ON GOING PROJECTS.
Protection of Children's Health & Rights
Help Children Organization recognises that children cannot reach their full potential unless their basic rights are met, including: love, protection, education, shelter, food and clothing.
Often due to the impact of HIV/AIDS on families and the community, and the resulting associated stigma and discrimination, children are rendered slaves for distant relatives. They are the last to get food and an education and are abandoned, lacking in the most basic of needs.
Help Children Organization has established Community Child Rights Committees in remote rural areas to protect the rights of children and women affected by HIV/AIDS. In areas where HIV prevalence is approximately 35% of the adult population, education about HIV/AIDS and ways in which children and young people can protect themselves is essential now and in the future.
Help Children Organization implements the Child to Child HIV/AIDS health programme which seeks to equip children with knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other health issues within the community, and with the skills they need to protect themselves.
In-school Guidance & Counseling
Help Children Organization provides in-school guidance and counselling and life skills training in its partner primary schools.
In partnership with the Ministry of Education, these sessions provide a safe and informal environment for children to learn about issues surrounding HIV/AIDS; ranging from sexual reproductive health, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) prevention, teenage pregnancy and rape, substance abuse, dealing with adolescence, peer pressure and handling the presence of HIV/AIDS within the community. Children are encouraged to bring up issues that are affecting their lives and where appropriate are referred for counselling with the Help Children Trust counsellors.
Linking closely with the Child Rights Committees and CRC programme, the sessions have helped in the identification of vulnerable or abused children and improved their access to Help Children Organization and other support services.
Nutritional Supplements
Help Children Organization identifies PLWA and malnourished children through household vulnerability surveys and provides them with nutritional supplements and food from the demonstration gardens on a monthly basis. Help Children Organization purchases the nutritional supplements from the Help Children Organization trained support groups and they are distributed by the counsellors and nurses in charge.
The nutritional supplement is made from local ingredients including; soya, sorghum, cassava, maize, millet and green grams. It is taken as a porridge, is easy to swallow and tasty. Research indicates that the benefits from the nutritional supplements include; increased appetite, weight, strength and ability to carry out household chores among others.
Nutritional Training
Good nutrition is vital in maintaining health particularly for PLWA. Help Children Trust project areas have good agricultural potential but there is little knowledge about the benefits of nutrition in the management of HIV/AIDS-related illness or in conjunction with ART and much of the land has been converted to cash crops such as sugar cane and maize.
Help Children Organization advocates for community members to convert part of their land to food crops and in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, trains them in the establishment of nutritious kitchen gardens.
Help Children Organization advocates for community groups to establish income generating activities which have a specific focus on nutrition.
Outreach Counseling & Home Visits
In an area where poverty levels are already high, HIV/AIDS has only exacerbated the tremendous hardships faced by community in their lives.
Due to the lack of access to psychosocial services PLWA, OVC and even guardians dealt with their own individual traumas silently and alone. Help Children Organization Counsellors provide daily professional counselling services at the Help Children Organization resource centres and make home visits to clients to follow-up on issues, identify living conditions and provide the necessary advice and assistance. This could be in the form of referrals to health centres, support groups, Child Rights Committees, and other service providers.
Sessions last a minimum of 45 minutes and Counsellors help their clients reach a point where they feel they can live positively and openly, knowing that support is available.
Psychological Support & Direct Aid
Help Children Organization recognizes that the HIV/AIDS pandemic is not just a long-term development problem but an ongoing emergency. In remote rural areas where between 35-40% of the adult population are living with HIV/AIDS, over 15% of the children are orphaned and poverty and lack of basic needs for survival are commonplace, psychosocial support, testing facilities and direct aid is essential.
Help Children Organization provides short-term emergency support to desperately vulnerable households with the view that they will then be able to access Help Children Organization 's long term interventions.
These services include:
- Outreach Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT)
- Outreach counselling and home visits
- In School Guidance and Counselling
- Nutritional Supplements
- Basic Medication
- Shelter
- School Uniforms and clothes
- School Bursaries
- Voluntary Counseling & Testing (VCT)
In the remote rural areas where HCO works, previously there was no access to testing facilities or post test counselling. In conjunction with the Ministry of Health, Help Children Organization professional counsellors provides outreach testing facilities twice a month. Educational videos, general information and condoms are provided, referrals are made to partner organisations and the Comprehensive Care Clinic at the District/Regional hospital and individual home counselling sessions set up.
There has been a huge increase in the numbers of people now requesting to be tested which highlights that the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS is reducing. Knowing ones status is becoming a priority within the community which is contributing to community behaviour change.
2. Training in nutrition-based Income Generating Activities
Nutrition based income generating activities offer community members the opportunity for increased economic security, while at the same time promoting nutrition and health.
Community support groups are trained in business management skills as well as techniques in the production of nutritious products such as soya milk and flour, nutritional supplements and vitamin A enhanced sweet potato amongst others.
These products are initially bought by Help Children Organization and distributed to vulnerable OVC and PLWA households. During this time, Help Children Organization assists the groups to access other markets for their products. This reduces dependency on Help Children Organization , and ensures that the business can be sustained in the future.
3. Training in Agriculture and Nutrition
Help Children Organization trains community members in organic methods of farming and the establishment of planned kitchen gardens to encourage increased crop production around the year and better nutrition in the community particularly in the management of opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS.
Initial training includes: crop rotation, irrigation, organic methods of farming such as composting, mulching, tea fertilisers etc, farm planning, nutrition and its benefits in the management of malnourishment and the opportunistic infections associated with HIV/AIDS.
Secondary training includes water saving techniques, food storage and protein products. Indigenous crops grown include: Exotic crops grown include vegetables and fruit with high immune boosting elements such as pumpkin, spinach, garlic, vitamin A sweet potatoes, fruit, soya etc.
Help Children Organization now trains community mentors who are able to provide on the ground support and advice to trainees within their community. On average each mentor supports five trainees and research indicates that community members are adopting the skills and establishing their own kitchen gardens independently.
4. School Uniforms & Clothes
Despite primary education being free, children are still not attending school for the simple reason of a lack of a school uniform because they are often bullied outside of classes for being in rags.
The cost of a school uniform is approximately $5/$10 and through the in-school Guidance and Child Rights Committees, ACE identifies children who are in need and supplies them with new uniforms. In addition, people in these communities live far away from markets and often do not have the money to buy basic clothing resulting in many children being in rags or naked.
Through donations from organization members, Help Children Organization provides clothes and shoes to extremely vulnerable households. Since 2009 to 2010 a total of 179 OVCs have been supported to access primary, secondary and vocational training education.
5. Shelter
HIV/AIDS affects all aspects of a family's life and as the household becomes more steeped in poverty they are unable to maintain their homes.
During the rainy season particularly, roofs disintegrate and walls collapse and the family is left living in appalling conditions.
In addition, culturally, when the man of the house dies the house is burnt leaving the family with nowhere to go. Help Children Organization works with the Child Rights Committees to encourage this tradition to stop and to enable them to identify households who require assistance to build a new house. Help Children Organization then provides extremely vulnerable households with new shelter.