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The U.S. Embassy Kampala/PEPFAR Uganda Small Grants Office announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications for a community grants program to combat HIV/AIDS.

Program Objectives

• PEPFAR Uganda invites proposals for projects that do one or more of the following:

  • Promote HIV/AIDS prevention.

  • Address stigma, discrimination and/or gender-based violence (GBV).

  • Promote capacity building of local organizations and community structures to combat HIV.

  • Strengthen democracy and governance related to the national HIV response.

  • Promote HIV care and treatment, and continuity of HIV treatment, with a focus on key and priority populations that are disproportionately impacted by HIV.

Funding Information

• Total Funding available: $310,000 USD

• Award Amounts: Grant Agreements can be between $7,000 and $15,000 USD

• Project Performance Period: Project should be completed in 12 months. Best performing grantees can be renewed for an extra year subject to availability of funding.

• Anticipated project start date: January 2025

• Anticipated Number of Grants to be Awarded: 20 – 25

Types of Projects that will be prioritized:

• Adolescent-friendly sex education and HIV prevention activities, campaigns, and workshops outside of the school day; activities that improve linkage to HIV treatment, support disclosure, treatment continuity and viral load suppression among children and adolescents living with HIV through family counseling and peer groups; youth camps that promote prevention.

• Providing job skills training for women and girls living with HIV.

• Religious leader training programs focused on HIV/AIDS, addressing misinformation about HIV, and building inter-faith networks to support people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV).

• Enrolling and retaining members of key populations (KP) living with HIV in HIV care and treatment and other health services towards the PEPFAR 95-95-95 goal1; providing targeted HIV testing and counseling (HTC) that are accessible to KPs (i.e. mobile counseling and testing, drop-in centers, “hotspots,” and households); promoting an inclusive community view of the legal environment around KP programming; helping KPs know their legal rights and enabling them to advocate for basic human rights; or building capacity within civil society organizations to combat stigma and discrimination.

• Implementing education programs for HIV prevention and awareness, including for key and priority populations.

• Projects targeting males which may include health education, targeted HIV testing and counseling, couples counseling, safer sexual practices, risk reduction counseling, family planning and linking HIV negative male partners to voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programs, and education programs to reduce incidence of GBV.

• Evidence-based programs in positive parenting, positive gender norms training, and treatment continuity support groups; provide education support to ensure school retention, transition and completion targeting highly vulnerable adolescent girls (both HIV infected and affected) at-risk of dropping out of school; provide targeted assistance to children and caregivers that have been survivors of GBV including identification and notification of GBV cases, linkage to health and psychosocial services, and follow-up through the legal redress process; counselling and sensitization to disclosing HIV status.

• Developing networks of PLHIV to increase retention in care and offering access to mental health or psychosocial support services to reduce the risk of developing mood, anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns.

• Approaches to improve awareness, access and use of HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services by people with disabilities (PWD), and inclusion in policy dialogue and decision making.

• Use of technology and social media (WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to target youth; HIV/AIDS education, providers map of facilities for testing and treatment; creating internet hubs to attract beneficiaries.

• Training for local press to effectively cover HIV/AIDS.

• Projects outside of Kampala and Wakiso are particularly encouraged to apply.

Small Grant Activities should:

• Be unique, innovative and be able to clearly show impact and effectiveness.

• Improve basic conditions at the local, community or village level.

• Provide services directly to the community or improve access or referrals to health facilities and services.

• Benefit a substantial number of people in the community.

• Be within the means of the local community to operate and maintain.

• Be conducted by a Ugandan group. Community-Based Organizations, KP-led, women-led, youth-led, faith-based organizations, and groups of people living with HIV/AIDS are encouraged to apply.

• Be focused on long-term community impact and the project must be sustainable on its own or with help from the community when the grant is completed.

• Be able to measure the results of the project (for example, be able to count children or people served; number of volunteers trained; number of people reached during a campaign). Monitoring and evaluation is a key requirement.

Participants and Audiences

• The Small Grants Office welcomes applications from registered non-profit Ugandan organizations such as:

  • Community Based Organizations (CBO)

  • Faith Based Organizations (FBO)

  • Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO).

• Targeted participants/beneficiaries of the PEPFAR Uganda Community Grants to Combat HIV/AIDS for this proposal include the following:

  • Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW)

    • Adolescent Girls and Young Woman (AGYW) are defined as females between ages 10-24. According to UNAIDS Global AIDS Update Report 2023, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, accounting for 63% of the new HIV infections in Eastern and Southern Africa. Young women and girls in Uganda are twice as likely to be living with HIV as boys and men of the same age and account for one in three new infections. Grant applications focused on AGYW should address one or more of the following issues: gender equality and social norms, education, financial empowerment, family planning, income-generating activities and trainings, HIV/AIDS prevention and/or treatment, GBV and sexual assault prevention and counselling, and engaging male partners of HIV+ women.

  • Faith-Based Communities

    • Applications geared towards faith-based communities should focus on building interfaith connections, combatting misinformation by religious communities, faith, and traditional healers, addressing issues of gender equality, social norms that drive HIV, education, financial empowerment, family planning, HIV/AIDS prevention and/or treatment, stigma reduction, GBV and sexual assault prevention and counselling.

  • Key Populations

    • Key and priority populations (KP/PP) include people who are affected by punitive laws, regulations, and policies, severely stigmatized and marginalized, and are disproportionately affected by HIV. Additional information about these populations can be found in the PEPFAR 5-year strategy and PEPFAR Uganda’s Strategic Direction Summary.

    • KP/PP applications should use community-based outreach as an effective method of overcoming challenges. Projects should aim to increase KPs’ access to health services, build capacity within civil society organizations to combat stigma and discrimination, prevent HIV/AIDS in key and priority populations and/or secure human rights.

  • Men and Young Males

    • Ugandan men are a priority population for PEPFAR Uganda Community Grants as recent statistics indicate there are persistent case identification gaps among men, and men engaging in sexual activity with non-marital or cohabitating partners are less likely to use condoms as they age. Grants targeting these individuals could focus on sexual violence prevention; HIV/AIDS prevention; referrals for HIV testing for men in transitory populations such as truck drivers, boda-boda drivers, or fisher folk.

  • Orphans and Vulnerable Children

    • OVCs, under the PEPFAR program, are defined as children 0-17 years of age who have one or more of the following characteristics: have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS; who are otherwise directly affected by HIV; or who live in areas of high HIV prevalence and may be vulnerable to HIV or its socioeconomic effects. OVC applications should emphasize family-centered activities that lessen the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and adolescents, including meeting their most basic needs of health, safety, stability, and schooling, preventing HIV/AIDS, and the reduction of gender-based violence.

  • People Living with HIV (PLHIV)

    • Programs focused on people living with HIV could focus on linkage to treatment, referrals to testing, counselling, access and availability of mental health services or psychosocial support for PLHIV and families, developing networks to increase continuity of care, and income-generating activities. Counseling on disclosure of one’s status to their partner and family, providing mental services to PLHIV to reduce the prevalence of anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns, and reducing stigma are additional key activities.

  • People with Disabilities

    • Programs focused on people living with disabilities could focus on linkage to treatment, referrals to testing, counselling and income-generating activities. Counselling and reducing stigma are additional key activities.

Priority Region

• This program is open to eligible organizations in all districts of Uganda with exception of activities targeting Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) activities in DREAMS districts.

Ineligible

• The following types of projects are not eligible for funding:

  • Projects promoting political or specific religious activity.

  • Construction projects.

  • Lobbying for or against specific legislation.

  • Projects sponsored by an individual or a for-profit organization.

  • Projects focused on adolescent girls (mentoring, income-generating activities, school retention, etc.) in DREAMS districts and cities (Agago District, Apac District, Bukomansimbi District, Fort Portal City, Gomba District, Gulu District, Gulu City, Kalangala District, Kampala District, Kampala City, Kassanda District, Kayunga District, Kwania District, Kyotera District, Lira District, Lira City, Luwero District, Lwengo District, Lyantonde District, Masaka District, Masaka City, Mbarara District, Mbarara City, Mityana District, Mubende District, Mukono District, Omoro District, Oyam District, Rakai District, Sembabule District, Wakiso District).

  • Generalized HIV testing (if done, testing must be targeted to key/priority populations).

Eligibility

• The PEPFAR Small Grants Office welcomes applications from registered non-profit Ugandan organizations such as Community Based Organizations (CBO), Faith Based Organizations (FBO), or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO).

• Organizations selected for funding are required to have a direct impact in their local community and have community support in the form of funding, labor and/or other services. Selected organizations must be able to establish clear performance goals, indicators and timely project deliverables that can be externally verified. Funded organizations are also required to monitor, measure and report results achieved in accordance with PEPFAR’s reporting requirements. Once the grant performance period is complete, the organization’s activities must be sustainable on their own or with other funding from the community and/or other donors.

• For-profit, commercial, or unregistered entities are not eligible to apply.

Post Date: June 07, 2024