ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION:

This activity relates to a Track 2 Christian OVC activity providing comprehensive services for OVC and their

caregivers

The Community Based Care of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CBCO) program is a multi-country Track

1.0 OVC project, with activities starting in Nigeria in COP07. The scheduled CBCO partners in Nigeria in

COP08 are the Anglican Dioceses of Jos and Makurdi in Plateau and Benue States, respectively. Jos

Diocese covers the urban and rural areas of Plateau State. These areas have high HIV rates (up to 7.7% in

some areas) and are prone to widespread conflict and displacement, resulting in large numbers of OVC.

Makurdi Diocese, in Benue State, covers Makurdi city and large parts of the surrounding rural areas. Benue

state has experienced consistently high HIV rates of over 9% since 1999 when it peaked at 16%.

Christian Aid is partnering with the health and development units of Jos and Makurdi Dioceses, the Gospel

Health and Development Services (GHADS) and Anglican Diocese Development Service (ADDS).

Emergency Plan funding will be used to: support a capacity development program with ADDS and GHADS;

establish community-based OVC support structures that directly provide services and facilitate referrals;

train clergymen and community organizations to combat stigma and provide counseling; support advocacy

for the leverage of additional support for OVC; support lesson learning and the roll out of national OVC

initiatives at State and Local levels.

The expected impact in COP08 is to improve the quality of life for 3,600 OVC (an increase of 1,400 from

COP07 targets), including the provision of Direct Primary support to at least 2,400 and Direct Supplemental

Support to a further 1,200. In addition, 1,148 caregivers will be targeted in COP08 (an increase of 548 over

COP07 target). In order to ensure these targets are reached, all registered children will be monitored

regularly using the CBCO OVC and Quality Assurance Tracking Database, which has incorporated the CSI.

The Database utilizing the draft GON monitoring tools allows the monitoring of services provided directly by

CBCO, by referral from CBCO, by another organization independently and by services leveraged by CBCO.

Community organizations, in collaboration with the CBCO partners, will directly provide a selection of

essential services from the six core areas (food and nutrition, shelter and care, protection, health,

psychosocial support and education).

Representatives of OVC households will be mobilized into Savings and Loan Associations (SLAs).

Members of SLAs save for several months and when their savings become significantly large draw small

loans, which they use for income generation activities, school fees and uniforms, etc. To complement this

economic strengthening work and bolster their food and nutritional security, the groups will also be

supported with self-help projects in agriculture and complementary sectors, e.g., seed and livestock

multiplication.

OVC between the ages of 6 to 11 years of age whose guardians are attached to the SLA groups will

participate in weekly Kids Clubs activities. Trained peer facilitators take the children through a structured

manual informed by material developed by the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI). In this

way, these children receive quality, structured psycho-social support. Under-5s will be targeted for

preventive health care support, birth registration, weight monitoring and food/nutrition support. This will take

the form of training and/or provision of food supplements locally mobilized through existing community

groups.

Older OVC - those between the ages of 12 to 17 years of age - are mobilized into youth clubs and

participate in the program's weekly life skills sessions. The sessions are also facilitated by trained peer

educators by material informed by Population Services International (PSI) and other national and

international reputable material. Through the life skills sessions, these older OVC benefit from both

healthcare support (i.e., reproductive health) and psycho social support.

Within the SLA groups, child protection Monitors are appointed. The Monitors are responsible for visiting

the homes of each of their fellow SLA members at least twice per month. Here, they spend time with the

OVC, thereby, providing adult mentorship support, as well as ensure they are not being physically or

mentally abused, stigmatized, and/or discriminated against. When minor child protection cases are

revealed, they counsel the guardians in question to explore alternative ways of treating the children. More

serious cases are reported to OVC Support Committees, established in each community, child protection

committees, and/or local government officers/police for resolution. Through this mechanism, the project is

working to ensure that all the children are systematically monitored following the Child Status Index (CSI)

and, therefore, benefit from child protection support, as well as one-one-one counseling support.

Despite the economic strengthening work that is being undertaken, there are still many OVC that are unable

to attend school, particularly at the secondary level. Given this, rigorous targeting will be undertaken with

the OVC Support Committees and SLA groups to identify older OVC in most need of secondary school

support, and this is provided. In addition, older OVC that cannot be integrated into the formal education

system, i.e., those that do not even possess a basic educational foundation on which to build, will be

provided with vocational training through local training institutions.

The two partners in CBCO will also facilitate referrals to other organizations to fill in significant gaps. ADDS

and GHADS will develop advocacy skills that will enable them to leverage additional support from public

sector service providers. Priorities are likely to include advocacy to remove constraints to UBE and to

improve access of vulnerable groups to services of organizations such as NAPEP. The potential of private

sector support for OVC services (e.g. school support) will also be explored.

In order to ensure Primary targets are reached and to assist scale up, priority will be given to interventions

that have low costs per OVC and can cover large numbers (e.g. child protection committees, Savings and

Loans Associations for income generation).

CONTRIBUTIONS TO OVERALL PROGRAM AREA:

The program will support the development of a network of organizations implementing household/family-

based OVC programs as set out in the Emergency Plan. It will directly contribute to serving 3,600 OVC. The

program will improve the lives of OVC in line with the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework by delivering

Activity Narrative: sustainable, comprehensive quality approaches to care and support services, by strengthening socio-

economic, nutritional and psychosocial support programs for vulnerable groups and by building capacity for

implementation of HIV/AIDS technical responses. It will encompass all six components identified in the

National OVC Plan of Action as being essential for scaling up OVC support effectively: Service Delivery

Environment, Education, Health, Household Level Care and Economic Strengthening, Psychosocial Needs

and Social Protection and Monitoring and Evaluation Framework.

Christian Aid and partners will assist, through advocacy and support to lesson learning with State and Local

Government stakeholders, the roll out of activities supported at national level by ENHANSE. In addition the

participation of State Ministry of Women Affairs representatives and SACAs and LACAs in program

activities will be used to share lessons and support local coordination.

LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES:

Linkages will be established with HIV/AIDS treatment centers and community adherence activities (3.3.11)

care and support programs (3.3.06) and TB/HIV programs (3.3.07) to ensure that OVC and carers stay alive

and in good health, to counseling and testing centers (3.3.09) to enable family members to receive

necessary support and to PMTCT providers (3.3.01) to reduce the increase in numbers of HIV+ children.

TARGET POPULATIONS:

This program targets girl and boy OVC and families affected by HIV/AIDS. It will provide services to OVC

and family members in community settings using existing established and accepted community

organizations as service providers. In addition, religious leaders, including priests, bishops and leaders of

women's organizations will be trained to combat stigma in their work and will be supported to engage

productively and openly with PLHA.

EMPHASIS AREAS

This program includes an emphasis on Local Organization Capacity Development and community

mobilization, nutrition and training as outlined in Section 1. In addition, an emphasis will focus on increased

access to micro-finance for households provided by existing rural development programs of ADDS (Benue

State only). ADDS and GHADS with Christian Aid, will encourage greater access to income generation

opportunities through advocacy to regional branches of institutions such as NAPEP and will encourage

provision of UBE through advocacy to local and State Government stakeholders. The program will also aim

to a) support equal numbers of male and female OVC and address cultural and economic factors that limit

access to services of either gender; b) develop opportunities for women to increase their access to

economic resources.