Issue:
In the Republic of Macedonia, there exists a generally low level of awareness about issues of and relating to HIV/AIDS/STDs. This issue will be addressed by expanding our current MTV SAF campaign of HIV/AIDS/STDs educational trainings, activities and workshops to an additional 16 municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia over the next three years and to also include Advocacy/Lobbying trainings. The municipalities selected have the largest Roma population throughout the nation. Roma is a minority in the Republic of Macedonia and the group is associated with early marriages and low awareness/access to public health institutions and their benefits. For this reason, Roma communities will be targeted in our campaign but our trainings are not exclusive to only Roma participants. However, the youth leading the trainings and workshops will be mainly comprised of Roma youngsters. Trainings will be completed in three phases (in addition to our current initial phase which is soon finished) and each phase will be cumulative with our previous phase’s volunteers training the next group, in the end having over 440 trained and mobile youngsters. Each phase will last the duration of a year’s time. At the conclusion of our campaign, the youth will approach their local governments and school boards and advocate for them to conduct HIV/AIDS/STD workshops regularly in their respective communities and on a national level in the final phase. The Republic of Macedonia has written policies on these issues, however they are not being implemented correctly. For this reason, we feel it is necessary to include advocacy in our campaign to make it sustainable in the future after the conclusion of our project.
This will increase the awareness level in 22 municipalities throughout our country and be sustainable by having each community take over responsibility to continue to address HIV/AIDS/STD issues independently from RROMA’s initial trainings.
Background Information / Demographics:
HIV/AIDS/STD awareness levels:
· After consulting the leading research institution on HIV/AIDS/STD related statistics in the Republic of Macedonia, UNAID.org, it is evident that the database available on accurate and current statistics is quite limited and incomplete. Many of the categories available for analyses state “no data available”. This is why our campaign will include data collection through the distribution and analysis of a pre/post test questionnaire as well as general distribution of informative brochures in each community with which we will be working.
· According to UNAIDS, just over 20% of youth have a general knowledge of higher risk sex, condom use and testing (UNAIDS.org). This again reinforces the need for educational workshops in our nation.
· Additionally, the percentage of young people aware of how to get tested for HIV is just over 2% and limited mainly to the female youth population (UNAIDS.org).
Existing Relevant Government Policies:
· The Republic of Macedonia has a “National Youth Policy” which does include a subheading under ‘health and prevention’ on issues of HIV/AIDS prevention. This also consists of a national strategy on HIV/AIDS prevention as well as a program for protection against HIV/AIDS, supported by the Global Fund. The listed strategy to accomplish their goal is to raise awareness through public media as well as information provided to universities, schools and NGO’s about the consequences of HIV/AIDS locally and world-wide. Additionally, they will provide information to these institutions on prevention methods (SEGA.ORG.MK).
· This policy is not being implemented as it is outlined in the Action Plan provided. This will be proven through the assessment of the knowledge level of students prior to our trainings in their schools. If the level is overwhelmingly low, it is safe to assume that such policies have not actually been implemented in school curriculums. For this reason, our campaign will put pressure on local and national policy makers to implement these policies. If they see youth as active and interested participants in relation to these topics, perhaps they will enforce the policies with more urgency.
· The organization, HERA (Health Education and Research Association), based out of our country’s capital city of Skopje, has been doing significant research in the field of HIV/AIDS research and awareness. A partnership with them would be most beneficial to us, and potentially them as well, as we begin our research and expand our campaign to surrounding municipalities.
· Geographic Region (Separated into phases by start and end date of each group of municipalities.):
These municipalities were selected strategically as they have the largest Roma populations throughout the country. As our project aims at increasing the knowledge level particularly, but not exclusively, in Roma communities, these municipalities were the most promising and ideal for our campaign.
· Phase One: (June 2010 - June 2011) Berovo, Kočani, Kratovo, Probištip, Veles, Vinica.
· Phase Two: (July 2011 - June 2012) Delčevo, Kriva Palanka, Pehčevo, Radoviš, Štip, Strumica, Sveti Nikole.
· Phase Three: (July 2012 – June 2013) Bitola, Gevgelija, Gostivar, Kavadarci, Negotino, Prilep, Tetovo
· Phase Four: (July 2013 – June 2014) Kumanovo, Skopje
· Stakeholders/Outline:
o The main stakeholders of our campaign are the members of our youth NGO, RROMA (Regional Roma Educational Youth Association). We will utilize our current members which include over 40 youth from the north eastern region of the Republic of Macedonia. They will initially be the ones to distribute the questionnaires around each community as well as informative brochures. Around half of them will be trained in order to be able to conduct trainings on their own to their peers in high schools around our region. We will then need to select youth in other municipalities outside of our region in the succeeding phases. These youth will be identified through meeting with young Roma leaders in the high schools we will be working with. We will meet with them and determine who has the characteristics necessary to be effective leaders and trainers in each additional phase of the campaign.
o The same methodology will be used in order to determine which youth will participate in the initial Advocacy/Lobbying training. Again, these youth will be trained and then transfer the knowledge obtained to their peers until we have around 22 trained youngsters who can mobilize around 440 youngsters, who will be able to approach local governing bodies and come together to present our findings on a national scale at the conclusion of our campaign.
· Other external stakeholders outside of our NGO include:
o MTV and the Staying Alive Foundation who provide us with funding as well as material and informational resources for our trainings.
o Local municipalities: potential to aid us in our campaign and implement public policy changes to include HIV/AIDS/STDs workshops on a local level after the conclusion of our campaign.
o Local school boards: potential to make curriculum changes to include HIV/AIDS/STD educational classes for their students, making our project sustainable.
o Other NGOs across our country also involved in HIV/AIDS/STDs related issues. This includes but is not limited to the following organizations:
· Local Red Cross Organizations
· Other Roma NGOs around our country
· H.E.R.A.: Health Education and Research Association
· Citizens’ Association, EGAL
Demographics of Municipal Populations:
| Municipality | Total Population (2009) | Population ages 15-19 (2009) | Population ages 20-24 (2009) | Population ages 15-24 (2009) |
| Phase One | ||||
| Berovo | 13,464 | 912 | 1,052 | 1964 |
| Kočani | 38,172 | 2,593 | 2,832 | 5,425 |
| Kratovo | 9,917 | 696 | 737 | 1433 |
| Probištip | 15,734 | 1,106 | 1,197 | 2,303 |
| Veles | 55,071 | 3,713 | 4,300 | 8,013 |
| Vinica | 19,502 | 1,459 | 1,538 | 2,997 |
| Phase Two | ||||
| Delčevo | 17,055 | 1,148 | 1,348 | 2,496 |
| Kriva Palanka | 20,461 | 1,397 | 1,621 | 3,018 |
| Pehčevo | 5,232 | 368 | 367 | 735 |
| Radoviš | 28,612 | 2,295 | 2,443 | 4,738 |
| Štip | 48,382 | 3,186 | 3,800 | 6,986 |
| Strumica | 55,910 | 3,822 | 4,404 | 8,226 |
| Sveti Nikole | 18,176 | 1,236 | 1,506 | 2,742 |
| Phase Three | ||||
| Bitola | 93,689 | 5,970 | 7,148 | 13,118 |
| Gevgelija | 22,913 | 1,378 | 1,685 | 3,063 |
| Gostivar | 82,425 | 8,099 | 7,774 | 15,873 |
| Kavadarci | 38,994 | 2,504 | 2,944 | 5,448 |
| Negotino | 19,405 | 1,389 | 1,544 | 2,933 |
| Prilep | 76,463 | 5,075 | 5,682 | 10,757 |
| Tetovo | 89,331 | 8,155 | 7,995 | 16,150 |
| Phase Four | ||||
| Kumanovo | 106,993 | 8,169 | 8,650 | 16,819 |
| Total Pop. | 875,901 | 64670 | 70,567 | 135237 |
