[afro-nets] Youth-led Interventions on HIV/AIDS

[Janet Feldman <kaippg@earthlink.net>]

Youth-led Interventions on HIV/AIDS
-----------------------------------

Please Contribute by March 10th, 2006

Members of the OIYP and GYCA Networks Invite You to Contribute a
Case Study on Youth-led Work on HIV/AIDS.

Today, 10 million young are living with HIV, and each day, and
6000 young men and women get newly infected with the virus.
Young people are the most hard-hit by the pandemic, and they re-
main a crucial component in terms of transmission, vulnerabil-
ity, risk and potential change.

But their needs are often ignored when HIV/AIDS policies are de-
signed, when prevention programmes are developed, and when budg-
ets are allocated, and young people themselves are often ex-
cluded from the implementation of initiatives that target them.
Hence the failure of many to address the needs of youth in terms
of awareness raising, prevention, and care.

Today, there are a growing number of young people across the
world who are working within their communities to reduce the
vulnerability and risk behaviours of their peers. With often
limited resources, thousands of young activists are leading
grassroots initiatives worldwide, contributing to the fight
against the spread of HIV/AIDS through peer education pro-
grammes, home care for HIV-positive patients, advocacy for equal
access to treatment, and many other activities.

Oxfam International Youth Parliament and the Global Youth Coali-
tion on HIV/AIDS are currently conducting research among members
on youth-driven initiatives in the area of HIV/AIDS. The result-
ing publication will showcase work of members of the GYCA and
OIYP networks. If you are a youth doing innovative HIV/AIDS work
and would like more information about the project or would like
to participate, please join the GYCA by visiting
http://www.youthaidscoalition.org to receive regular updates.

--
This youth-led research aims to highlight the contribution of
young activists' work in the area of HIV/AIDS worldwide, and
represents a great opportunity for sharing experiences, knowl-
edge, and lessons learnt among them. It will result in an advo-
cacy document with evidence to be shared at the 2006 Interna-
tional AIDS Conference in Toronto, as part of the Toronto Youth
Force process. It may also result in recommendations to be pre-
sented to parties attending Toronto.

Get Involved!

This project is a chance for you to learn more about the work of
other young people in HIV/AIDS. It is also a chance to have a
voice in the Toronto International Aids Conference 2006.

The objectives of the research are:
1. To share ideas, experiences and learning throughout the OIYP
and GYCA networks on youth-led interventions on HIV/AIDS.

2. To produce an advocacy/research document for IAC Toronto 2006
on how youth-led interventions are contributing to combating
HIV/AIDS.

You can be involved by:
* Filling out this survey;
* Being interviewed by a member of the research team in your re-
gion if your survey is selected (a limited number of interviews
will take place); -Discussing case studies with other young peo-
ple working on HIV/AIDS in an online discussion.

RETURN THIS SURVEY:
mailto:iypaction@oxfam.org.au
Fax: +61-2-9280-3426
Attn: May Miller-Dawkins

Contribute your survey by March 10, 2006.

Projects selected for the publications will be awarded $100 USD
each to further their initiatives. 10-20 projects will be se-
lected. Projects will be selected on the basis of best or most
interesting practices as well as diversity criteria (regional
spread, gender, strategy). Projects will be selected for inter-
view and for inclusion by the regional research teams.

What is a case study survey?
GYCA and OIYP are basing our guidelines on writing a case study
on those used by UNAIDS that are developed from experiences of
documenting local responses. We have modified them to try to
capture the unique contribution that youth-led responses are
making. OIYP and GYCA members have contributed to the questions
in the case study survey below.

A case study describes a local response to HIV/AIDS aimed at ad-
dressing one or more specific problems, e.g. stigma and dis-
crimination against PLWHA, reproductive health education, etc.
It can serve as an example and/or inspiration for others that
are confronted with a similar problem. The case study describes
in a practical way the whole process of implementation.

The process of writing down what exactly has happened and why is
a learning experience that can be used to evaluate the practice
and to adapt approaches that do not work. The process can also
be used to determine indicators for monitoring if these had not
been formulated before. This survey can serve as a good founda-
tion for creating a grant proposal or project proposal for your
initiative later on.

Please follow the instructions below in filling out the survey
form carefully in order to produce a clear and standardized de-
scription of the practice:

OIYP-GYCA Case Study Survey:

Title:
- Give your practice a short and catchy title and mention the
country/ region it is in.

1. Summary of the practice:
Briefly describe what the practice is all about (mission state-
ment). It can describe the goal, but should not include the con-
text or the who, when, where, how. It is needed so people can
see in an instant if the practice addresses a problem that they
also face.

2. Level of intervention:
Describe at what level(s) and with whom the practice has been
carried out. (for example, your target audience is your "local
community", or your "local and/or national government" (if you
have worked with government specify if they have been collabora-
tors, targets for a campaign, or if you have been consulted by
them).

3. Problem addressed:
Describe the problem(s) that was addressed and what has insti-
gated the practice. This section should be relatively short and
not describe circumstances that led to the problem.

4. Purpose of intervention:
Describe the concrete end result(s) that is expected by using
the practice. This may be a one-time result (for instance chang-
ing a national law on mandatory HIV testing to obtain a work
permit), but may also be an ongoing activity (for example, in-
come generation to cover the cost of supporting orphans and vul-
nerable children in the community).

5. Context:
The context describes the circumstances (cultural, social, reli-
gious, economic, geographical, political, environmental and in-
stitutional factors) that influence the development, implementa-
tion and impact of the practice. It is important to include the
prevalence of HIV/AIDS in your country or in the community and
who it affects most, and also how it affects young people in
particular. This context is essential for readers because it
will explain if a practice could be applied in their own setting
or not. It should however not be too extensive: not all issues
mentioned above have to addressed.

6. History and process:
Describe how you decided to address the problem in this way.
What process did you use to identify the problem, set your pri-
orities, conceptualise the program and plan its implementation,
monitoring and evaluation? How do you make decisions; who is in-
volved? Who runs your initiative (for example youth, youth-adult
partnerships, adults, PLWHA and/or YLHWA, people from vulnerable
groups)? Was the project based on similar work in the past or
was it a new idea or way of approaching the issue? What measures
have you taken to ensure sustainability of the practice?

7. Steps in implementation:
Present the activities involved in this project/programme in
chronological order in bullet points. This description should be
as concrete as possible. If this is a partnership make sure to
specify who was responsible for organizing and delivering spe-
cific activities. For instance, if you held a workshop, what
happened, who facilitated and who participated (numbers and de-
scribe who they were including information such as age, gender,
vulnerable group), where and when was it held, how did you fol-
low up? Specify if your program is engaged in prevention work,
clinical care and support or VCT.

8. Resources required for the practice:
This section should cover:
* Skills needed (for example, facilitation skills for peer edu-
cation or training of trainers)
* Infrastructure/materials required (meeting space, training ma-
terials, condoms)
* Financial resources (salaries, fuel, administrative costs),
list currency with a USD equivalent, and specify where your
funding comes from
* Training required (for instance book keeping, monitoring and
evaluations, etc.)
* Human resources required (number of people/person months. Des-
ignate how many are paid employees and how many are volunteers
or interns)

9. Indicators for monitoring:
Indicators measure the results of the activities undertaken. Ex-
amples of indicators are: number of peer educators trained/
workshops conducted/ numbers of volunteers involved in home
based care, frequency of visits, percentage of participants who
report increased knowledge and skills to protect themselves from
HIV infection, specific government policy changed, percentage of
youth representation in decision-making structures, etc. Indica-
tors are more likely to be quantitative measures. Do you have
indicators to measure the results your project and what are
they? If you do not have any, what indicators do you think would
be useful to measure your project's results?

10. Impact:
These may be anticipated impacts (the goal to be reached) but
also include unanticipated impacts that have occurred as a re-
sult of the practice. (For instance increased acceptance of
HIV/AIDS in the community, and subsequent reduced stigmatiza-
tion) These may be difficult to measure, but further indications
can be given (such as more people volunteered for home based
care). Useful tools in measuring impact include collecting sto-
ries, talking to the target audience and the broader community,
etc. Impacts are more likely to be qualitative measures.
What is your process for examining the impact of your work? Do
you think your project contributed to change? How? What kind of
change? How do/did you know that things have changed / what is
your evidence? Was it the change that you intended to achieve?
How has your work impact on young people in your community?

11. Role of Youth:
Why is it important that this project is youth-led? What would
be different if it were not youth-led? Can you provide any spe-
cific examples of how your project is different or more effec-
tive from others because it is youth-led?

12. Challenges and Pitfalls:
Here mention the problems encountered in the process of the
practice. Describing what went wrong in relative detail enhances
the capacity to avoid the same problems by those who would like
to adapt the practice. For instance sustaining voluntary work
needs incentives (transportation, representing the organization
at events, etc.) Also include non-anticipated negative impacts
such as increased stigmatisation as a result of being open about
HIV/AIDS status. What are the two major challenges you have
faced in your work? How have you overcome challenges in your
work?

13. Critical issues and lessons learnt:
Outline any difficulties experienced, and lessons learned as a
result of your work. Outline any key recommendations that
emerged as a result of your evaluation processes. Recommenda-
tions might relate to the design of future projects like yours,
ways of working with people, ways of managing projects, partner-
ships, sustainability, and the like. What are the most signifi-
cant things you have learnt from your work? What would you do
differently if you had to start from the beginning?

OIYP-GYCA Case Study Survey:
(See above for instructions)
Please limit your survey to 2-4 pages total, single spaced, in
font 12. Please do not write in all Caps [CAPS].

Name of person filling out survey:
Age:
Organization:
Role in organization:
Email Address:
Phone Number:
Mailing Address:
Website (if available):