Serving Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) in Mozambique &

Namibia: Partnerships to Strengthen Micro Credit and Health

EducationSandra Dalebout, Project HOPE

Presenter disclosures

(1) The following personal financial relationships with commercial interests relevant to this presentation existed during the past 12 months:

Sandra Dalebout

“No relationships to disclose”

OVC in Africa

• 11,600,000 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are orphans due to HIV/AIDS

• Effort to keep children in their own communities, with extended family members

Caring for OVC in Africa

Seven established domains of OVC care are agreed upon by the international community:

Health Education

Nutrition Protection

Shelter/Care Psychosocial support

Economic strengthening

Project HOPE’s Program

Sustainable Strengthening of Families of Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Mozambique and Namibia•USAID Funded project• April 4, 2005 to April 2, 2010• Aim: Improve economic status and quality of life of 45,000

OVC and strengthen the capacity of families to provide care and support to 75,000 OVC

• Focus on OVC caregivers

Program area

Gaza and Zambezia Provinces, Mozambique

Omusati, Oshana, and Ohangwena Regions, Namibia

Integrated model

Focus on OVC caregivers

• Economic strengthening

• Health education/ parenting skills

• Community outreach

Partnerships

• For the success of the program, partnerships are crucial

• Key partners include the community:• Volunteers• Ministry of Health and Education• Local hospitals and clinics• Microcredit organizations (Koshi Yomuti, Shack Dwellers)• Local NGOs and CBOs (Catholic AIDS Action)

Community outreach

• Volunteers are trained in OVC care

• They train caregivers and reinforce better care with OVC caregivers during home visits

• Provide referrals as needed

Community gardens

• Volunteers in Mozambique started community gardens

• Caregivers involved with working gardens

• Food provided to OVC families & sold

• Profits used to buy school materials & clothes for OVC

Community based organization

• New CBO founded by 2 Project HOPE volunteers and 5 religious leaders

• Started farm

• Proposal to government to buy water pump

• PRODEZA – Zambezia Rural Development Project provided agricultural inputs

Growth monitoring

• Volunteers trained to conduct growth monitoring using Ministry of Health standards

• Successful partnership with volunteer, MOH, and Okahao Hospital

Birth certificates

• Birth certificates provided free to OVC

• 3 months of dialog with local government officials to:• help understand needs

• coordinate mass registrations

• provide transportation to registration sites

Measuring program success

• Tools to measure program success include our “Member Profile”• Economic indicators• Child-level data• Baseline & after 1 year in the program

• New low literacy “parenting map” for use at household level recently developed & implemented to measure impact at the child level across all 6 domains

Parenting map

Caregiver economic impact - % exceeding specific economic standards

47%

63%62%

72%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Namibia Mozambique

Baseline Recollection (1 yr)

Caregiver Economic Impacts (Namibia)

29%35%

48%

87%

75%

34%

62%

40%

24%

39%

21%

34%

49%

69%

91%

80%

59%

80%

49%

58%

78%

64%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Initial economic status (2006) After 1 year of participation (2007)

Child impact: nutrition (Namibia)

Results across domains

Results: health indicators

Conclusion

Partnerships are needed to improve the lives orphans and vulnerable children in Africa.