Compendium of Christian Projects Addressing the Diseases of Poverty

 

Project/Program name:
Anti-STDs/ AIDS Youth International (ASAYI)


Country: Operational in Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo with contact persons awaiting for training in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, United Kingdom, Finland, United States, China, and India.

Church or denomination: ASAYI works as an interdenominational and interfaith group offering its services to churches, schools, colleges, universities, workplaces, orphans and vulnerable children, and people living positively with the HIV.

Project summary: ASAYI is committed to addressing sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases locally identified as a health problem as well as unwanted pregnancies and abortions.  The organization maintains a special focus on youth, adolescents, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), workplace and churches. This is achieved through Information Education Communication (IEC), care and support, and operations research in collaboration with stakeholders working towards the same goal.

Background/ History: The ASAYI Ministry was initiated in 1989 by a young medical student, Patrick M.T. Makelele who received a calling from God through a vision at the University of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The following medical students are the four co-founders: Gearges K. Mubalamate, P.Lutala, P.Lobo, and Y.Kazumba. After completing their medical studies they have remained committed to the vision.

Today ASAYI is comprised of a multidisciplinary team of young medical doctors, nurses, clinical officers, lawyers, journalists, soldiers, teachers, pastors, other clergy people, students, orphans, people living with HIV/AIDS from various local communities in formal and informal sector. ASAYI is non-governmental organization (NGO), a scientific, philosophical and spiritual youth support movement.  It is recognized by AIDS programs at all levels as a youth movement which sensitizes youths as implementers or capacity builders in HIV interventions and adolescent reproductive health and rights programs. It has been operational and registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo since1989 and 1997 in Zambia as a national organization with contact people in other countries.

ASAYI does not interfere in the internal affairs of a church, a company or a country. It promotes networking with other local organizations and works in partnership with other stakeholders. ASAYI collaborates with churches, schools, corporate health programs and structures that are already established and defined by the primary health care system in the local community, for example the health center and/or health district. ASAYI works with Foundation for Better Health, addressing health problems in the community using local resources and the Problem Solving for Better Health process.

Goals: Behavior change for better health and integral human development

Objectives:
  1. Promote behavior change for better health among the youth in and out of school settings, in churches and workplaces
  2. Increase awareness of STDs, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases as well as unplanned pregnancy and abortion in the community among young people, in churches, schools and workplaces
  3. Promote Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) as a behavior change strategy and for responsible and realistic lifestyle choices, encouraging VCT for youth before marriage to make responsible choices in their premarital decision
  4. Increase knowledge on normal physical and psychological human growth, human relationships and love among young boys and girls
  5. Support and care for the vulnerable and affected people in the community as a secondary prevention approach
  6. Co-ordinate youth efforts in the fight against STDs, HIV/AIDS, and abortion and raise the voice for youth recommendations in the community
  7. Conduct operations research to help youth, churches, schools and workplaces to identify their risk behaviors and put in place realistic interventions to achieve positive behavior change while considering local realities
  8. Renew the mind of youths and adolescents regarding boy-girl relationships, love conception and youth survival skills
  9. Renew the mind and attitude of workers in different companies and believers in churches towards the value of life and work in a development context
  10. Encourage workers, churches and youth to donate blood for blood transfusion where blood bank facilities are operational and safe
  11. Create a dialogue at family level between parents and children to address social life skills and sexuality in a positive context
  12. Encourage youth to consider their positive traditions, norms and values in the society and identify those that have a negative and positive impact on human development

Who does the work? ASAYI programs are oriented in the area of prevention and care and support when possible. ASAYI mobilizes local volunteers with two to three staff at the district level. The Coordination Committee has the following six strategic departments to carry out the work:
1.    Information Education Communication (IEC)
2.    Production of educational and promotional materials
3.    Care and support
4.    Operational research
5.    Monitoring and evaluation
6.    Fundraising

Main activities: ASAYI has developed original approaches of identifying problem and seeking solutions among the youth communities, in churches and workplaces through problem solving for better health process.  Verbal and non-verbal communication methods are used. The following methods are being applied in other areas and countries upon a request for a special training.

The ASAYI Code -Help Us To Help You Method is a rapid needs assessment tool before starting any community sensitization: Two indicators SPL (Sexual Practice Level) and UCL (Use of Condom Level) are used to define the problem.

The ASAYI Tree Model is used to sensitize the community in small groups with interpersonal communication.  We consider fruits and leaves as STDs, AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion, the trunk as risk and means of getting these things and roots as factors and co-factors to the above risk on community and individual level.

Other practical teaching methods include: Teaching STDs/AIDS/Sexuality/Human Relationships through Mathematics, an integrated health education into mathematics course; Youth To Youth Method; Cartoon Drawings and Stories; ASAYI Minibus Station Method; Decision Point and ASAYI Angle Method; Round about Robot Method; ASAYI Cup Method; and pocket calendar with Alarm Signs and Symptom of STDs. If one would like to learn more about the above methods, ASAYI can be contacted for a training seminar.

Expected outcomes: N/A

Results:  ASAYI has successfully organized more than 2,000 health talks and conferences since 1989 with different categories of young people on STDs, HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases, reproductive health, gender and other rights related subjects in more than 10 countries.  The project has done counseling for more than 1,000 young people and more than 500 workers in Africa. Through this experience in youth health education and promotion, ASAYI has developed original methods and approaches in HIV/AIDS and adolescent reproductive health education that are being shared locally and internationally.

In Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, ASAYI has organized HIV/AIDS awareness with more than hundred local churches. From a behavior change perspective, ASAYI has managed to reduce the sexual practice among adolescents from 30% to 5% using its original method in identification of the problem and solving it through the ASAYI Tree Model.  These figures were derived from a 2 year pilot study presented at the World AIDS Conference DURBAN 1998 and Public Health World Federation Beijing 2000 among youth and adolescents. ASAYI has been organizing World AIDS Day activities every year in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo since 1989 and in Kitwe, Zambia since1997.  

The organization has embarked on the production of educational and promotional materials adapted on local realities. ASAYI is taking care of two positive youths in Lubumbashi and one in Kitwe and has screened more than 300 chronically ill patients in Chimwemwe compound in the Ndola Diocese Home-Based Care Program Kitwe in an on-going program.  ASAYI is now initiating home-based care programs in Kamitondo and Buchi, not reached by the existing program. ASAYI has also opened a Youth Centre in Kitwe for youth counseling, voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, care for single teenage mothers and their children, sports and other recreation activities.

ASAYI has published more than five cartoons, educating local populations of the Democratic Republic of Congo. ASAYI has embarked in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in workplaces. They have successfully achieved workplace peer education in Zambia’s National breweries as a pilot project. ASAYI has established an HIV/AIDS consulting department for churches, schools and workplaces. In addition, ASAYI has participated and contributed to many international conferences.

Lessons learned:
  1. Sex and reproductive health education for youth and adolescents is an emergency for the current generation; South-South and North-South co-operation in a partnership context of mutual respect is needed.
  2. Pastors and church leaders need to be sensitized before starting church programs.
  3. Support without willingness, self-motivation and commitment is a waste of resources like building without a foundation.
  4. Resources should be allocated to programs that are realistic and have measurable outcomes for monitoring and evaluation.
  5. Donor agencies should not indicate and define the problem on behalf of the community or implementers who are on the ground in a specific community.
  6. Among youth there are positive behaviors that should be promoted like abstinence,
  7. not as a prescription but as a negotiated and complimented approach with other skills needed to consolidate abstinence practices among responsible human beings.
  8. Heath districts should work closely with all NGOs and community-based organizations to provide support, supervision and offer technical assistance where it is needed.
  9. Networking is very much needed at all levels.
  10. Involving key stakeholders and parents at the beginning of youth education programs facilitates access to adolescent and youth groups in a specific community.
  11. Committed and well-trained peer educators who are competent and realistic are needed. They should receive refresher training annually. Students should be considered as part-time peer educators and expected to deliver services only when they are available. The criteria of selecting peer educators are very important and the involvement of the local community in the selection is critical.  
  12. All stakeholders involved in youth peer education in an urban or rural district should meet regularly to evaluate, share their experiences and learn from each other to avoid controversy and duplicating efforts for the same target.  
 
Funding and other resources: The funding for ASAYI comes from local available resources, individual contributions, local partners and donors. Membership and affiliation are open to any individual or institution. ASAYI assures local available resources before seeking external help.  

Further reading and other documents: N/A

Contact information:
Dr Patrick  M.T. Makelele, ASAYI Director
P.O.Box 20155
Kitwe
Zambia      

Telephone: +096 782956,  +096 786076, +096 909925
E-Mail: pmakelele@hotmail.com