ACTIVITY HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

ACTIVITY 1:

Senzakwenzeke (SEKA) will provide support and monitor the already established Child Care Forums

(CCFs). CCFs are community-based structures focusing on meeting the needs of OVC. Through

collaboration with the Department of Social Development (DOSD) at the District level, SEKA will identify one

care worker to undergo Training (Master Trainer in the CCFs) by the DOSD. The Trainer will come and do

the train the trainee session in the organization, and at the municipality level SEKA will have 12 CCFs each

led by a Supervisor.

The Guidelines for mentoring are in line with the DOSD Policy Framework and National Plan of Action. The

role of the CCF is to ensure the identification of OVC, to be aware of the initiatives involving child care and

support, to create awareness of OVC issues, to assess OVC needs and ensure that the needs of OVC are

holistically addressed.

ACTIVITY 2:

In terms of workforce planning SEKA is planning to increase the numbers of care workers by adding 16 care

workers to the 63 to total at 79 Child Care Workers (CCWs) and 5 supervisors to the 12 for SEKA to reach a

total of 17 supervisors. This will help the organization to render a quality service to children. All Care

workers will be trained on how to address the special needs of the girl and boy child.

Promotion and retention strategy - SEKA selects supervisors from existing CCWs creating opportunities for

upward movement from within. Although SEKA is facing negative competition from local organizations that

offer better incentives in the form of stipends and attract most of the organization's trained care workers. For

example, the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Department of Health is paying the Community Health workers not less

than $142.90 compared to SEKA care workers who earn $114.3. To address this challenge, SEKA will

increase stipends by 10%.

Mentorship - SEKA will utilize induction activities to orientate new CCWs on job expectations and

procedures to ensure easy integration into the communities. Existing CCWs and Supervisors will assist new

ones. A refresher course for existing care workers will be focused on psycho-social support and counseling

using Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPPSI) curriculum. New care workers will also be trained

with the REPPSI psycho-social support and counseling modules. Already trained SEKA in-house facilitators

will conduct the training.

Support of Caregivers: attention will be given to caring for care workers- an approach which also contributes

to the SEKA retention strategies. The University of KZN (Psychology and Humanities) will provide debriefing

sessions for 15 care workers per session, after an initial assessment by the University. This will be both

one-on-one and a group intervention.

ACTIVITY 3

This activity will reach especially vulnerable children - disabled children. CCWs will pay special attention to

identifying disabled children. SEKA will strengthen activities that meet the needs of OVC with disabilities

and their caregivers, providing special training to care workers to work with disabled children. The training

will be undertaken by CREATE.

ACTIVITY 6:

This activity utilizes a household-centered approach and prioritizes family and household care and reaches

especially vulnerable children aimed at making a measurable difference in their lives. SEKA care workers

will provide support to 105 OVC, from 15 child-headed households, teaching food gardening skills to

generate food for subsistence purposes. The food gardens are established at their homes and on protected

allocated community land. A once-off donation of seedlings is received from the Department of Agriculture.

SEKA has to supplement the donation with its own seedlings putting emphasis on producing a variety of

vegetables to provide for OVC nutritional needs. Food gardening is one of core activities that largely

contributes to OVC care and support; to enable scale up and create sustainable food gardening, care

workers who have undergone vegetable production training will transfer their skills to the OVC, especially

those from child-headed households. Using this approach, SEKA equips OVC with necessary skills to

enable them to sustain their lives after graduating from the PEPFAR program (above 18 years). This also

increases meaningful participation and ownership of the gardens among of the children; they are involved in

looking after the crops. Additionally, post-harvest food processing and storage activities will be included in

FY 2009. This will improve food security and equip caregiver with skills to store enough food.

-------------------------

SUMMARY:

Senzakwenzeke (SEKA), a South African non-governmental organization (NGO) based in KwaZulu-Natal,

provides psychosocial support, nutrition, counseling, homework assistance and social grant application

assistance to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). SEKA conducts training programs for Child Care

Forums (CCFs) and caregivers on children's rights, child protection, and care and support for OVC. The

main emphasis areas of Senzakwenzeke activities are community mobilization and participation, the

development of networks, linkages, and referral systems, and training. The target beneficiaries are orphans

and vulnerable children, caregivers of OVC, community leaders, SA-based volunteers, and people living

with HIV and AIDS.

BACKGROUND:

Senzakwenzeke (SEKA) is a community-based organization operating in Nkandla Local Municipality, in the

Activity Narrative: Uthungulu District 28 in KwaZulu-Natal province (KZN). KwaZulu-Natal is the South African province with

the highest HIV prevalence rate (39 percent). The Nkandla District, one of the largest districts in KZN is

characterized by high unemployment, lack of resources and a very poor infrastructure. This affects service

delivery to children and the community. Within their population radius, Senzakwenzeke has identified 924

OVC, and this number is likely to increase during the next few years.

SEKA is a partnership between the local community and local health professionals. The Nkandla Hospital

had identified the need for a community-based care program to provide services to OVC. SEKA provides

services that are relevant to the development and well-being of OVC, such as assistance in getting social

security grants, health promotion, HIV prevention messages and reproductive health education, assistance

in waiving school fees for OVC to access education, and access to legal documents for succession

planning. SEKA was a sub-partner under the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund program which ended in FY

2006.

With PEPFAR support since 2006, SEKA has expanded their OVC activities to three wards in the Nkandla

District. As of March 2006, SEKA has been able to provide services to 924 OVC. SEKA has established

strong links with the traditional leadership, the local government of Nkandla, the Nardini Sisters (a faith-

based organization providing shelter and food to OVC), and the Nkandla Hospital (for OVC ART referral), in

an effort to provide a strong community response to care for OVC. These and other partners work with

SEKA to provide food aid, scholarships for tertiary education and skills training for OVC.

ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS:

ACTIVITY 1: Strengthening Community Care Forums (CCFs)

SEKA will provide support in the establishment and training of Child Care Forums (CCFs). CCFs are

community-based structures focusing on meeting the needs of OVC. The role of the CCF is to ensure the

identification of OVC, to be aware of initiatives involving child care and support, to create awareness of

OVC issues, to assess OVC needs, to liaise with other community-driven initiatives focused on children,

and to perform advocacy for OVC in the community. CCFs are vital for sustainability of OVC programs and

community involvement in ensuring that the needs of OVC are addressed. SEKA partners with the

Department of Social Development (DOSD) to train the CCFs, which is composed of representatives from

the community. The training follows the DOSD Guidelines for establishing CCFs. SEKA implements all its

OVC activities in line with the DOSD OVC Policy Framework and the National Plan of Action. Topics

covered in the CCF training include, the role of the CCFs, drawing up a community profile, costing and

fundraising, monitoring and evaluation, and understanding the needs and rights of children.

SEKA will expand the program by mobilizing and training 25 new caregivers in the CCFs. They will be

linked to the 35 existing caregivers. These 35 caregivers will receive refresher training through a direct Train

the Trainers course. SEKA will ensure close monitoring and tracking of trained caregivers and their CCFs.

ACTIVITY 2: Human Capacity Development

SEKA will provide monthly training and mentoring for their thirty-five caregivers (recruited from the

community) on counseling, psychosocial support, OVC needs assessments, children's rights, special needs

of the girl and boy child, referrals for ART, nutrition, child protection and gardening. In FY 2008 SEKA will

recruit and train an additional twenty five OVC caregivers. During these training sessions Supervisors will

provide psychosocial support or debriefing sessions for the SEKA caregivers to share their concerns and

provide a forum to openly discuss what they see and experience in caring and supporting OVC.

ACTIVITY 3: OVC Care and Support

Through using the Sinomlando and REPPSI models, SEKA trains OVC on how to create memory boxes to

capture family memories, deal with grief, and build resilience in OVC. Periodic home visits to the OVC,

provide an opportunity for follow-up and monitoring to see if the OVC are coping with the difficult situation in

their home environment. SEKA works with a number of partners in the Nkandla area, to assist with OVC

follow-up by observing resilience in the families that have benefited from memory boxes.

ACTIVITY 4: Improving OVC access to Social Security Grants

During home visits, SEKA caregivers will assess whether OVC are in possession of legal documents such

as birth certificates and identity documents. These documents are required in order for OVC to access

government social security grants. Once the OVC is in possession of the required documents, the caregiver

will assist the household with the application process to access the government social security grants and

the caregivers will also provide training in budgeting skills so the OVC are able to manage this new source

of household income. OVC and their households will also receive information and counseling on other

available government social and health related services such as child protection and pediatric ART. The

SEKA caregiver will act as a point of linkage, referral and follow-up for the OVC to access these services.

SEKA will continue to coordinate community-based outreach by Home Affairs to assist in fast tracking legal

documents for succession planning of the OVC (using mobile vans).

ACTIVITY 5: Strengthening Gender-Based Activities

SEKA caregivers work in and out of schools which run specific gender programs for girls and boys. Special

sessions are held for girls and boys separately and cover issues such as sexual reproductive health,

sexuality and abuse. South African Government training materials are used for the training. Additionally,

SEKA caregivers will host sessions where boys and girls interact together, to share their experiences and

learn from each other. Caregivers also ensure that during the OVC home visits they spend time with each

individual child to give them an opportunity to ask questions or share concerns around these topics.

Activity Narrative: ACTIVITY 6: Food Gardens for Child-Headed Households

SEKA caregivers will provide training to OVC, especially child-headed households, on the skills required to

create survival food gardens. The food gardens are at the homes of the children and on community land

provided by the municipality. This is a wrap around activity where other stakeholders in the community

provide the seeds and fertilizers for the gardens. The survival food gardens will provide vegetables which

enable the children to have better nutrition. A SEKA two-week training module on food gardening includes a

nutrition component encouraging the use of local plants and high nutrition vegetables to supplement the

OVC nutritional needs.

Additionally, post-harvest food processing and storage activities will be included with help from the AED

Umbrella Grant Management Program.

New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity

Continuing Activity: 13809

Continued Associated Activity Information

Activity Activity ID USG Agency Prime Partner Mechanism Mechanism ID Mechanism Planned Funds

System ID System ID

13809 8259.08 U.S. Agency for Senzakwenzeke 6619 4759.08 $250,000

International

Development

8259 8259.07 U.S. Agency for Senzakwenzeke 4759 4759.07 $230,000

International

Development

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Addressing male norms and behaviors

* Increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs

* Increasing women's access to income and productive resources

* Reducing violence and coercion

Health-related Wraparound Programs

* Child Survival Activities

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $6,760

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Food and Nutrition: Commodities $2,000

Economic Strengthening

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Economic Strengthening $857

Education

Water

Table 3.3.13: