SUMMARY:

Childline Mpumalanga provides care and support services to orphaned and vulnerable Children (OVC) in

five underserved and rural areas in Mpumalanga Province. The main emphasis areas of activities are

training, reducing violence and coercion and local organization capacity building. Primary target populations

are OVC, adolescents 10 to 24 years and people living with HIV and AIDS.

BACKGROUND:

Childline South Africa is a national non-governmental organization with eight affiliate offices providing

services in all of the nine provinces of South Africa. The Mpumalanga office was established three years

ago by Childline SA and Mpumalanga Department of Social Services to provide services to children in the

province. Statistics South Africa estimates that approximately 18 percent of the children living in

Mpumalanga province are OVC. Childline Mpumalanga aims to help restore and transform communities,

facilitate the development of strong, community-based support systems for children affected by HIV and

AIDS with the hope of assuring a secure and healthy future for the OVC living in Mpumalanga. The

programs that Childline Mpumalanga offers are in line with the service specifications of the Department of

Social Development as published in 2005, and included in the business plan of Childline Mpumalanga and

partially subsidized by the Department of Health and Social Services of Mpumalanga.

Childline Mpumalanga is well known for its telephone helpline 'Crisis line' and offers therapeutic and face-to-

face counseling services for children who have undergone serious trauma, including as a result of AIDS. In

response to the increasing numbers of OVC, Childline has also developed a comprehensive outreach

model that will help extend services to the most rural parts of the Mpumalanga province. Childline works

closely with the Department of Education and implements HIV prevention and awareness programs and

children's rights and child abuse programs in schools in Mpumalanga. Childline Mpumalanga also has a

strong working agreement with the Office on the Rights of the Child from the Office of the Premier of

Mpumalanga in their combined efforts to make the voices of children heard in the services delivered to

children in the province.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

ACTIVITY 1: Strengthening community care for OVC

Childline has conducted baseline research to identify five sites for service delivery. Childline has identified

five projects with partners in rural under serviced areas with high numbers of vulnerable children, where

community infrastructure will be developed to establish and deliver interventions for vulnerable children and

their families. Each site will be managed by a dedicated social worker. This will include conducting the

baseline needs assessment, drawing up a memorandum of understanding with the community, identifying

role players and stakeholders, the recruitment of volunteers and setting up infrastructure for the project.

This will ensure that OVC and people living with HIV in the community are aware of and able to access

assistance for dealing with the needs of children who are orphaned, affected by child abuse or domestic

violence, poverty, substance abuse and neglect. Each project site will be developed through networking

with local tribal chiefs, municipal managers, community structures and members.

ACTIVITY 2: Human capacity development

This project will offer various trainings developed by Childline and available from the Department of Health

and other sectors on children, on communicating/counseling children, dealing with children's rights, child

abuse and the basic needs of vulnerable and orphaned children to community volunteers, parents,

teachers, children and youth in order to set up networks and systems and to capacitate role players within

communities to offer referral opportunities. Each site will advertise for volunteer counselors. Candidates will

be interviewed and selected in conjunction with each site's governing body. Selected counselors will be

trained on personal growth; communicating with children; and counseling skills. Trained caregivers will also

be capacitated to provide case management to OVC to ensure comprehensive support and services are

provided. Networking with schools, clinics, early childhood development centers and churches in the

community will be facilitated to help in identifying vulnerable children in the community and implement

service delivery to these children by volunteers that are trained in the community. In addition, each site's

governing body and other community role players involved in service provision to OVC will also be trained

using Childline's courses on organizational management and capacity building. The social worker will work

with trained counselors to develop schedules and work hours for volunteer counselors. Monthly supervisory

sessions will be set up with volunteer caregivers to share their trauma and provide debriefing session from

their experiences in the filed and to deal with stress coping strategies.

ACTIVITY 3: Facilitating access to social security grants and OVC services

Childline will introduce counselors to the community through holding awareness campaigns at local schools,

at mass meetings and through posters advertising Childline's services. Children identified as in need of

services will be visited at home by trained volunteers who will conduct an assessment to identify the

services each child needs. Childline will also organize 'Access Jamborees' with the Departments of Home

Affairs, Social Services, Social Development, local government and tribal authorities. These Jamborees will

enable not only vulnerable children but also other marginalized members from the community to access

necessary legal documents; apply for social security grants and access information on services. Caregivers

will follow up on all cases identified to ensure that OVC access services. Caregivers will also train

household/family members on budgeting to ensure that OVC are cared for and maximizing the resources

available. Caregivers will also provide households with information on other social, economic and health

services available in each community such as health, education and social service provided by government

as well as civil society.

ACTIVITY 4: Specialized psychosocial support for children

Counseling and therapy that is appropriate for their age, development stage and context, will be provided to

OVC by social workers on a weekly basis. 24-hour Crisis line counseling will be available to all children and

adults with concerns about children at the Childline office. This will serve as an access point to services

Activity Narrative: close to the child, and children calling the Crisis line will be referred to service providers in the geographical

area where the child concerned resides. Trained counselors will follow up with children individually during

home visits and provide referrals to child protection services available as necessary.

A needs assessment will be done with volunteer counselors to develop a year plan for monthly continuous

training. Continuous training will be according to standardized SETA accredited training modules developed

by Childline SA. Trends and new policy relating to child protection and the management of child abuse will

also be covered during these trainings. Training with parties like South African Police Service, Department

of Health, other government stakeholders and civil society organizations will also be facilitated to ensure

collaborative service delivery to vulnerable children in the community. Service providers will be trained on

communicating with children and on the emotional needs of children to ensure services are delivered with

sensitivity to children needs.

ACTIVITY 5: Psychosocial support to caregivers

Social workers will supervise volunteer counselors from the community to ensure that children are provided

with the care and support they need to cope with the situations they are facing as a result of the effect of

HIV and AIDS on their lives. With PEPFAR support, children will be able to access services to obtain legal

documents, cope with grief and loss, and deal with abuse and violence related issues. Children will be able

to talk and think about relationships with parents, peers, siblings, opposite sex, step- and extended families.

Quality of services rendered by volunteer counselors will be monitored thorough statistics, reviewing

process reports, and holding monthly sessions for debriefing and in-service training.

ACTIVITY 6: Life Skills development

Social workers, in cooperation with local schools, will develop youth groups/clubs to actualize the youth

potential to act as agents of change in their own communities. Focus group discussion will be conducted on

a weekly basic dealing with various topics identified by the youth. Gender specific program for boys and

girls will be offered. Trained counselors will facilitate youth groups providing educational support, recreation

opportunities and life skills training focusing on HIV prevention, reproductive health and gender-based

violence. A community event will also be identified, planned and executed with the support of the social

worker by the youth to have a mass impact of the community e.g. National Aids day / Youth day to develop

skills and create potential for young people to participate in organizing community care and support events.

Activities conducted by Childline Mpumalanga will contribute to the PEPFAR objective of providing 10

million people with care.