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LIBERIA PROJECT FOR OUR CAI IME HIV/AIDS
PROJECT
1. Organization and Contact
Persons:
a. Full Name of Implementing Organization and
Address
The Church Aid Incorporated (CAI) Community Outreach Program (COP) b. Region, state and country of the people being impacted by the project: The Republic of
Liberia
c. Project Type: STEMING HIV/AIDS IN LIBERIA d. Project Cost: $58,910 2. Project
Summary
Church Aid Inc (CAI), a legally registered and
accredited Christian NGO in Liberia in
collaboration with the nationally reputable 16
years old relief and development
organization, the Concerned Christian Community
(CCC) and the 30-member Fellowship
of Apostolic Pentecostal Assemblies (FAPA), the
mission agency of New Water in the
Desert Assembly (NWIDA) proposes a one-year
exercise to sensitize churches/communities
across rural Liberia about the prevalence and
effect of the deadly disease, HIVAIDS and the
campaign against stigmatization and discrimination.
The 14 years of civil war has immensely
contributed to the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in
Liberia. This is even attested to by the newly
inducted President of Liberia, Her Excellency Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf when she launched a
recent new public awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS in
Liberia. “HIV/AIDS is now a serious
problem in Liberia”, the President reported, adding
that HIV prevalence is about 12% in the
general population and higher among women and
children. The United Nations AIDS agency
had reported in of 2003 that about 5.9% of
Liberians were HIV-positive, just after the serious
battle in the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Three
years later, infection rate has climbed to an all-
time high of 12% of the population. This means that
approximately 1 out of every 9 Liberians
is HIV-positive.
The second consideration is the need to do
something to undermine the increasing prevalence
of the deadly disease. The Church as the largest
non-governmental group within Liberia has
been called upon by the Government, United Nations
and other stakeholders to take front
stage in the fight against AIDS in Liberia. People
believe and understandably so, that with
the spread of the church across the country
especially within main cities of the 15 provinces,
that a public awareness campaign of the Church
using the Christian community at the
community level will yield maximum results in this
challenging fight against the pandemic.
Predicated on the call to churches to get involve
in the fight against AIDS, CAI proposes
to use her regional coordination structure through
her Community Outreach program to
provide pastors and evangelists adequate public
awareness on HIV/AIDS so they will be
able to reach out to their congregations and
communities to spread the message and
stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in Liberia. The
exercise is proposed to begin with five 3-day
TRAINING OF TRAINERS (TOT) Workshops for about 500
(five hundred) pastors and
evangelists from five regions of rural
Liberia.
3. Critical needs to be met by the
project:
As President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf noted, “our
sexual behavior, contribution and interactions
with those who come with the peacekeeping forces,
all increase the incidence of AIDS” in
Liberia. The civil war also left in its tray
poverty, which many think is a catalyst for fueling
the spread of the disease in Liberia. The other
consideration is that information on the
spread of HIV/AIDS is inadequate so some conclude
it’s a myth. Others in Liberia argued
that “AIDS” stand for “American Idea to Discourage
Sex”
The other issues include the big questions about
stigmatization and discrimination. Some
people hold notions about the spread of the disease
that contribute to victims either shying
away from speaking out or reaching out for
treatment. They fear they could be discriminated
and stigmatized. There is the economic factor to
the effect of the disease. It affects first the
family, immediate community and the nation. It robs
it of human and material resource. By
largely targeting youth, the disease seeks to
destroy the very fabric of our society thereby
stalling economic growth. Someone argued recently
that “the seriousness of the impact
depends not only on the numbers infected and
directly affected by HIV, but also on the
resources available to cope with the situation,
whether at family, community or national
level”
There is therefore a need for a strong community
mobilization program in Liberia to respond
to the threat of HIV at the family, community and
national–FCN levels. But to mobilize
against AIDS, people must be aware of their
individual and collective vulnerability, have a
realistic idea of the options open to them to
reduce this vulnerability, and be encouraged
to pool their resources together to take actions
agreed upon.
This is exactly what Church Aid Incorporated (CAI)
community outreach program in collaboration
with her local partners, CCC and FAPA, proposes to
do.
4. Past Track Record & Project
Leadership and Experience
4.1 Has your organization done this project
before? If yes, what were the fruits and
measurable result? How many people were directly
impacted?
Church Aid Incorporated is the relief and
development arm of New Water in the Desert. It is
engaged in several programs including skills
training, literacy, agriculture, micro-enterprise
development, HIV/AIDS awareness, etc. CAI supports
the Mariama Z. Brown Church Health
Center (CHC), which is directly responsible for the
implementation of its program.
CCC formal inauguration as a Liberian NGO dates
back to 1990 when the concept, which
developed into present day CCC was born as a direct
consequence of friendly overtures
amongst a few local Christians in western Liberia
which geared towards strengthening
fellowship amongst Christians which unity the civil
war strongly undermined.
When discussions developed in November 1990, the
civil war had already engulfed the entire
western region, the socio-economic and political
structures had broken down, while many
Liberians fled for their lives and a few Christian
ministers dared the situation to open their
parishes. Food was scarce; so was Medicare. Travel
between western Liberia and Monrovia,
Liberia’s capital was completely cut-off. Banditry
was the order of the day as the countryside
took its share of hunger, looting, rape and
destruction.
That’s when CCC was organized to strengthen the
fellowship of local churches and serve as
beacon of hope for thousands of Liberians and
residents who were occupied with maintaining
their lives through the civil war. The challenges
notwithstanding, God has been faithful. Hence
CCC initial attempt to promote the unity of the
Christian community was bordered as the
war intensified and disrupted basic life-support
services.
With assistance from local and international
organizations, CCC engaged in various programs
to assist the needy. Some of these programs
included food aid distribution, agriculture,
counseling (trauma & hiv/aids) medicare,
education, skills training, income generation, rehabilitation
of schools, health centers, construction &
management of internally displaced & refugee centers,
etc. CCC is focused on the community development.
It is member-driven with activities
decentralized through regional
offices.
The mission of CCC is to organize rural churches
into district fellowship for effective collective action
and offer spiritual and material assistance to the
needy
FAPA is a prayer, evangelism and fellowship
initiative of approximately 30 (thirty) churches and
preaching points in Liberia. The organization is
demarcated into five regions across Liberia, each
headed by a Regional Coordinator.
FAPA invited the National Aids Control Program
(NACP) in Liberia to hold sessions with the 500
delegates attending her annual conference in March
2004 and have since then encouraged pastors
and churches represented at that session to raise
the awareness against the spread of HIV/AIDS
in Liberia, which is also a threat to the potential
of the church in Liberia. This trend has continued
to date. Member churches of the organization
represented at the conference have continued
awareness sessions at their various local
assemblies.
FAPA also administers a Mobile Bible Training
Clinic (MBTC) which moves from region to region
conducting training sessions for pastors,
evangelists, etc on relevant topics to the growth and
advancement of their ministries. FAPA has used this
medium to also message the danger and
spread of the disease. About 100 pastors were
reached during the mobile clinic sessions.
It is based on the positive responses from the
previous sessions that FAPA has decided to expand
the public awareness campaign to the wider
community in order to increase the result of her campaign.
4.2 Who is leading the project and
what previous experience does he/she have to ensure its
success?
The head of this health program is Miss Lester
Holder, a dedicated health worker of more than 20
(twenty) years of service. She con-currently runs a
health center that treats about 250 patients
monthly with a staff of about 15. Their services
include HIV/AIDS Awareness, TB, Anti-Malaria,
EPI, etc.
5. Steps Taken to Solve the Need
(Project Details):
The project would be implemented in five regions of
Liberia. Each region activities will be implemented
in four stages: Stage 1 would be the training of
trainers – pastors and evangelists, etc (TOTs), each
scheduled for three (3) days; Stage Two will be the
church/community meetings – this will run for
three (3) months; while Stage 3 will be the
monitoring, evaluation and Stage 4, reporting period.
Each region TOT would bring together an estimated
average of about 100 persons – pastors,
evangelists, etc, making a total of 500
participants in addition to facilitators, technical aides, CAI
aides, etc. The objective remains the sensitization
of churches and communities at the in the rural
area to appreciate the need for active engagement
in the fight against the spread of the disease.
At the end of each workshop, CAI would require a
brief impression and suggestions on the
workshop from participants. This will help us to
tackle the second part of the project:
1. Community
Meetings
A. Churches within target communities will
organize themselves into church volunteer teams – CVT
and plan and conduct sensitization meetings in
their respective communities of their coverage
following the TOT workshops.
B. Other concern groups, individuals and institutions will participate in these community meetings C. Each CVT will plan not less three meetings for each community. The community will determine the schedule – date and time and venue of the
meeting.
2. General
Monitoring
A. Based on the justification and objectives
of this project, relevant stakeholders – religious and
non-religious will be encouraged to participate in
general monitoring activities of community meetings.
B. The objectives of the monitoring exercise will be to ascertain and ensure that the church committees, and others trained during the workshops are
assisting the churches and communities appreciate the
need for them to actively participate in the fight
against the disease.
C. The monitoring will also ascertain from the community resident’s response to the issue of spread of HIV/AIDS
D. CAI will assist community teams and other community leaders conduct community meetings through representatives of the five (5) regions,
each of whom will be provided transportation allowance
for a twelve-month period.
3. Publicity
A. CAI project will print promotional
materials i.e. t-shirts, posters, billboards, etc in the fight against
the disease.
B. Materials will be distributed proportionally amongst the five (5) regions of the project C. Radio and newspaper messages will also be provided 4. Project Management
A. Project will be headed by a Manager and
assisted by a Secretary and a Book-keeper. Secretary will
be responsible for reports, correspondences, etc
while Book-keeper will specifically be responsible to
keep records of project expenses
B. Project will look in and out of CAI for facilitators of various workshops. C. Project will report to CAI periodically while CAI will report to donor on the project in accordance with agreement.
D. Local churches and communities will be encouraged to help with lodging, etc. 6. Results and
Evaluation
6.1 The number of people who will be
impacted: Directly, 500 pastors and evangelists and through
community outreach, more than 25,000 persons
(average 50 persons per trainee)
6.2 The visible proof that positive change
has occurred (so it can be measured):
A. Adequate information being provided on AIDS
at ‘FCN’ levels
B. Awareness and mitigation measures amongst victimizing groups i.e. Peacekeepers, etc reported spreading disease noted
C. Number of persons reached D. Number of AIDS tips leaflets distributed E. Number of meetings in target communities and churches F. The CAI initiative being publicly acknowledged and churches at the community level increasingly discussing the pandemic
G. The number of churches, pastors and evangelists making inquiry into CAI’s office 6.3 The depth of the
impact
A. Check in the spread of the
disease
B. Undermining of the stigmatization and discrimination against victims C. Destruction of the youth vis-à-vis economic growth of the country seriously undermined D. Churches, pastors and evangelists take center stage in fight against HIV/AIDS I. HIV/AIDS WORKSHOP & COMMUNITY
MOBILIZATION BUDGET
A. Amount requested from IME: How much is IME
being asked to contribute towards the total
project cost: US$53,435 (Fifty three thousand, four
hundred and thirty-five dollars). CAI will
contribute $5,475 towards vehicle rental for
project coordination and community mobilization.
B. Items Requested from IME: How do you plan to use the money? Please list general budget categories
ACTIVITY 1: Support Cost – Supervision and Three-day Training Workshops NO. DESCRIPTIVE OF ACTIVITIES COST 1 Project Management* $8030 2. 500 participants transportation allowance($5/day/2/days-to and fro) $5000 3. Workshop Facilitators (8/person/$25/day/15 days) $3000 4. Technical Aides (8/$15/day/15/days) $1800 5. Stationery /Supplies (assorted items -500 sets of each items) $3000 6. Food-related services($10/person) $5000 7. Computer Programming Services $900 8. Monitoring activitiesOne 4W Pick Up Rental-$40/day/365/days** $14600 9. Fuel & Lubrication: 12-month monitoring(3/gallon/365/$4/gallon)*** $4380 10. Promotional Materials (posters, t-shirts, billboards $3000 Sub-total 48,710 * Project Supervisor@$10/day/365/days=3650; Project Secretary@$7/day/365/days=$2555;
Project Book-keeper@$5/day/365/days=$1825
**Require a rental 4W vehicle to move across country to ensure project success *** Price of fuel is unstable in Liberia. But transportation is a necessity to success of project intended to help reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS.
ACTIVITY II: TRANSPORTATION FOR MEETINGS
NO. DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES 1. Churches meetings & reports stationery, etc 1200 2. 15 County($25/Coordinator/month) 4500 3. 5 coordinators ($75/Region/6/month) 4500 Sub-total 10,200 |
| New Water In The Desert Assembly NWIDA@2007 |
| Song: He knows my name |