OVC Support Toolkit  >  Running a programme 

Getting Started

This section provides practical tips for organisations wishing to start activities aimed at providing support to orphans and other vulnerable children. It focuses on activities that an NGO/CBO could be involved with. That is projects in a particular local geographical area. However, some documents do discuss issues relating to starting activities across a whole country.

The three areas covered are:

• community mobilisation
• situation analysis and
• registration of vulnerable children in projects

These activities are inter-linked. For example, situation analysis should be more than a technical exercise. It can form a key part of mobilising a community, particularly if it uses participatory approaches. Practical tips for care providers are found in another section. Key points about starting activities are:

1. Activities are most effective when they support existing family and community efforts. This happens best when the community ?owns? the process. This means that the community plays a central role in designing and driving activities. External organisations, such as NGOs, play only a facilitating role.

2. No one way of working fits all situations. Activities need to be designed which fit a particular local area. This means that a local situation analysis should be carried out before starting activities.

3. Projects will need to have a way of deciding who can benefit from their services. This should not be on the basis of international definitions of orphans but on local definitions of vulnerability.

4. NGOs need to decide where to focus their efforts. Things to consider in making this decision are in this section. (CBOs will not usually face this decision since they operate in their own communities.)

Many of the resources in this section are written by people looking into communities from the outside. However, activities need to start from within the community. Outside organisations may support and facilitate this process. They should not impose their own views.

How do NGOs decide which communities to work with?

Things to consider when making this choice include:

• Level of need: What needs exist in the local area? Does the NGO have skills in meeting those needs? Is this need an important one to community members? An NGO might consider some of the following statistics when trying to assess needs of a particular area: - HIV prevalence - The number of children orphaned by AIDS - The number of 'double' orphans - Percentage of households having access to safe water - Percentage of children starting and completing primary education - Income levels
• Presence of other NGOs: Are other NGOs working on these needs in the same area? If so, do the planned activities add to or duplicate existing activities?
• Practical issues: Can NGO staff speak the local language? Can they get into the area with the transport that they have? Do they know people in the area? Have they previously worked there?
• Community activities: Activities are more likely to do well and continue if there is a real interest and commitment to them. This is more likely if activities have already started without outside support.
• Type of community: Some NGOs work with particular communities. For example some work in rural areas and others in towns and cities. Others work with particular groups, such as refugees. This will affect the choice of where to work.
• The capacity and experience of the NGO - a new NGO to a particular local area or one with little or no experience of working with orphans and other vulnerable children might choose to start working in an area that is easy to reach. On the other hand, an NGO with extensive experience might deliberately choose to target an area of particular need even though it may be more difficult to reach.

Information on how to design a project is available in the International HIV/AIDS Alliance's NGO/CBO Support Toolkit

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