HIV / AIDS Prevention

Prevention Program
Food for the Hungry and its partners reach over 1.4 million youth and adults with HIV prevention programming.  Using behavior change methodology, youth and adults meet in peer education meetings promoting sexual abstinence, faithfulness in marriage and behavior change for youth. Community members (teachers, parents, and religious leaders) are also trained in HIV prevention measures through awareness campaigns, sexual abuse prevention workshops, and faithfulness workshops for youth and adults in long-term relationships.  The program includes a large media component where 60-second spots (NOTE:  link to media page where videos are) are seen on TV and radio stations. 

Another program focuses on HIV prevention to enable pregnant and lactating women to prevent transmission of the virus to their child through birth or breastfeeding. Informing these women about their choices and discussing issues such as partner involvement and breastfeeding options enables these women to make the right choices for themselves in a safe, supportive environment.

Food for the Hungry is implementing prevention activities in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Haiti.

 Prevention Strategy

Food for the Hungry begins our programs with barrier analysis surveys to identify the reasons people choose or choose not to be abstinent and/or faithful.  These "reasons" are then used to create behavior change messages that help:

• Youth and adults adapt healthy sexual choices. 
• Create our Prevention curriculum used to train youth leaders and influential adults to reach out to their peers in the community. 

At Food for the Hungry, we are intentional about looking at behavior change and not just the number of people reached with a message.  For example, at the start and end of each 12-month youth peer education program, we use KAP surveys to find out how the program has changed knowledge, attitudes, values and practices of the participating youth.  These measurable behavior changes lead to improved and healthy living and reduction in new HIV cases and help us to monitor progress, adapt our programs, and celebrate successes. 

Cascade Model
Through the cascade model, Food for the Hungry trains thousands of local youth and adults to lead their peers in educational programs. We are not only educating, training, and preparing youth and adults to combat HIV, but equipping them with leadership skills for the future.  We also involve parents, teachers, and influential adults from the community, teaching them how to talk with their youth about HIV and healthy sexual behaviors as well as learning about their own vulnerabilities to HIV. 

Cost Effective Prevention  

The cascade approach is not only an effective teaching and behavior change strategy, but it is also a low-cost intervention. With just one paid staff person, we can reach nearly 200 community members with HIV prevention, equating to monthly educational sessions for a year for nearly 2 million people around the globe. 

Between 2004 and 2009, Food for the Hungry has been able to reach:

• 27,019 adults with messages of healthy long-term relationships (faithfulness)
• Over 1.11 million youth with messages of abstinence and risk reduction. 
• More than 1,000 HIV-infected pregnant mothers with training to prevent mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) of HIV. 

Partners in Prevention
Food for the Hungry often pools our efforts with other Christian organizations to reach a wider audience and capitalize on the strengths of each partner. Below are our partners in prevention:

• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC)
• Foundation for Compassionate American Samaritans (FOCAS)
• Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NCM)
• Operation Blessing International (OBI)
• Salvation Army World Service (SAWSO)
• World Concern (WC)
• World Hope (WH)
• Individual donors
• Approximately 5,000 religious institutions (churches and mosques), over 1,700 schools, 3,000 youth groups, and 850 women's groups and associations.