. Many are reluctant to discuss HIV and AIDS because of its relationship to sexual activity, death and taboo subjects in many cultures. The Stay Alive project shall encourage communities to discuss abstinence, fidelity, respect and sexual responsibility in stemming the spread of HIV. We shall help families understand that they can provide guidelines to their children and provide compassionate care to HIV-positive relatives without putting themselves at risk. By providing accurate information and a referral system with specific feedback mechanisms, the project will ensure we reach the most vulnerable and most at-risk of our participating children.