Love Life, Talk, and Live A Twinning Partnership between DePaul University, Chicago and Kenyan Episc

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Love Life, Talk, and LiveA Twinning
Partnership between DePaul University,
Chicagoand Kenyan Episcopal Conference-Catholic
Secretariat, Nairobi

• Presented by
• Alexandra Murphy, Ph.D.
• Department of Communication
• Director, Community Service Studies
• DePaul University

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Background on Kenya and HIV

• Kenya has been among the most critically impacted
  African countries with regard to HIV infection.
• Approximately 1.25 million adults and over
  100,000 children in Kenya alone are believed to
  be living with HIV.
• National trends indicate that the annual number
  of AIDS deaths continues to rise steeply and has
  doubled over the past six years to about 150,000
  deaths per year.
• These rates, though overwhelming, are
  nevertheless severely underestimated,
  particularly given that only 14 of Kenyan adults
  are aware of their HIV status.

• The majority of new infections in Kenya
• occur among youth and young adults,
• especially young women aged 1524 and
• young men under the age of 30 (UNAIDS,
• 2005)

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HIV Prevention for Youth

• HIV prevention should begin early before patterns
  of risky behavior become established.
• Kenyas Free Primary Education Policy, which was
  implemented in January 2003, opened up
  opportunities for disadvantaged and marginalized
  children who had never attended school to now
  attend school.
• These primary schools provide an opportunity to
  reach large numbers of children who may be at
  risk for HIV infection.
• In Kenya, large number of both private and public
  schools are sponsored by the Catholic Church.
• Thus, Catholic-sponsored primary schools are an
  ideal venue for reaching large numbers of
  children with HIV prevention messages and skills.
  

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The Partnership

• Who is DePaul?
• Catholic, Vincentian, Urban
• Largest Catholic University (23,000 students)
• Located in Chicago, IL
• Recent University Reviews rank DePaul as
  community and diversity focused
• Who is KEC-CS?
• The Catholic Secretariat is administrative arm of
  Kenyan Episcopal Conference. Oversees 15
  Commissions including Health and Education to
  administer programs hospitals and educational
  institutions

• DePaul Executive Team
• Gary Harper, Ph.D., MPH
• Alexandra Murphy, Ph.D.
• Leah Neubauer, BA
• KEC-CS Executive Team
• Augusta Muthigani, MA
• Magnus Bruening, MA
• Julius Ruto, BA

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Abstinence and Behavior Change for Youth

• The program provides standard prevention
  information and activities related to HIV/AIDS
  that are outlined in the Republic of Kenya
  Ministry of Education Science Technologys
  National AIDS Education Syllabus for Schools and
  Colleges.
• The current program incorporates the elements
  recommended by leading academic literature and is
  focused on primary school children ages 10-13.
• In order to make the program more relevant to the
  children served in Catholic-sponsored primary
  schools, it also explores Christian Values and
  African Values that support the prevention of
  HIV.
• The intervention seeks to give accurate
  information to youth about HIV/AIDS, thereby
  encouraging them to refrain from high risk
  activities. Even more importantly, the program
  seeks to get young people to break the cultural
  taboo and talk about HIV/AIDS.

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Love Life, Talk and Live!

• Two main objectives
• School-Based Curriculum To increase capacity of
  KEC to support teachers in the implementation of
  the school-based curriculum on abstinence and
  behavior change
• 2. Mass Media Messages To increase capacity of
  KEC-CS in the development and implementation of
  youth-focused radio messages and newspaper
  articles related to abstinence and behavioral
  change
• Some of the initial work we did was to link these
  two components together with a hook. We
  brainstormed with KEC-CS and came up with a list
  of possibilities. The students chose the winner
  Love Life, Talk, and Live!

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Objective 1 School-Based Curriculum

• Targets 10-13 year olds in Catholic schools. 26
  dioceses in Kenya. 46,000 students targeted for
  training.
• Covers six key content areas
• abstinence and behavior change,
• self-awareness
• relationships
• sexuality
• substance use
• HIV/AIDS

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Involves Teachers, Parents, and Community Leaders

• Teams of teachers from each school are trained in
  the curriculum. 800-1000 teachers targeted for
  training
• Note Also encourages open conversations about
  HIV/AIDS beyond the target audience, as teachers,
  parents, and community leaders who participate in
  intervention training workshops clarify their own
  understanding of HIV/AIDS and start conversations
  in their own relationships and communities.

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Involves Students

• Curriculum is highly participative
• Encourages students to interact, to create plays,
  poetry, posters, etc. to encourage talk about
  HIV/AIDS

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DePauls Role with School Curriculum

• Provided workshops on youth behavior change, HIV,
  and ME
• Revised the current curriculum, provided more
  developed Teaching Guide. Includes posters,
  brochure, activities, etc.
• Created an ME plan, including an ABY monitoring
  form, Community Change form, and Family Change
  form, and a Site Visit form.
• Set up an SPSS data set and coordinated a
  relationship with Tangaza College for students to
  analyze KEC-CS data.

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Brochure created as teaching resource

• Brochure content developed in collaboration with
  U.S. and Kenyan partners (still being
  finalized)covers main sections of the
  curriculum.
• Students were invited to review for feedback
• Cartoons designed by local, Kenyan artist in
  consultation with students.
• Brochure is a critical resource for schoolsmay
  be only physical take-away students will have.

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Posters to be Created as Teaching Resource

• Posters are under development to complement the
  program.
• One will cover major information in the brochure
  related to abstinence.
• Another, will be an interactive process that
  youth and teachers will create together. It will
  have 50 lines and the youth will come up with
  ways to remain abstinent or things to do in order
  to be abstinent.
• There will also be a contest run among schools to
  submit their ideas on remaining abstinent. A
  poster will be created from the winning ideas and
  KEC-CS will give recognition for each winning
  school at the bottom of the poster.

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Objective 2 Mass Media Messages

• Messages are being aired on Radio Waumini, a
  Catholic radio station located in Nairobi, Kenya
  that also plays to surrounding communities.
  Approximately 500,000 listeners in target
  audience
• Messages are directly connected to the students
  and the curriculum.
• Students are asked what kinds of prevention
  messages they find persuasive
• Youth are recorded at schools talking about the
  issues and voices, poetry, skits, etc. are used
  in the radio messages.

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DePauls Role in Mass Media Messages

• Provided workshops on communication theories, PSA
  production, creating youth friendly messages,
  using student involvement in PSA production.
• Provided sample PSAs
• Created listenership survey and evaluation plan
• Connected the mass media messaging with the
  school curriculum with the hook, Love Life,
  Talk, and Live

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New Initiative Peer-to-Peer Talking Groups

• Talking groups at the schools will be created
  to increase the peer to peer interaction on
  curriculum topics.
• Group conversations will emphasize lessons in the
  curriculum and radio messages, increase
  face-to-face interactions on the issues, and
  provide an avenue for social networking.
• All of these are important to long-term
  behavioral change with health communication
  campaigns.

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Strengths

• Multidisciplinary team. Drawing from psychology,
  communication, media studies, education, and
  health professionals. Executive team of three,
  core team of five additional people, consultant
  list of over 30 people.
• Cultural exchanges. The Executive Team has been
  able to conduct on-site visits to observe and
  interview teachers and students about the
  curriculum. The KEC-CS group will visit Chicago
  for the first time in October.
• Institutional Alignment and Support. The work
  with KEC-CS directly aligns with the mission of
  DePaul University. Our work has benefited from
  connections made by others at the University
  through the newly developed Institute of East
  African Collaboration. The University President
  recently visited Kenya to learn about this work
  and other projects in Kenya.
• Camaraderie. The key members of the partnership
  have developed a wonderful, collaborative,
  exciting, and fun relationship. Much of this had
  been due to the cultural exchanges. This has
  allowed us to trust and respect each other and
  has made us all want to work hard to keep the
  partnership on track.

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Challenges

• Communication. Much happens during our
  face-to-face cultural exchanges. Difficult in
  between to stay in contact. Email and telephone
  not always reliable.
• Geography. Due to time and expense, the whole
  core team has not been able to participate in the
  cultural exchanges. Also difficult to travel
  within Kenyan for site visits
• Multiple Stakeholders. Many other parties are
  related to the project. Sometimes difficult to
  know roles and responsibilities when others are
  involved. Twinning Center helps facilitate these
  relationships with other in-country stakeholders
  and government groups.
• Time. This work is volunteer work. It takes a
  lot of time and energy. Although we are
  supported by DePaul, our full-time jobs and
  commitments dont stop. That said, the work has
  been incredibly rewarding and more and more
  DePaul employees are asking to join in.

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Conclusion

• In areas like Kenya where HIV/AIDS is prevalent,
  individuals may knowor think they knowthe
  facts. They do not, however, talk about AIDS.
  More than just disseminating facts to encourage
  youth to change high-risk behaviors, this
  intervention facilitates interpersonal
  communication at group and community levels,
  breaking the silence surrounding HIV/AIDS, and
  allowing people to clarify their knowledge of
  HIV/AIDS and what it means in their communities.
• The partnership has been incredibly successful
  and rewarding. It has also been very work and
  time intensive. It take coordination and support
  at multiple levels to make it work. It also
  requires strong administrative support to fulfill
  requirements of both the work and the funding
  agency.
• This partnership also allows an opportunity to
  utilize resources and expertise in HIV/AIDS
  prevention and communication from DePaul
  University in conjunction with KEC-CS extensive
  knowledge of the country and community.

Having a good discussion is like having
riches-Kenyan Proverb