Abstinence and Risk Avoidance for Youth (ARK) Program

• Project Overview
• Objectives and Strategies
• Activities and Highlights
• Recent News
• Accomplishments to Date
• Future Directions
• Materials and Resources
• Contact Information
• Additional Photographs

Project Overview

In 2005, the Abstinence and Risk Avoidance for Youth Program (ARK) was launched in Kenya, Tanzania, and Haiti, under the direction of primary partner World Vision. This 5-year project focuses on abstinence and mutual faithfulness for HIV prevention among girls age 10-24, with a secondary focus on boys of the same age. Parents, teachers, religious, traditional, and local leaders, service providers, and other adults that interact with youth also benefit from ARK’s efforts.

ARK/Kenya’s in-country partners include the Scripture Union and the Kenya Christian Fellowship. In Tanzania, ARK has partnered with the Tanzania Movement for Children (TMC), and ARK/Haiti is working URBANUS Federation Protestante d’Haiti (FPH) and Volontariat pour le Development de Haiti. ARK is funded by the PEPFAR ABY Mechanism.

Objectives/Strategies

ARK Vision: Healthy and transformed youth who are empowered to practice positive social norms, particularly abstinence and mutual faithfulness in monogamous relationships, within a supportive family and community environment.

The overall objective of ARK is to promote, support, and reinforce abstinence and faithfulness behaviors. These behaviors include:

• Abstinence for youth
• Secondary abstinence for sexually active youth
• Mutual faithfulness in marriage for married youth
• Open communication between youth about sexuality
• Open communication between youth and their partners about sexuality
• Parent – youth communication around abstinence and faithfulness

Activities and Highlights

Group Dialogue: The “melting pot” meeting brings together parents and youth to discuss matters of abstinence and mutual faithfulness. These discussions break down communication barriers and model communication around sensitive topics such as abstinence, life skills decision making, faithfulness, and youth sexuality.

Training: ARK is conducting training for youth and adult populations (religious leaders, teachers, service providers, etc). Trainees form action groups and conduct outreach in their communities, using materials and tools developed by ARK to reach their peers and youth.

Interactive drama: ARK engages its audiences, especially the youth, in training to develop their skills in message development and script writing. They also produce plays which are used in community meetings, schools and other social/public events to educate the youth and adults. ARK mentors and coaches then use discussion guides to facilitate discussion and dialogue on issues emanating from the drama while relating the practical aspects to daily life.

Community radio: Short radio spots and longer interactive discussions are currently being broadcast on community radio stations. The interactive discussions engage experts to speak on ARK key messages, and take questions from youth via a call-in format. To complement radio programming, listener groups have been established in the project sites; the role of these groups is to stimulate discussions among different age groups on abstinence and mutual faithfulness.

ARK Toolkit: The centerpiece of the ARK materials is a toolkit featuring an array of materials that can be used with both adults and youth to promote and support abstinence and mutual faithfulness, lifeskills and behavior change and maintenance among youth. The ARK provides materials such as discussion guides, games, and activities that organizations and individuals working with youth can use to help youth to abstain or be faithful.

Recent News

ARK recently completed draft versions of two ARK-branded, Value-Based Life Planning Skills Guides, for Youth ages 10-14, and 15-24. A training of trainers was conducted during the week of June 12, 2006, and the guides are also being pre-tested. They will be shared with ARK/Haiti for adaptation, once finalized.

ARK is also developing an ARK branded parent-youth communication guide, and training and pre-testing for this guide will follow soon after the youth guides.

ARK Kenya and Tanzania will soon launch a radio serial drama on community radio stations in the areas in which ARK works. The radio drama will be followed by a call-in session during which listener’s will have the chance to express their thoughts on the action in the drama.

Accomplishments to Date

Kenya:
ARK has been training groups of youth and adults using materials developed by PATH (Tuka Pamoja), as well as its faith-based partners Scripture Union and Kenya Student Christian Fellowship.

ARK has also trained drama groups to perform dramas incorporating ARK messages.

ARK has been broadcasting discussion programs on community radio stations which include live call-ins to the host and expert on the day’s program. These have been quite successful, and appeal to both youth and adults. Many of the programs to date have covered issues of youth-adult communication around sexual health.

Tanzania:
Tanzania started up later than Kenya, but implementation is rapidly catching up. Tanzania has been conducting trainings for youth and adults, and has recently launched its radio discussion program on local community radio stations. ARK/Tanzania is working on a plan to reach two of its 5 districts which are quite far from Arusha, and where Tanzania radio stations currently do not reach.

Haiti:
Haiti started up last of all the country programs, and has just recently finished a media assessment of community radio stations, as well as an analysis of existing youth AB materials to determine which were suitable for adaptation for ARK. ARK/Haiti is conducting trainings in June 2006 for field animators, using the Journey of Hope (already in use in Haiti by World Vision and CCP), and Choose Life (World Relief). These trainings will be followed by trainings in community mobilization, parent/child communication, and other ARK-branded materials as they are adapted.

Future Directions

ARK continues to build up the ARK toolkit, and is planning to adapt the Journey of Hope and the Ethiopia Youth Passport (HCP) for use by ARK groups. ARK/Kenya and Tanzania will also begin airing the radio serial drama, ensuring linkages between the radio program and activities at the community level.

Materials and Resources

1. ARK Communication strategy – This communication strategy provides a framework for all communication activities under ARK so that consistent messages and approaches are utilized. It is also important for demonstrating how the various activities are linked and will work together to help impact behavior change, particularly commitment to abstinence, secondary abstinence, faithfulness and risk avoidance and reduction, among youth ages 10 - 24.
   
   ARK targets multiple audiences with different activities and messages. For these activities and messages to produce the desired outcomes (improved skills to practice abstinence and mutual faithfulness and reduced risk of infection) the need to be systematic and deliberate is crucial. The strategy allows the program team and partners to work together to disseminate messages that stimulate the audience, particularly youth ages 10-24, to adopt risk reduction behaviors.

2. Radio discussion guide – This discussion guide is designed to help moderators prepare for and facilitate dialogue among listening groups, in response to the issues raised in the ARK radio program.

3. ARK-branded discussion guides for 10-14 year olds, 15-24 year olds - The discussion guides, intended for use with 10-14 and 15-24 year olds, provide youth mentors and peer educators with an array of tools and activities for addressing issues such as human development, values and behavior, sexual health, relationships, and personal skills. The guides are unique in many ways:

   • They provide spiritual messages that are general and can apply to any religion, and can also be used by young people who are not religious
   • They are value-based. The guides promote positive family, religious, and societal values, motivating young people to develop and uphold healthy behaviors related to abstinence and faithfulness
   • They are for use by youth with other youth to promote positive behavior change and skills development
   • They take youth on a journey of self discovery – it defines where they have come from, who they are, who they want to become/where they want to go, and supports them to develop the skills that will enable them to get there
   • They are easy to use – each section can be used separately or in combination with other sections, depending on need and context

4. ARK-branded parent communication guide - This guide is designed to help parents and responsible adults communicate effectively with their children about sexual health and their futures. The guide provides opportunity for parents and responsible adults to work with young people to practice and model healthy behaviors. Parents and responsible adults are encouraged to develop trusting and supportive relationships with the youth that allows them to openly share their thoughts and feelings regarding their sexual health particularly, and motivates them to take appropriate action to protect themselves from HIV and other sexual risks.
   
   To be truly effective, parents and responsible adults are also encouraged to:

   • Educate themselves and be willing, even when uncomfortable, to talk with youth about issues of sexuality, relationships, love, and commitment;
   • Discuss explicitly with young people ¹ the value of delaying sexual activity and the importance of abstinence in protecting their health;
   • Encourage strong decision making skills by providing the youth with age-appropriate opportunities to make decisions and to experience the consequences of those decisions.

Contact Information

Baltimore: Jennifer Boyle, jboyle@jhuccp.org
Field: Samson Radeny, samson_radeny@wvi.org

Additional Photographs

¹ The terms youth and young people are used interchangeably to refer to people aged 10 -24 years who are the primary target audiences of this guide.