Community-based support for orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe: Achievements of local partners
Intermediary organisation the Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) managed grants to three community- and faith-based organisations, who conducted initiatives such as community camps for children, agricultural and livestock activities to support families (such as a goat project), training on child-centred methodologies and the establishment of children’s clubs.
The grants to local partners enabled them to train staff and community members, while also carrying out activities that responded to the particular needs of children in each location. The programme also focused on strengthening organisational leadership and capacity, with both the Alliance and SAT providing targeted technical assistance to individual partners through collective training workshops, as well as exchange visits and mentoring relationships. Partners’ organisational systems were improved and strategic plans developed, with a longer-term vision enabling partners to have a clearer sense of the direction and aims of their projects.
Partners were trained to develop integrated, child-centered services, where children are involved in decision-making and implementation of activities and where interventions are owned by communities. The toolkit Building Blocks was used as a conceptual framework and its thematic areas chosen to respond to beneficiaries and their most pressing concerns. The resources available to those working with children in the country were also expanded through the production of Shona and Ndebele versions of Building Blocks and the development of other training resources.
Esandleni Sothando Trust (EST), adapted the Salvation Army Masiye Camp’s model of community camps for children. This demonstrated the advantages of holding children’s camps within the community as opposed to running psychosocial support camps in locations far from children’s homes. These camps were cost-effective and had an inbuilt continuity of support for the children from the local schools where the camps were held and from the community volunteers who provide supervision and other support throughout. Community members identified the need for a manual to guide facilitators, as well as a participants’ workbook where children can note issues discussed. These resources will be finalised during 2007 and will assist other organisations and community groups to run psychosocial support camps for children within their own communities.
The Zimbabwean Orphans through Extended Hands (ZOE), a network of faith-based organisations that coordinates support to vulnerable children alongside its direct support to affected families and child-headed households, runs a training programme for church leaders and volunteers. With the support of the Alliance, ZOE embraced the concept of child-centred programming and incorporated the essence of the methodology into all aspects of their programme. While challenging to individuals who have been accustomed to making decisions on behalf of children, the approach has improved how the organisation supports orphans and other vulnerable children.
Feedback provided by church leaders and community members identified the need for additional resources supporting the continued use and roll out of the methodology used during the training they had received. With a regional consultant and the Alliance’s technical input, a Child participation training of trainers guide for ZOE was finalised and will be made available on the Alliance’s website.
