Guidelines

The President’s Initiative

The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) is a historic global program to provide treatment, prevention and care for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. In Uganda, the PEPFAR program is implemented by five U.S. Government agencies, which include the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Defense, Department of State, Peace Corps, and the United States Agency for International Development. The PEPFAR program in Uganda provides treatment to over 200,000 people, reduces HIV infections, and provides care and support for over 400,000 individuals.

Community Grants Program

The Community Grants Program to Combat HIV/AIDS, which is funded by PEPFAR, seeks to assist communities and local Ugandan grass root organizations with small-scale development projects to provide care and support to people living with HIV/AIDS (PHA) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Community Grants are not intended to fund private profit-making activities or foreign based organizations.

Applications are due to the Small Grants Office by February 1 2012.  

It is vital that you follow the form of our application and answer all questions in a clear and concise manner.  We do not want to receive a duplicate application that you have prepared for a different funding source. You have Part 1: Cover Sheet; Part 2: Project Description that is a ten pages limit to answer the questions about your program, and then include all supporting documents. Since we receive so many applications, we will only consider those that carefully follow the new format and answer all our questions, without too much detail.  We want to consider all applications equally and require the same form to make that possible.

The project should:

• Address an immediate need and have a demonstrable impact on the quality of life of the target population of OVC or PHA.
• Be community driven.
• Permit quick implementation and impact. Projects must be completed within one year.  
• Be sustainable.  Programs should be capable of continuing on their own after the program ends.  (Salaries, office rent, etc., do not generally demonstrate sustainability).
• Be conducted by legally registered Ugandan organizations.
• Have measurable results. The project needs to be able to quantify and report on the number of PHAs and/or OVCs served with the funding received.

Community Grants fall into one of two categories:

Support for OVCs: For the purpose of the Community Grants Program to Combat HIV/AIDS, orphans are children under age 18 with one or both parents deceased, whether to HIV/AIDS or other causes. Vulnerable children are children under age 18 who are in circumstances that expose them to various dangers, such as economic, social and sexual exploitation.  Projects should benefit OVCs and their households, who are affected by HIV/AIDS.

Projects which include sustainable activities in a minimum of three of the following Core Areas are given preference.  Following each core area are examples of activities in that area.

• Economic Strengthening: vocational training, income generating activities, business management training, or related activity.  OVC and households should have a say in which activity they will do.
• Legal Aid Services and Protection Services: strengthen and support structures that enforce child protection; support legislation and enforcement of vital registration of births, deaths, and other events important for OVC protection.  Programs should empower communities to identify, prevent and respond to children in need of protection.  
• Food Security and Nutrition: nutrition through gardening/farming, or related nutrition activity;  establish school or kitchen feeding programs.  Activities should be appropriate to the condition/age/needs of the beneficiary.
• Care and Support including Shelter: temporary emergency assistance such as bedding, clothing; providing access to clean water, essential shelter, or related activity.
• Education and/or Vocational Training: promoting access to early childhood, primary and secondary education; creating systems to provide scholastic and non-scholastic materials which allow the child to remain in school; providing vocational training and start up kits. Home and school visits to assess OVC who are performing poorly or not attending school.  
• Psychological, Spiritual, or Social Services: developing programs to support counseling services for HIV positive youth and OVCs suffering from anxiety, grief, trauma; establishing child/family friendly recreational facilities; or related activity.
• Health Care: programs that meet general health needs, immunizations, malaria prevention, age-appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention activities, sanitation and hygiene, or related activity. Health Teams activities should link OVC households to more health services and referrals.

**Programs should try to provide comprehensive benefits to OVC and their households through coordination, networking, collaboration, and referrals to other services.

Support for PHAs: these may include, but are not limited to, projects that  fall into the following areas: 

• Clinical Care: is provided by nurses, midwives, clinical officers, community and volunteer health workers and physicians.  It includes a wide range of treatment and care including, HIV testing and counseling, treatment of opportunistic infections, routine monitoring of anti-retroviral therapy, prophylaxis treatment or related activity.
• Psychological Care: family care and support groups, support for disclosure of HIV status, bereavement care and treatment of HIV-related psychiatric illnesses, such as depression and related anxieties, or related activity.
• Social Care: income generating activities, vocational training in viable and marketable skills, nutrition, housing, efforts to reduce stigma, 
• Prevention Care Services: prevention services designed to prevent transmission of HIV to others via prevention messages focused on disclosure, partner testing, correct and consistent condom use for PHA, or related activity. Access to safe water and sanitation systems, or related activity.  Home based care services which support PHA/families in any of the above areas may also be funded.

Selection Process

The Small Grants Coordinators conduct preliminary reviews and select a shortlist of applicants based on the following selection criteria:

• Technical merits of the application;
• The target number of OVC and/or PHAs who will benefit from the funding;
• Cost-effectiveness and cost realism of the application; 
• Past performance of the applicant; and
• Submitting all required documents and following our format.

Preliminary reviews may include a site visit. A shortlist is then presented to an internal review committee for final selection. If your project is considered for funding, you will need to provide quotations from vendors for items to be purchased.  Grants are awarded for a one year period.  The maximum grant award is the equivalent of $25,000.

Projects that are accepted will receive their first portion of funding in October.  Grant awards are disbursed in Ugandan shillings at the prevailing exchange rate on the day of payment.  You must account for the funds you have spent by submitting receipts before remaining funds are distributed.  Additionally, each project accepted for funding must report details of its results twice a year (March 31 and September 30) on specific forms.  For example, an OVC care program might report that over the last year 75 OVCs received food support, shelter, and healthcare.  These numbers reveal the work that the project has accomplished and demonstrate measurable results.

Contact Information

If your organization has a project that falls within the Community Grants Program guidelines, we encourage you to complete the application and send it to:

Small Grants Coordinator
American Embassy
P.O. Box 7007
Kampala

In case of any questions, please contact the Small Grants Office, U.S. Embassy Kampala, tel: 0414-259-791 ext. 6421/6444/6141, email: kampalapepfar@state.gov or visit our website at http://kampala.usembassy.gov/grants_programs.html