SUMMARY:

The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) program aims to support orphans and vulnerable children

(OVC) by meeting basic and immediate needs while simultaneously building capacity in families, leaders

and communities to develop local sustainable solutions to meet the long term needs identified by children

and their caregivers in their communities. The primary emphasis area for this activity is in-service training of

caregivers. Specific target populations are OVC (boys and girls ages 0-18 years), people living with HIV and

AIDS, religious leaders and teachers.

BACKGROUND:

The ACSA Care for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) program builds on a successful OVC model

piloted under ACSA's "Isiseko Sokomeleza" which means Building a Foundation, program in partnership

with Heartbeat Center for Community Development, the Barnabas Trust and the Anglican Mothers Union

(MU), in the four Eastern Cape Dioceses of Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth, Umzimvubu and Mthatha. All

activities will be implemented directly by the Anglican Mothers Unions, an important women's group within

the Anglican Church. Partner organizations provide mentoring and technical assistance to groups of trained

caregivers. This model encourages community participation and supports traditional community life while

strengthening mutual assistance and social responsibility. This ACSA model ensures that communities

understand the needs and rights of the children in their community and protects them from abuse. The

ACSA model will be scaled-up and expanded in all nine provinces. A preliminary needs analysis of the 20

dioceses in South Africa showed that all 20 dioceses would benefit from coordinated support in

implementing programs that care for OVC. The ACSA's approach to caring for children builds on the 6

strategies in the policy framework of National Plan of Action of the South African Government's Department

of Social Development (DOSD). The South African constitution guarantees all children the right to

comprehensive healthcare and basic health services. In addition, ACSA will give special consideration to

HIV-infected OVC to ensure that they are referred to HIV pediatric treatment. ACSA also plans to develop

activities to focus on vocational training for older OVC and caregivers.

To assist girls to understand the risk of early sexual activity, the ACSA program will provide age-

appropriate, culturally sensitive educational interventions for comprehensive HIV and AIDS knowledge,

reproductive and sexual health and life skills at kids clubs, schools and in communities. Gender inequalities

affect girls' access to and interaction with health services, including those for HIV prevention and AIDS care.

The ACSA program will emphasize keeping girls in schools and promoting girls' access to health services.

Teachers are ideally placed to track the wellbeing and change in children and identify OVC. Age-

appropriate life skills and sex education including HIV prevention messages and empowerment activities

combined with caregiver training will help mitigate this trend and protect young girls.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

ACTIVITY 1: Building community capacity to care for OVC

Volunteers will be trained to provide care and support of OVC. The trained volunteers will recruit and train

community caregivers to increase the local capacity of their communities. The training will focus on the

process of planning and implementing OVC projects in community parishes. Upon completion volunteers

will have a better understanding of how to deal with OVC in order to provide comprehensive, integrated and

quality responses such as psychosocial support, accessing child support grants, healthcare, nutrition and

other life sustaining services. The training will be provided through a partnership comprised of Barnabas

Trust, Care for Kids and staff from the Anglican Church. Each partner will have its own curriculum but in

essence focus on enabling community organizations (parish-based projects) to have an integrated

approach to delivery of services to orphans and vulnerable children. The partner organizations will provide

mentoring to all trained caregivers, after the training. The mentors will provide technical assistance and

retraining to groups of caregivers in each diocese as the need arises. The Project officer will assist the

Diocesan OVC Coordinators and will also provide technical assistance to the caregivers. They will receive

all the necessary forms to assist with the assessment process of children and households. The principals

and teachers at schools within the Diocese will complete a survey to assist the caregivers to identify the

children who will be provided assistance through the "Back to school" support intervention. In addition

ACSA will locate a new partner to provide vocational training for older OVC and caregivers.

ACTIVITY 2: Community engagement workshops

These workshops will serve to influence norms on acceptable treatment of OVC thus confronting stigma

and discrimination. The workshops will provide platforms for ACSA partners to network and share lessons

learned on how to best intervene on behalf of OVC, create gender awareness and eliminate stigma and

denial. Joint action and initiatives will be implemented at annual mass events such as International

Children's Day, Child Protection Day, Women's Day, 16 Day of No Violence Against Women and Children,

the Special Day of Prayer for Orphans and "The School is Cool" Campaign with special emphasis on

involving meaningful participation of young people in the planning and delivery of these events.

ACTIVITY 3: Partnerships

Partnerships with organizations and institutions (Barnabas Trust, Heartbeat, etc.) that have developed

programs and material on abstinence, sexuality, life choices, etc. will be strengthened. The content of these

programs will be discussed with Parish coordinators and communities. New partnerships will be developed

and child care workers will be trained in abstinence and behavior change interventions, reproductive, sexual

health and life skills. HIV education and awareness will be facilitated at the schools with special emphasis

on supporting OVC in schools; this will support the children who attend the psychosocial support groups.

Four workshops will be held in the 20 Anglican Church dioceses.

ACTIVITY 4: Care and counseling of children, caregivers and parents

Care and counseling will be provided to meet the bereavement needs of OVC and to facilitate the mourning

processes for adults who care for OVC. Bereavement workshops will be held quarterly to assist parents and

caregivers. Four retreats will be held semi-annually for caregivers to facilitate debriefing and sharing

experiences. Follow-up home visits will be conducted to ensure that, in child-headed households are

provided with support and they know how to access the necessary services. Follow-up and monitoring to

track the progress of children who receive school uniforms and other school supplies through the Back to

School intervention is vital for the program. This will also ensure that ACSA track children who drop-out of

school for specific reasons and to offer support through the after school activities. The OVC will receive

assistance with homework and assignments. This will happen at parish level and retired teachers and older

learners are recruited. Donations from non-PEPFAR sources will be delivered to households and families,

Activity Narrative: i.e. blankets, food parcels, toys, etc.

ACTIVITY 5: Linkages with Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) and Community-based Organizations

(CBOs)

This activity will develop effective linkages with FBOs and CBOs to share resources, information on best

practices and increase capacity of FBOs and CBOs to support OVC in their communities. These Child Care

Community Forums, comprising, FBOs, CBOs, the South African Police Service (SAPS), schools and

community leaders will ensure that all stakeholders develop a common vision in dealing effectively with the

challenges that children face in their communities. ACSA will provide advice and training to other faith

leaders, traditional leaders, NGOs and community leaders on how to effectively collaborate, in order to

appropriately respond to OVC needs. Consultations will be held at parish level to get the support of the

leadership and clergy as well as other religious leaders of various faiths in the communities to address the

plight of orphans and other vulnerable children.

ACTIVITY 6: Advocacy

This activity will focus on building caregiver capacity (within ACSA and externally) to advocate on behalf of

OVC. This will be done by establishing linkages with government departments, municipalities and other

service providers to facilitate the provision of wrap-around services and support such as accessing

government social grants, health services, registration of birth certificates, legal aid, advice and support to

establish food gardens, etc. ACSA will explore ways to introduce tools to avoid and reduce the issue of

gender-based violence into their activities, in order to strengthen social cohesion in communities.

Assistance will be given to families and households by providing information on the rights of women

regarding inheritance, developing legal wills and other legal advice. The sustainability of the project will be

ensured by empowering local communities with the knowledge and experience of working with OVC.

Continued support from the church and expanded linkages will ensure the long-term viability of the project.

ACSA will focus on expanding partnerships with governmental agencies, FBOs, and the private sector to

increase its funding base. Local partnerships will be expanded to other FBOs, CBOs and NGOs in an effort

to expand the network of care and resources. The development of relationships with corporate and private

partners who can contribute funding and in-kind resources to the project will also be initiated.