South Africa School-Based Sexuality and HIV Prevention Education Activity

(EDC) in consortium with the Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD). The program aims to increase the number of teachers qualified to teach sexuality education, strengthen the Department of Basic Education's (DBE) capacity to provide education and training for teachers, and improve the quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs. The program focuses on seven provinces and 14 districts with high HIV infection rates and disease burden. The objectives of the program are to increase the number of teachers qualified to teach sexuality education, strengthen DBE's capacity to provide education and training for teachers, improve the quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs, improve learner knowledge and achievement in targeted areas of the life skills program, increase DBE's capacity to work in partnership with the Department of Health to implement the Integrated School Health Program, reduce teenage pregnancy levels, and increase retention of girls in school. In the first quarter of year seven, the program achieved several milestones. The EDC team trained 1,080 Life Skills and Life Orientation (LS/LO) educators in 10 of the 14 implementation districts. The training reached 549 schools, with 410 of them being new schools. The training in Buffalo City, Lejwelele, Sedibeng, and Gert Sibande is planned for the third quarter. The program also facilitated mentoring and coaching of educators on the Sex and Life Skills Program (SLP) implementation, facilitated parents' engagement sessions on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) for 927 parents and community members, and facilitated CSE orientation for 247 principals and 30 circuit managers. The program also collected SLP implementation data and recorded qualitative stories, worked with other DREAMS partners to create referral pathways and relevant tools in various districts, coached technical staff on mobile data collection, recruited staff to fill the DREAMS District Manager (DDM) positions in all 14 districts, conducted risk and vulnerability assessments to identify orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in the target schools and referred them to partners to enroll them in primary and secondary DREAMS package of services, linked learners to services to reduce the vulnerabilities of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in implementing districts, and submitted the support material to the Department of Basic Education. The program also implemented the following activities: identified schools with the most vulnerable learners with the district officials, participated in USAID DREAMS introductory meetings with provincial departments to introduce CSE as a primary package in DREAMS, trained 89 LS and LO Departmental Heads in how to implement and support educators in SLP implementation, held SLP Training of Trainer (TOT) sessions for 167 DoE Officials across seven districts, and communicated with all provinces and fast-tracked the appointments of learner support agents (LSAs). The program also continued to adapt the educator training for virtual platforms in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also presented the CSE implementation to the G2G team and held SMT orientation sessions in several districts. The program also facilitated SMT orientation sessions in King Cetshwayo, Alfred Nzo East and West, Ehlanzeni, Mopani, and Capricorn districts, and facilitated parents' engagement sessions in Alfred Nzo and Johannesburg East districts. The program has made significant progress in achieving its objectives, including training educators, strengthening DBE's capacity, and improving the quality of school-based sexuality and HIV education programs. The program has also made progress in reducing teenage pregnancy levels and increasing retention of girls in school.