ACTIVITY HAS BEEN MODIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:

ACTIVITY 4: Specialized psychosocial support for children, ACTIVITY 5: Psychosocial support to

caregivers, ACTIVITY 6: Life Skills development

All the activities outlined in activity 1-6 are in line with the NSP and SAG policies.

-Priority area 1 of the NSP: Prevention will be emphasized in Activity 1 (Strengthening of community care

for OVC) and Activity 2 (Human Capacity Development).

-Priority area 2: treatment care and support will be done through Activity 3 (Facilitating access to social

security grants and OVC services), Activity 4 (Specialized psychosocial supports for children) and Activity 5

(psychosocial supports to caregivers).

-Priority area 4 human rights and access to justice will be aligned though Activity 3 (Facilitating access to

social security grants and OVC services) and Activity 6 (Life Skills development).

These activities will be enhanced by Childline Mpumalanga signing a sub-partner agreement with Childline

SA. Childline SA manages the national Childline toll-free line to which children can call in should they

experience abuse or seek guidance on children issues.

The occurrence of sexual abuse of the boy child has in recent studies been identified to be as high as

sexual abuse of the girl child. Through the psychosocial support to OVC and caregivers, the program will

address violence and coercion, enabling vulnerable girl and boy children to have access to counseling, legal

resource and refer these children to services in their vicinity. Vulnerable children will also be referred to the

well established Crisis line referral system of Childline SA which has a network of service providers focusing

on child protection and safety, at its disposal.

The life skills program as presented in schools by all provincial Childline offices in South Africa will raise

awareness on children's safety and will facilitate the development of a balanced self image and healthy role

modeling for both the boy and girl child and women in the community. Involving boys and girls in inclusive

activities where the girls can be involved in sports such as soccer and boys playing handball will deal with

stereotyping and create a safe environment for the children to express their views on gender roles.

Celebration of national days will include cultural and traditional activities linked to gender and addressing

stereotyping. There will be a focus on children rights and reducing violence, specifically child abuse. This

will reaffirm the children belonging to their roots and also the respect for the community in its unique

differentiation of roles and responsibilities to different genders.

Engaging Childline SA will ensure that children across all nine provinces can be provided with immediate

assistance by Crisis line counselors, and assure referral of vulnerable children to services close to them.

Psychosocial support to caregivers is already an activity that is currently operating in the National network

of Childline and would ensure that care workers of children do not burn out. Life skills development is an

activity that is incorporated in the Childline SA activities through the school awareness program, and focus

on empowering vulnerable children to be safe, and get help when in danger. Through expanding the

activities to the national network of Childline SA, OVC will be able to receive specific services from Childline

staff. Often children are removed from their home and placed with relatives in another province, and through

the services and network within Childline, these children can be included into programs aimed at children by

Childline Social workers. Prevention and early intervention in child abuse issues is one of the core functions

of this program and will benefit all children and adults with concerns about children who call the toll free

number in South Africa.

Focus on building human capacity to enable implementation of these activities will include specific training

on the counseling of children, a ten-day child counseling training that Childline South Africa is currently in

process to have accredited through the Health and Welfare Setas and also limited training in economic

strengthening. Since this is a new program CL Mpumalanga needs to strengthen the M&E systems by

ensuring that staff is trained on data collection/ tools for M&E and collation of data. Childline Mpumalanga

staff will attend Pact training offerings on M&E, financial management and grant management throughout

the year. These trainings will have high priority with staff of Childline Mpumalanga as well as in the National

Network of Childline SA.

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

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

Activity Narrative: 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

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.

Activity Narrative: 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.

New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity

Continuing Activity: 16016

Continued Associated Activity Information

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

System ID System ID

16016 16016.08 U.S. Agency for Childline 7313 7313.08 $935,000

International Mpumalanga

Development

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Increasing gender equity in HIV/AIDS programs

Health-related Wraparound Programs

* Child Survival Activities

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $66,714

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Economic Strengthening

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Economic Strengthening $3,571

Education

Water

Table 3.3.13: