New resources for supporting orphans and other vulnerable children

Building Blocks in practice now available in Portuguese and French

Asian guides on support to orphans and vulnerable children

Together with partners in Cambodia (Khana), Thailand (AIDSnet) and India (Chetna), the Alliance has produced three sets of printed resource tools in Khmer, Thai and Hindi, which aim to increase the effectiveness of communities and other local level organisations in their efforts to assist orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

The resource tools are primarily for use by practitioners at national and sub-national level in South East Asia. They include principles and strategies to guide work, as well as short case studies to illustrate ways of working with communities to put the advice into practice. They are supportive of, and complementary to the framework for the protection, care and support of orphans and vulnerable children living in a world with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, UNICEF, 2004).

The development of the guides followed a similar process to the Building Blocks Africa-wide briefing notes, originally published by the Alliance in 2003. This process involved bringing together key experts from across the region to develop draft content, which was then translated, reviewed and revised in the local languages.

New online toolkit launched

The Alliance and FHI have collated resources on orphan support from a wide range of organisations, based on the understanding that there are many good approaches to supporting orphans and vulnerable children. It is intended for use by organisations and individuals currently working with orphans and other vulnerable children and those that are planning to do so.