It is so, so good to hear what you are up to Dennis!

How many people are you currently working with? What are the major focuses of your work right now?

Hello Linda

We are growing as time goes by with 6 permanent staff and over 40 young people working with Us but 25 of them active everyday

Starting a pilot with street children any thoughts or write ups on this?

What is the character of the children, the program (what you hope to accomplish) and the group of enablers you will be working with?

Linda this is a program that we would like to work with the street kids and youths who have been in the strets for long, we would love to them to change and start doing something for themselves, this project is insipred by Esther Ogema our accountant and emphasised by Ben Parkinson who visited us recently he went out with Collins and talked to some of the boys in the street and they have been coming and learning health issues with us staying at our offices, we are till looking for ways to assist them out of th streeets and ensure they can have a decent life and maybe ducation. We would also love to have some of them aquire skills such as Mechanic, capentry and help themselves.

Good summary, Dennis. It's just what I wanted. Let me think for a couple of days.

As we have been planing this we are also thinking of ways to impact some skills and we will work also with less fortunate children and youths w have aquired 25 computers from Computer Aid International and we are fundraising to bring them to Kenya

cool progress Dennis! I was inspired by the work REPACTED is doing in Nakuru...keep it guys!

We got a good boost towards achieveing the objective of the project, as we have a volunteer who is joining the project and want to work towards its achievement, she has experience working wits orphans and she is openly Living with HIV

Some development on the REPACTED front we had got computers from Computer Aid International but we will not be able to bring them to the country so we are opting to buy slowly as time goes buy, Thanks to Staying Alive foundtaion they have pledged to send us money to buy 4 new computers, am putting up an appeal to be assisted to clear a small internat bill that we have at th office as we awaiting for funding to come through in August.

The resource center has started collecting books, CD,s and any thing important for young people still finding ways of connecting internet

REPACTED KENYA CONCEPT PAPER: PREVENTION PROGRAM INFORMAL SECTOR WORKPLACE.

1. PROBLEM STATEMENT:

During the implementation of the project it has come to our attention that, men and women in the informal workplaces particularly Garage, car wash, Salon and Kinyozi Workers are placed at risk by their disposable income that leads to high alcohol consumption as well as opportunities at the workplace to develop extra-marital relationships. Despite consistent message delivery through outreaches and peer education methodologies men and women in these informal workplaces still have low awareness of risk arising from multiple – partner sexual relationships, low skills in prevention including abstaining, being faithful and correct and consistent usage of condoms. Garage, Car Wash salon and Kinyozi workers tend to engage in binge drinking after receiving their wages and the alcohol consumption leads to high risk behavior. Repacted made a concerted effort of mobilizing informal sector workers to go for testing but there is still relatively low knowledge of HIV status among them, there is also low uptake of other HIV and AIDS management services like ARVs/ART, due to high level of stigma and discrimination among the workers.

The supply of condoms in the workplace is erratic and some workers associate condoms with ‘immoral’ or ‘loose’ persons. Workers who work away from their families are unable to remain abstinent or faithful after consuming alcohol. In some contexts the workers are exposed to exploitive sexual advances by fellow workers in the leadership positions and lack assertiveness or sex negation skills. Workers might not know what to do, or might not know the workplace policy concerning sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Garage and car wash workers are apparently linked to an elaborate social network comprising of Food vendors, Spare part sellers and hawkers who pose or create some of the predisposing factors to HIV infection. From one of the Peer educators in the garages, we learnt that Serial sexual relationships are rife between the Mechanics/Car wash workers and the food vendors/Hawkers some in the form of Commercial/Transactional sex. It came to our attention that the Golf Caddies serving the golf course are at risk since they receive quick money like the Garage, Car wash, Salon and Kinyozi workers and involve themselves in the same risky behavior.

There is a need to scale up the project to reach out to the informal sector in the neighboring districts of Molo, Njoro, Bahati and Rongai(Salgaa) -Previous projects have targeted sex workers and Truckers leaving out the mechanics and their social networks.

2. ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND/ CAPACITY. REPACTED theatre troupe was registered in 2005 as a youth group with the ministry of Social Services. Founded during the IMPACT project, the group has 26 volunteer members. Currently, it is located at the Nakuru Players Theatre. Group membership is based on passion for theatre and skills for peer education. Volunteers apply for admission and go through three-month probation before approval as troupe members. Due to its growth, parents approach the officials on behalf of their young people who have either completed schooling and are in commercial colleges in town. The group has partnered with APHIA II, MTV Staying Alive Foundation and takes part in District health action days. The group has three volunteer staff, outreach coordinator, peer education coordinator and resource mobilization coordinator. The accountant is the fourth staff and has a contract paid by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation. The group has experience in Rapid Result Initiative (RRI) with several other donors such as APHIA II Rift Valley, FHOK, KCDF and CACC.

REPACTED theatre troupe through previous experience in IMPACT project that was implemented by PATH Kenya, led by Family Health International (FHI) and other partners has expected capacity to assist APHIA II informal workplace component reach to informal workers in salons and kinyozis, security guards, motor garages and car washes in Nakuru town, Salgaa and Njoro areas.

3. OBJECTIVE : To facilitate the reduction of new HIV infections among men and women in the informal sector by empowering individuals to challenge social norms, increase self risk perception, increase acceptance of preventive behavior, and promote health care seeking behavior. Specific objectives: • Increase knowledge and awareness of risky behavior and predisposing factors that facilitate HIV infections among the women and men in the informal worksites. • Encourage increase correct and consistent use of condoms among men and women in the informal worksites. • Reduce the number of sexual partners among men and women in the informal worksites • Increase utilization of STI care, VCT, MCH, RH/FP among the men and women in informal worksites

4. ACTIVITIES.

a) Stakeholders’ sensitization meetings. This will involve meetings with key stakeholders in the identified informal groups for purposes of sensitization and advocacy. REPACTED will endeavor to engage stakeholders at all levels of implementation. This includes salon and kinyozi owners, garage and car wash workers and owners, the Nakuru Golf Club. Sensitization will include sharing of the BMS report findings and other national studies such as Kenya AIDS Indicators Survey (KAIS), Modes of Transmission (MOT) study.

b) Rapid assessment, Mapping and clustering: REPACTED will conduct a rapid assessment, mapping and clustering of the informal sector in Nakuru North, Nakuru Central, Njoro, Rongai and Molo districts. The exercise will employ simple forms to establish number of motor garage and car washers’ workers, salon and kinyozi workers and security guards in the specified areas. Additionally, we will establish the existence of health facilities in the area for linkage and referral purposes.

c) Peer education and Peer educators’ forums: Garage, car wash, salon and kinyozi workers and Golf Caddies will be selected and trained on peer education. Through peer education people will use triggers for creating discussions to educate one another about the risks of HIV infection and ways of preventing infection, caring and supporting those who are in need. This will be at group and one on one level.

Peer educators will be trained by REPACTED project staff using the APHIA II peer education curriculum with technical assistance by APHIA II project. Selected volunteers will be oriented on the programme objectives, their roles and responsibilities to reduce high expectation and high dropout rate. Peer educators will perform other duties such as referrals, reporting, organizing and participating in special events such as the World AIDS Day (WAD).

REPACTED will organize and host monthly peer educators’ forums. The forums will primarily act as a platform for Experience sharing, Technical updates, Focused group discussions, Thematic team building exercises (simple sports activities) and Life skill demonstration forums.

d) Integrated Health Outreaches/Worksite skill demonstration forums: REPACTED/Trained peer educators will conduct monthly integrated health outreaches in specific venues and times in Nakuru town and its environs. This will promote the utilization of community and facility based services and increases the number of garage and car wash workers, salon and kinyozi workers and security guards who know their HIV status, Counseling and testing for HIV services, STI screening and treatment services, TB screening among others. For services that cannot be provided at the outreaches, clients will be referred to collaborating health facilities for further treatment.

e) I.E.C materials development and distribution. Materials will be designed and distributed to educate and advocate for health seeking behaviors as well as create demand for information beyond prevention among the populations. Information and messages will be packed in form of bronchures, fliers and posters, murals at the garages and on T-shirts targeting informal sector operators and the general population. Information addressed in these materials will include primary prevention of HIV, RH and FP, MCH, TB, ART, PMTCT, opportunistic infections and post exposure prophylaxis for rape management.

f) Drop in centres: The drop in centres will offer easy access to health related information, through video shows newsprints, Magazines, one on one and group sessions. They will have recreational facilities like in door games and act as a social meeting place that will offer an alternative to bar visits after work.

g) Condom promotion and distribution Condoms will be sourced from the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders. In order to ensure easy access to condoms, male condoms will be distributed by peer educators, identified outlets in identified hotspots and social places where most of the target population spend their time. To ensure appropriate storage of condoms, condom dispensers will be installed in the targeted condom outlets.

h) Linkages and networking. REPACED will establish linkages and networks with but not limited to, health facilities in order for garage & car wash, salon and kinyozi workers, Golf Caddies to have easy access to services and commodities. Quarterly thematic meetings for informal sector programme coordinators and other networking opportunities will be initiated to offer a forum for technical updates and experience sharing.

5. MONITORING AND EVALUATION. Peer educators will fill in the weekly session diary highlighting on group, one on one session, referrals and condom distribution. Data collected will contribute to the monthly and quarterly reports hat capture programme progress and success stories. Regular field visits and monthly supervisory meeting for quality assurance and quality improvement will be conducted. This will go along way in addressing emerging issues and making critical decisions about the programme. Data will be captured and managed using existing APHIA II tools both manually and electronically.

Activity Process outcome and indicator Target Source of data Frequency of reporting Sensitize stakeholders # of stakeholder meetings held. 2 reports Monthly Peer Educators Training # of peer educators trained 40 reports Monthly Peer educators forums #of forums held 7 reports Monthly PE sessions # of sessions conducted 5760 Weekly Session Diaries Weekly/ Monthly/ Quarterly PE referrals # of referrals made 4000 Weekly Session Diaries Weekly/ Monthly/ Quarterly Conduct comprehensive health outreaches # of people reached in the outreaches 21,600 Monthly reports Monthly CT programmes during the outreaches # of people tested for HIV 2,440 Monthly reports Monthly Worksite skill demonstration forum # of forums held 280 Monthly reports Monthly Supervisory meetings # of supervisory meetings held 6 Monthly reports Monthly/ Quarterly Condom distribution # of condoms distributed 10,000 Monthly Monthly/ Quarterly I.E.C distribution # of I.E.C materials distributed 3,000 Monthly Monthly/ Quarterly 6. GANT CHART/ WORKPLAN- REPACTED.

ACTIVITIES BY MONTH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ACTIVITY 1. RAPID ASSESSMENT, MAPPING AND CLUSTERING. Activity 1.1. Organize visits to garage & car wash workers, security guards, salon and kinyozi workers to introduce project, seek support for implementation, propose meetings with representatives and request statistics on target populations in the target areas. X Activity 1.2. Visit principle health care facility to identify public and private medical centres in the area. X ACTIVITY 2. STAKEHOLDERS’ SENSITIZATION MEETINGS Activity 2.1. Recruitment of representatives in the following groups: car & garage operators, food vendors, Spare part sellers, Golf Caddies and salon & kinyozi. X Activity 2.2. 2 Informational sessions to formally introduce project, explain objectives and activities, ask for input and collaboration. X

ACTIVITY 3. PEER EDUCATION AND PEER EDUCATORS’ FORUMS Activity 3.1. Strategy meeting to decide on targets, curriculum, schedule for training and open forum discussion events. X Activity 3.2. Informing beneficiaries of dates and times of training. X Activity 3.3. 2 training sessions with target groups’ representatives present during stakeholders’ sensitization meetings. X Activity 3.4. Open forum discussions facilitated by garage & car wash workers, Food vendors, salon & kinyozi, Golf Caddies and supervised by REPACTED staff. X Activity 3.5. Peer educators forums targeting trained peer educators X X X X X Activity 3.6. Special events- TBA but some possibilities include WAD to PED. X X ACTIVITY 4. INTEGRATED HEALTH OUTREACHES. Activity 4.1. Planning for health outreaches with project staff (logistics, venues, securing medical health professionals for VCT testing). X X X X X X X Activity 4.2. Consolidating list of health service centres for client referral. X Activity 4.3. Weekly health outreaches. X X X X X X X Activity 4.4 Worksite skill demonstration forums X X X X X X ACTIVITY 5. I.E.C MATERIAL DEVELOPMENT. Activity 5.1. Capacity building sessions with APHIA II/ USAID staff. X Activity 5.2. Meetings with target groups/ garage and car wash workers. Salons & kinyozi and Golf caddies to elicit responses and incorporate feedback in messaging. X Activity 5.3. I.E.C development (possible mediums: T-shirts, pamphlets, overall for target groups, stickers for garages and car washing shades, salons & kinyozi). X Activity 5.4. I.E.C production X Activity 5.5. I.E.C distribution X ACTIVITY 6. CONDOM PROMOTION AND DISTRIBUTION. Activity 6.1. Meetings with MOH representatives to pitch the idea and to secure condoms and source for the dispensers. X Activity 6.2. Hotspots for condom distributions identified during initial assessments. X Activity 6.3. Installation of dispensers and condom distribution. X X X X X X X ACTIVITY 7. LINKAGES AND NETWORKING. Activity 7.1. Identify appropriate actors for relationship building. X X Activity 7.2. Periodic meetings between local programme coordinators and local organizations to share experiences and create inter-institutional linkages. X X Activity 7.3. Mapping exercise. Document created with list of organizations contacted, areas of work, contact details. X X X ACTIVITY 8. MONITORING AND EVALUATION. Activity 8.1. Capacity building sessions with members of APHIA II to become acquainted with monitoring tools and reporting templates required by donor. X Activity 8.2. Monthly supervisory meetings X X X X X X X Activity 8.3. Bi-weekly field visits X X X X X X Activity 8.4. Final report and impact assessment X

WAD Wrap Up Dec 16th, 2009 by odu | 0

BUILD UP TO WAD

According to the results from the KAIS (Kenya AIDS Indicators Survey 2007) report 7.4 percent of Kenyan adults age 15-64 are infected with the HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. According to the survey more than 1.4 million Kenyans are living with HIV and AIDS. 36% of Kenyan adults ages 15-64 have tested at least once for HIV and have received the results; nearly two thirds reported never having tested for HIV and are therefore unaware of their HIV status. 80% of all HIV positive adults have no idea that they are infected while 77% of Kenyan adults in all partnerships do not know their partners status. With the current changing trends in HIV infection there is great need for one know his/her HIV status.

PRISON OUTREACHES

To honor the theme of this year’s World AIDS Day “Universal Access and Human Rights” REPACTED in partnership with the Nakuru GK Prisons kicked off build up activities by organizing four days of free HIV Counseling and testing targeting the inmates, officers and their families and the surrounding community at the Nakuru GK prison. Prisoners are people too therefore it is a human right to access reproductive health information including information on HIV and AIDS. REPACTED visited the Male and female prisons, twice (over the first three days) and this time went a step further by staging an outreach at the wardens living quarters on the final day.

Bureaucracy had been a major hindrance to REPACTED’s access to the male prison mostly due to reasons and occurrences from the past and other places within the prisons department as a whole. This hurdle was finally surpassed and REPACTED was able to stage a comprehensive outreach on the 26th of November 2009 to encourage the prisoners and the wardens to go for the HIV counseling testing services sourced and made available by REPACTED and the Prisons department. At the first call for the inmates to be tested, someone in the crowd shouted “Hiyo ni ya wagonjwa” meaning that is for the sick. This was quickly responded to from within the audience itself during the post performance discussion with the conclusion downplaying the comment.

REPACTED’s magnet outreaches in the prison have developed into Talent Arena for the inmates who are welcome to present their skits and comedies including music. They get to develop prevention messages and present them through these various means to their fellow inmates. In the women’s prison inmates group themselves and even take time to rehearse their pieces capturing the theme of the day and targeting the woman and their lives at home in caring for their family. It is quite clear that they have learnt to empower each other and nurture their talents that they have within them as they prepare to go back to their homes and families. As they perform, they elicit discussions and comments surrounding risky behavior among the inmates, their status, effects and consequences including the risk they may put to their family members when they are released. They feel honored to see REPACTED members watching their various presentations as they do their best to outdo them. It has proved to be quite effective telling by the numbers achieved at the end of the four day initiative.

At the staff quarters REPACTED noted the various challenges that the wardens are faced with because of working away from their homes. Also there is stigma around the wardens and surrounding community’s perception on people going to get tested. According to some of them being seen by the community going for testing gave people the idea that they might be indulging in immoral behavior and thereby a small number turned up for the testing in the day but large numbers came for the same service during the moonlight activity.

By the world aids day the VCT councilors had managed to test about a total of 1214 inmates, officers and their family members.

MR. AND MISS RED RIBBON

On 28th of November the Nakuru town headed for Bontana Hotel for the Mr. and Miss red ribbon pageant. The event was organized jointly by Repacted Kenya assisted by Voice of Roses and the National Aids Control Council. Its participants were drawn from different community based organizations, indiscriminate of their status, background and age. The participants took up to three weeks preparing for the event and undergoing peer education training and care of the HIV/AIDS infected. When the participants finally took to the runway over the blue waters of the Bontana swimming pool it was nothing but colorful, not only in the dressing that they put on in line with their understanding of the course of the Mr. and miss red ribbon. The event attracted more than 1000 youths and young at heart within Nakuru town.

There were performances by groups such as the V.O.R dancers, comedies by the unique theatre, REPACTED’s Sawwa dancers & MC Jex among others. The M.Cs of the day Michael Kamunya (Playmaker group) and Collins Denis Oduor (Repacted Kenya) kept the audience on their feet.

The guest speaker of the day Miss Maureen Anyango gave a testimony of her life with HIV/AIDS since her infection at eighteen years of age, the discovery, her denial and her eventual acceptance of her status and the various challenges she faced from the community. She called out for people to get tested in order to discover their status and take appropriate steps to protect themselves. At the end of the event, Peter Okola and Mary Nyokabi were crowned Mr. and Miss Red Ribbon amidst screams, cheers and applause by the audience.

WAD

On 1 December REPACTED members joined the rest of the residents of Nakuru in a procession from the Rift Valley provincial office and went through the town mobilizing the members of the community to participate in this annual celebration of the fight of against HIV and AIDS. The procession which was led by the Salvation Army band included prison officers, the scouts, and various youth groups within the town such as FHOK, Genesis arts group, rescue reforms and Matatu association.

The Nyayo Gardens was the day’s platform of performance and speeches as the various groups took part in promoting the theme of the day as it echoed the call for universal access and human rights. Various stands were erected to explain to people of the various activities carried out by the organizations such as Red Cross Kenya, St Trizza, an orphan school in Nakuru town and the vct stand which was the focal point of our crusade as it also explained to people the importance of testing as well as breaking the stigma surrounding VCT. The V.C.T. tents were busy with long queues as people were eager to know there status.

It was also noted by Mr. Obi Obiero that the youth and children in community remain at risk in the community and needed be looked upon. he said glue being sold to the street children was affecting their decision making in the society and thereby indulging in risky behaviors that may lead to HIV/AIDS infections. The same was also echoed by the KANCO coordinator as he called intervention by the administration government to help stop the clubs that were allowing students under age into their premises and there by indulging in alcohol drinking and putting them at risk of infection.

At the end of day it was a successful event that attracted more than 2500 people to the grounds and tested more than 700 people.

Is it true the Dennis is no longer part of REPACTED?!