The intervention components include:

• Informational messages that reflect the content of the structured group counseling curriculum and are posted to the Facebook group wall on a regular basis for approximately 4 to 5 months
• Moderated, closed group chats in a "secret" Facebook group where YLHIV can interact with their peers and with a trained support group facilitator
• Access to a trained facilitator via Facebook Messenger for the duration of the intervention who will be able to provide information or basic counseling on ART/HIV care related issues, with referral to health care services as needed

All study participants, in both study arms, will receive standard services currently available to YLHIV in these facilities and communities. The services currently include: routine clinical care for HIV treatment including laboratory testing (CD4, viral load tests); active case management by community volunteers with intensive adherence support during the first 4 weeks of ART; adherence support through phone calls and SMS (short messaging service) reminders; and enhanced adherence counseling for patients with unsuppressed viral loads.

SMART Connections: Trained facilitators will deliver key informational messages and moderate online group discussions. The informational messages have been developed from key messages identified in each of the Positive Connections curriculum sessions. Each SMART Connections group will consist of approximately 15 to 20 YLHIV. Each online support group will begin with one in-person group meeting with the facilitator. During this meeting, participants meet one another and the facilitators. Facilitators will describe the intervention and set ground rules for participation. Ground rules will be discussed and accepted by the group members, but at a minimum, group members will be advised not to talk about what is discussed in the online group with people outside of the group.

This main outcome is defined as the proportion of study participants retained in clinical HIV services and on treatment at 12 months after enrollment. We will abstract data from the clinic electronic medical record system on date of all visits, which are typically monthly, to ART services between enrollment and the end-line of this study.

Retention is defined as having attended a scheduled HIV clinic visit within three months of the visit date. For our primary analysis, using a survival analysis approach, we will record the dates for all scheduled clinic visits for each participant, then follow the data up to three months from the date of the last visit attended. If a participant fails to return after a scheduled visit for more than three months, the date of the missed visit will be the date of loss to follow-up recorded, unless a death or transfer of service is documented.

To measure social support, we will use the Medical Outcomes Study - Social Support Survey (MOS-SSS).The MOS-SSS is a 19-item scale that covers the dimensions of emotional/informational (8 items), affectionate (3 items) and tangible (4 items) social support in addition to positive social interaction (3 items), and one additional item. Each item is measured on a 4 point Likert-type scale.From the scale a total SS score is calculated by summing the items. A transformed score can be calculated for total SS or each dimension by taking the raw score (total summed score), subtracting the number of items for the score and dividing by the total possible score for those items.