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Haiti

• Country Overview/Project Background
• Major Accomplishments
• Activities
• Materials

COUNTRY OVERVIEW AND PROJECT BACKGROUND

HIV/AIDS has had a more severe impact in Haiti than in any other country in Latin America and the Caribbean. As of 1999, AIDS was the leading cause of death in Haiti, accounting for as much as 20.5% of all deaths in certain age groups (UNAIDS/WHO 2002). The Haitian population is very young, with more than 55% under 20 years old (US Bureau of the Census, 2004). Intermittent political turmoil and the suspension of aid by international donors have impaired the government’s ability to respond to the epidemic and forced non-governmental organizations to take the lead in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Despite these difficulties, a wide variety of organizations and government agencies continue to implement HIV/AIDS programs in the country. Although the efforts of the organizations working with HIV/AIDS in Haiti do seem to have produced positive results, risk perception and preventive behaviors remain low, particularly among youth.

The overall goals of the Haiti HCP program have included the following: fostering the development of a sustainable, supportive environment for HIV prevention and stigma reduction; promoting community-wide change through community dialogue and collective action; and promoting healthy sexual behaviors at the individual-level through BCC and social support. HCP Haiti achieved these goals through three strategic approaches:

1. Providing technical leadership and capacity building through support of the Ministry of Health’s national HIV/AIDS program and through the Groupe Technique, an inter-agency technical working group for HIV/AIDS behavior change communication
2. Supporting “Added-Value Interventions” that reinforce the work of multiple institutions around the four USAID program pillars: prevention, services and treatment, advocacy, and community mobilization
3. Multi-media communication interventions on stigma reduction and risk management to reflect and stimulate community efforts and interpersonal communication.

A modified mandate and severe political turmoil across the country have challenged HCP/Haiti. Building on new PEPFAR/Haiti orientations, HCP’s role has shifted to focus more on prevention, particularly ABY interventions while supporting the National AIDS program in the coordination and technical support to youth programs. In the implementation of this new mandate, a major challenge was to support the development of a strategic HIV/AIDS prevention BCC framework with all partners to ensure synergy between ABY and non-ABY interventions. Linking prevention to services has also been key in reducing HIV/AIDS among youth and the general population. Cross-cutting activities such as research and capacity building support and enhance the above activities.

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

HCP provided assistance to the Groupe Technique (GT), a central HIV/AIDS coordination mechanism and a strong foundation for technical leadership to effectively support the national HIV/AIDS BCC program in Haiti. Through the GT, HCP conducted an inventory of ongoing HIV/AIDS BCC interventions in Haiti and identified gaps and added-value interventions that would further reinforce the national effort.

To further support HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, HCP supported planning and coordination of the launch of a national campaign to promote VCT and PMTCT services. In order to further reduce stigma and discrimination, HCP partnered with POZ, an organization supporting PLHA, and other PLHA support groups in four departments to develop interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination. HCP also conducted a stigma and discrimination reduction training for service providers and conducted subsequent training sessions with providers in several departments. Youth-related interventions included finalizing the national youth peer educator guidelines and organizing a capacity building workshop in youth message and materials development with a view to launching a national youth HIV/AIDS campaign.

The Haiti youth strategy focused on

1. Teaching skills to young children (10-14 years old) for appropriate behavior development
2. Promoting social norms of health and safe behaviors
3. Strengthening parents’ ability to communicate adequately with their children about sexuality, sex and HIV prevention
4. Promoting AB to adolescents and youth in and out of school (ABY)
5. Strengthening training and monitoring and evaluation of BCC interventions

HCP also supported 12 local organizations in planning and implementing interventions identified in the ABY strategy by using a combination of channels. Through interpersonal communication (IPC), and community outreach programs, young people have been reached with messages promoting abstinence and the reduction of sexual partners. Community outreach has taken many forms: educational sessions, group discussion, conferences, debates, rallies, theme camps, and info-entertainment days, among other. HCP also provided training and capacity building to local partners to ensure effectiveness of interventions and sustainability of infrastructures that deliver prevention services to youth. In collaboration with the Youth Division of MOH, HCP launched a youth campaign, focused on risk perception and risk management, AB prevention, and parent-child dialogue. Many media materials such as audio and video spots and jingles were developed and aired at the national level along with the 20-episode radio program, Paran Pitit Ann Pale (“Parents and Children, Let’s Talk”), which also aired on a network of 24 community radio stations. To create a supportive environment for behavior change, HCP also designed, with the involvement of young people, an interactive radio program aimed at reinforcing positive social norms in the communities.

Through the HCP mechanism, CCP as prime partner of Creative Partnership (CP), a consortium including the International HIV and AIDS Alliance, FOSREF, World Relief, and the national Boy Scout association conducted a project aiming at reducing HIV prevention by promoting AB among youth. CP built on the previous work and experience of HCP to achieve the project goal. CP reproduced all AB materials developed in Year 4 and also continued with the mass media interventions and the community outreach program. As part of its scope of work, CP developed interventions with vulnerable children, specifically street children and young domestics, mainly around building life-skills of children aged 10-17 for HIV prevention. Peer education strategy has been the main approach used for reaching them. CP developed materials to educate them on sexuality and other relevant means of HIV prevention. CP has also advocated for a supportive environment for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in catchment areas covered by its partners.

ACTIVITIES

1. Youth, Families, and Communities Supporting Abstinence/Be faithful for Youth (ABY) Interventions in Haiti
2. Quality Improvement and Promotion of HIV-Related Health Services
3. Community Care and Support and Social Inclusion

See All Haiti Materials

Note about materials: Some of the materials and resources listed on each page are available in their full form, others are represented by image or citation only. For more information and resources, go to www.jhuccp.org