The SHARP Programme (Sensible, Healthy and Responsible People)
Project Activities
The SHARP Programme endeavours to act on the recommendations of the National AIDS Review, held in July 1997, in regard to training, education and empowerment of communities.
It is envisaged that communities with little social infrastructure apart from schools and clinics will be reached. Youth from these communities will under go training and provide paid full-time community service in schools for most of the scheduled school days during the year.
A Joint Project Committee of departmental officials including district master trainers, SAPLER field managers, the administrator and executive director will be established This body will monitor all aspects of sexuality-education and sexual health care within the project. Project activities are:
· Pioneers will conduct classroom workshops, (ideally, a double period for each class in the school every week) to impart and test sexuality knowledge directly. However, most of the time pioneers will facilitate learners’ role-plays, group discussions, debates, tasks, and games. Specific outcomes, in accordance with OBE 2005 policy, will be sought such that learners will be informed, confident and self respecting about all aspects of their own sexuality and able to manage their lives successfully.
· Pioneers will attend a weekly meeting in their district or circuit to plan the classroom workshop ahead and review the one just past. Activities such as role plays suggested on the on workshop plan will be anticipated and reviewed so that workshop techniques are continually improved and pioneers creativity is continually stimulated.
· Pioneers will annotate and submit documentation arising from the week’s workshops activity, such as discussion group notes and motions for debate, at the weekly planning and review meeting, for immediate review by the field managers and transmission to the administrator. In principle, documentation should be produced directly from the activity as reliable evidence of the outcome. The administrator will oversee systematic recording so that it is readily accessible by stakeholders.
· Pioneers and field managers will assist learners with private problems in private interviews, consult the guidance counsellor where appropriate, provide condoms and make referrals to clinics and other agencies. Brief notes on such assistance should be submitted at the weekly planning and review meeting.
· Pioneers will familiarise themselves with local culture, class and gender issues, discuss these with the guidance counsellor and field manager, make notes and submit these to the weekly planning and review meeting.
· Pioneers will be remunerated at a standard hourly rate, calculated for the duration of the school day, for attendance on days when classroom workshops are scheduled (and certain other days) and paid electronically monthly by the administrator on receipt of support documentation.
· The Department’s master trainers and SAPLER field managers, in consultation with school managers (principals), will endeavour to schedule a double period workshop time slot for every class every school week, as much as possible.
· Field managers, in consultation with the guidance counsellor, master trainers and other stakeholders will undertake recruitment and screening of new pioneers. They will assist pioneers’ training at local venues by professional trainers from NICDAM who have undergone the Department’s training for master trainers. They may also assist other accredited training.
· Field managers, in consultation with guidance counsellors and district master trainers, will conduct monitoring visits to schools and submit reports to the administrator.
· Field managers, in consultation with guidance counsellors and district master trainers, and assisted by the administrator, will develop partnerships of schools with clinics, including the development of statistics by which they can measure success of the project at a school.
· Field managers, in consultation with the administrator and sister organisations under the NICDAM umbrella, will endeavour to provide pioneers with related training, skills and work during school holidays and during afternoons.
· The administrator will schedule, monitor and oversee recruitment, training, monitoring and evaluation of pioneers and collate documentation on workshop plans and emerging local issues. In consultation with the executive director, information will be summarised and communicated to relevant stakeholders and where appropriate, meetings will be arranged to discuss specific issues.
· The administrator will liase with the department and experts in sister organisations under the NICDAM umbrella to ensure that accredited training, curricula and methods are utilised or developed for pioneers and other participants and requisite permission is obtained. Where necessary, arrangements with tertiary institutions and other organisations will be made to provide services.
· The executive director, in consultation with the administrator and other stakeholders, will seek funding for the project, communicate with organisations engaged in similar work and promote the project in civil society to share ideas, avoid duplication of effort, maximise scarce talent and resources and promote effective solutions to relevant issues.