BELONG

This is a continuing Track 1 activity that will link to Peace Corps activities in Oromiya and Amhara as

appropriate and possible.

The Better Education and Life Opportunities for Vulnerable Children through Networking and Organizational

Growth (BELONG) project relates to activities under Orphan and Vulnerable Program Area and is being

implemented with 12 implementing partners with PCI serving as the prime agency. The program focuses on

selected areas of Addis Ababa, Afar, Amhara, Oromiya, SNNRP and Tigray regions. PCI was providing

primary direct support services to 2,672 OVC and 111 with supplemental direct support for a total of 2,783

OVC reached as of March 31, 2007.

The BELONG Project is designed to increase the number of OVC in Ethiopia accessing quality services

through sustainable, community-based programs that effectively reduce their vulnerability. In COP08, PCI

plans to reach 10,500 OVC and train 3,721 caregivers. PCI and its partners work to not only expand

coverage but also in providing critical support services for vulnerable children and their families. PCI and its

local partners focus on providing comprehensive, integrated OVC services that include healthcare,

psychosocial and life skills support, education assistance including tutorial support to children with poor

academic performance and vocational training for older OVC, nutritional food security, child rights protection

and legal support by promoting succession planning, and HIV/AIDS preventions activities. Such services

are provided to the OVC through regular home visits as well as community based channels by trained

volunteer caregivers on one-to-one and group approaches.

PCI and its partners organize and engage caretakers and guardians in savings led self-help groups, internal

lending, and income generation activities to strengthen their economic capacity to take good care for

themselves and the children under them. This economic empowerment component of the BELONG project

aims to strengthen the capacity of more than 5,000 caretakers, particularly poor women and older OVC to

support themselves, their children and siblings through economic empowerment initiatives. This model

involves bringing targeted women and older OVC together into savings-led, peer-lending groups, where

numeric and basic business skills are strengthened through tailor made trainings as the foundation of

successful lending and small business development to strengthen the economic capacity of vulnerable

households in targeted areas.

The second core activity of the BELONG project is improving access to and quality of education for OVC

through the school platform. PCI decided to support the Child In Local Development (CHILD) methodology

the World Food Program is implementing together with the Ministry of Education for this purpose. Thus the

BELONG project has targeted 200 CHILD schools in Amhara, Oromiya and Tigray to improve access and

quality of education for OVC using the CHILD community development framework for engaging the

community in a needs-based, local planning process and local level resources mobilization efforts. Through

this methodology, members of Parent-Teachers Associations (PTA), community leaders, religious leaders,

representatives of the local administration and school administrations come together to assess their

problems related with the well-being of their children, after which they develop community action plans.

Such community plans largely get implemented by mobilizing local resources and PCI's support is used to

fill financial gaps not exceeding 35% of resources needed to realize such action plans by each partner

school. Activities included in such community action plans are maintenance of classrooms, purchase of

additional desks and text books, training of PTA members, establishment or strengthening of Anti-AIDS and

Girls clubs, promoting of school gardens and income generation activities like silk worm rearing, bee-

keeping, poultry and dairy farms from which children learn by doing as part of their lessons while WFP

addresses the immediate nutritional needs of the children in these CHILD schools. Healthcare and water

problems are also discussed and addressed through this process. As such CHILD schools are transforming

into "centers for local development" through this framework.

The third main activity of the project focuses on building the technical and organizational capacity of partner

NGO and community-based organizations (CBO) to help them provide quality OVC services through

innovative and replicable strategies that others could learn from. This activity also aims at bolstering

community capacity and leadership in mobilizing local resources, developing appropriate community action

planning and implementation. It is facilitated by a capacity building taskforce involving participatory

processes of assessing the existing capacities of partner organizations, identifying priority gaps and builds

their capacities. To realize this objective, PCI brings its partner organizations together on a monthly basis to

discuss on different OVC related thematic areas, to share experiences and lessons from each other and

improve their service delivery capacity and quality of services. Conducting cross visits and sharing of

promising practices are part of this main activity. PCI provides customized trainings of trainers to relevant

staff of partner NGO and CBO and, through close monitoring and follow up, ensures that such trainings are

cascaded and benefited targeted groups. In addition, the project coordinates closely with all other OVC

program implementing and coordinating agencies to maximize impact and minimize duplication. This activity

is also complemented by another activity that promotes peer-to-peer learning and regular networking

among partner NGO and CBO. This involves identification of core competencies of few of the partners in

OVC programming and assisting them to mentor the rest of the partners ,so that the latter could adopt

promising practices of mentor organizations to improve the quality of their OVC support programs.

The BELONG project gives emphasis not only on addressing immediate critical needs of OVC and their

guardians, but more importantly to eventually become self-reliant and dignified citizens rather than relying

on external support. The BELONG project is consistent with the GOE's strategy for expanding care and

support for orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV as outlined in the Road Map.

PCI and its partners are cognizant of the importance of integration of activities with other PEPFAR and non-

PEPFAR funded activities and leveraging complementary services of other actors in the operation areas

ensuring the delivery provision of comprehensive services. In this regard, PCI has been able to integrate the

BELONG project activities with its other project entitled "Give a Goat Project" that targets older OVC and

very poor caretakers by providing them with goats or sheep for rearing and income generation. Again, the

integration of the women economic empowerment activity of the BELONG project with the urban gardening

project of DAI in two project sites is helping beneficiaries to save from their the urban gardening proceeds

and start internal lending quickly to be able to establish different income generation activities. Since this

king of leveraging complementary services and integration of activities are critical for sustainability and to

bring lasting change in the lives of target groups, PCI and its partners will continue ensuring greater

Activity Narrative: integration of project activities with PEPFAR and non-PEPFAR interventions in 2008.

Sub partners:

Christian Relief and Development Association (CRDA)

Alem Children Support Organization (ACSO)

Addis Development Vision (ADV)

Action for Self-Reliance (AFSR)

Ethiopian Muslims Relief and Development Association (EMRDA)

Developing Family Together (DFT)

HIV/AIDS Prevention, care, and Support Organization (HAPCSO)

Hope for Rural Children Organization (HORCO)

Integrated Services for AIDS Prevention and Support Organization (ISAPSO)

Love for Children Organization (LCO)

Nutrition Plus Holistic Home Care (NPHHC)

Social Welfare Development Association (SWDA)