The US embassy has awarded nearly 20000 us -dollar grant to OCE to further her efforts towards achieving a free generation in Uganda. This grant is for a 12 months HIV prevention Project for boda boda drivers & Intimate Partners in Lyantonde.  This project is targeted for an increased uptake of HIV prevention services and reduce on the high incidence of intimate partner violence among boda boda drivers due economic strain attributed to Covid 19 and lock down. The goal of the project is to reduce HIV incidence, improve HIV treatment and care uptake, and reduce intimate partner violence among boda drivers and their partners in Lyantonde district.  This project will be implemented in the Lyantonde town with the Highest HIV prevalence of 19% as opposed to 7.3% national estimates

Project sustainability

 The project will engage district stakeholders throughout each objective and will be supportive of integrating priorities into district development plan, increasing the sense of local, community ownership of the project. The trained male boda drivers’ champions and peer educators will remain a community resource and act as behavioural change agents. They will continue disseminating HIV/AIDS information and gender-based violence prevention messages to their fellow boda boda drivers and partners beyond project completion, and will inspire new champions over time. The project will build improved working relationships between the priority population and HIV health facilities in the district, and will inspire learning between community KPs and health care providers. The District Health Department will be engaged and it is hoped that the best practices and lessons learned from this project shall be integrated in their routine operations. OCE is based in Lyantonde Town council, therefore will remain in touch with the project beneficiaries to continue education and linkage to care/programs, and will integrate project successes into other program interventions

Innovation

Males and young men boda drivers are a priority population in HIV/AIDS service delivery. There have been limited interventions targeting this particular group in Lyantonde district, and it is rare that programs utilize KPs as the leaders of successful HIV prevention, treatment, and care implementation. The use of male champions and peer educators among our target beneficiaries is a new strategy in bridging the gap that has been existing in scaling up differentiated HIV service delivery to this priority population. Finally, it is important to target the root cause of a problem to eradicate it, and the root of gender-based violence is a power imbalance whereby males use violence to control relationships and circumstance and also financial stress and inadequate communication skills that influence some males to turn to violence to gain a sense of control. Our project will target the root cause of GBV by training males in financial literacy, shared decision-making and power in relationships, and healthy communication and behaviors to manage distress and relational strain that are alternative to violence.