Faithful House Program Ethiopia Presented at The Christian Connection for International Health Conference Baltimore, USA May, 2009 By Dr.Dehab Belay CRS Ethiopia

What is The Faithful House ? Building strong marriage and families to affirm life and avoid risk A fundamental importance for mutual fidelity and partner reduction in preventing the prevalence of HIV. A vital contribution to the health and well being of individuals, couples and families.

Target groups: Married and co-habitating couples Engaged and intending couples Young adult or singles to reinforce chastity and develop life skills Parents to assist them in teaching chastity to their children

In ECC structures, through parish catechists, youth leaders, laity leaders etc. Flexible implementation modality, regular time after mass or on weekly basis are options used. The program is owned and implemented by ECS and diocesan offices Central coordination and regular technical support is given by the national team. Implementation approach:

Exhaustive discussions held among CRS, ECS, Diocese and communities Experience sharing visit was made by 3 people from CRS & ECS to Ugandan FH program. Report of visit was shared with other CRS, ECS and diocesan staff Feasibility assessment was conducted in 2 selected dioceses and up to 3 parishes under each diocese Draft implementation strategy was developed based on the assessments results and the Ugandan experience. Accomplishment: Preparation

Accomplishment (cont’d) The Faithful House manual was adopted to Ethiopian context. Training of approximately 30 facilitators (ToF) was conducted centrally with the support from MLI & MLU. The program launched in all 5 dioceses.

Results 1,281 couples and other community members have been reached Trained couples and community members have reached 8,146 peer contacts. Translation of the FH manual in to local language is now finalized. Integration and mainstreaming already stated with the family desk of each diocese and ECS.

Highly appreciated by participants, they say, “We have attended many trainings and workshops, but TFH is very different…” Woreda police members have requested and attended the full session FH along with their spouses. Response from Participants

Sustainability FH is integrated into family desk of ECS Family desk does not require additional funding but capacity building to run the program, Part of the evangelization of the church Integrated into the church's social service e.g pre- marital counseling Support from the high level church authorities – the bishops

Uniqueness of TFH in the Ethiopian context  TFH functioned as a wake-up call for the need of post marital counseling service by the church  Highly appreciated and supported by the highest level of Church administration (Bishops)  Muslims and members of the Orthodox church have undergone training together (Adigrat)  Muslims willingness to adapt the curriculum when funds are available  Approach – does not necessarily require that couples meet away from home.  TFH implementation highly flexible (goes where interested couple are)

Busy schedules of volunteer facilitators In the beginning of implementation, was difficult for both parents to abandon the household at the same time in order to attend the training together. High demand but difficult to meet due to lack of accessibility (some parishes geographic locations). Limited budget to run the program as required. Financial expectations by a few facilitatorss Challenges/Constraints:

The FAITHFULL HOUSE IN EAST AFRICA Rwanda: are currently conducting operational research in order to determine the best individuals to train for reaching couples in the community and increasing program sustainability. Uganda: the program has expanded to CVT and treatment programs where over 3,000 sero-negative and discordant couples have experienced the training on a slight modigied version of the curriculum

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