Modification of agreement [(amendment no. 3) between the Asociacion Guatemalteca de Educacion Sexual (AGES) and AID]

Under the extension, AGES will increase the number of Mayan communities it serves from 8 to 13. Specific activities will be in four areas. (1) AGES will expand its successful urban Family Life Education Program, training some 2,000 additional youth counselors to provide family life education to other youth and organized groups. (2) To further test the hypothesis that female education through the primary grades affects fertility and maternal/child health (MCH), AGES will grant primary school scholarships to an additional 1,935 Mayan girls aged 8-15 to encourage them to remain in school and to discourage early marriage and pregnancy. AGES will also receive TA to develop a life skills training curriculum as an alternative for girls who do not wish to continue in school. (3) AGES will also develop and test materials and hypotheses related to: the integration of MCH topics into the Family Life Education Program; urban youths" awareness of AIDS risks and preventive measures; methodologies to train traditional birth attendants to integrate MCH/family planning strategies; and new communications methods to promote child survival products and services in AGES communities, with emphasis on rural communities in the Altiplano. The information, education, and communication (IEC) resource base resulting from this component will enable AGES to play an important development role in the project. (4) Grant funds will also be used to implement recommendations, made in a recent institutional management study of AGES, in the areas of long-term organizational planning, clarification of job descriptions, and establishment of equitable pay scales, and to finance the contracting of 11 new staff members. (5) Finally, funding is provided for limited remodeling of meeting areas in all the communities which AGES will serve during the project extension period. The number of AGES" clients for all programs will total 183,900.