SUMMARY:

Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (NOAH) mobilizes communities form networks of care called

"Arks", which provide a range of services to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) including: nutritious

meals; educational activities including HIV prevention messages; regular home visits; assistance in birth

registration and accessing government social security grants; psychosocial support and training in the

establishment of food gardens. Through effective implementation of the NOAH model, with continued

emphasis on sustainability and capacity building NOAH plans to capacitate community OVC programs

(Arks) to become self-governing and to graduate into independent local CBOs. Emphasis areas for NOAH

are Local Organization Capacity Building, and Human Capacity Development (Pre- and In-service training).

The target populations for NOAH activities are orphans and vulnerable children.

BACKGROUND:

NOAH was established in 2000, and began receiving PEPFAR funding in 2004. With PEPFAR support,

NOAH has registered over 20,000 children and provided over 10,000 children with direct comprehensive

care throughout Gauteng, one community in the North West, and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. NOAH is

currently active in 112 communities nationally, of which 35 are supported by PEPFAR. With FY 2008

funding, NOAH will strengthen the NOAH model through retraining committees, volunteers and resource

center staff. Additional resources will be directed towards development and capacity building in order to

capacitate communities to manage and sustain Arks as independent CBOs.

ACTIVITY 1: Local Organization Capacity Building

NOAH focuses on community mobilization and participation to develop community networks, or Arks, to

support OVC affected by HIV and AIDS. Mobilization is initiated through an interactive process which allows

communities to identify and evaluate themselves to determine whether the NOAH model will work for them.

Subsequently, through the establishment and training of NOAH committees (which target all major

stakeholders in the community: private sector, community, religious and local government leaders) and a

group of volunteers, OVC are identified and provided with services. The committee oversees the general

activities of the volunteers and is involved in fundraising and building relationships with local government

offices and surrounding schools to sustain the program. The staff of the Ark is accountable to the committee

and to NOAH headquarters and manages the day to day running of the Ark, including caring for the OVC. In

many Arks the committee has successfully secured material and monetary donations from local businesses

through public-private partnerships (PPPs), in other Arks schools have donated classrooms, resources and

teacher-time. All Arks are encouraged to build relationships with the local Department of Social

Development (DOSD). With FY 2008 funding, NOAH will continue to support community mobilization in all

35 existing NOAH sites.

ACTIVITY 2: Human Capacity Development

NOAH training builds volunteers, Ark staff and committee members' skills to identify and register OVC and

conduct home visits to monitor their progress and link them to appropriate government social services (e.g.

Department of Home Affairs for issuing of birth certificates and Department of Social Development for child

support grants). The training provided for volunteers includes Bereavement Counseling as well as technical

training in how to access social welfare benefits for the children. For committee members, training includes

Financial Management, governance, leadership, management and sustainability training. Nutritional

counseling on how to provide healthy and balanced meals in a resource scarce environment, and

accredited Early Childhood Development (ECD) training from Ntataise Trust (a partner NGO, registered on

the National Qualifications Framework) for Ark staff members at resource centers is also provided. NOAH

will continue to provide psychosocial support to OVC through training volunteers in Play Therapy and

counseling techniques, and by partnering with organizations such as GoLD (another PEPFAR partner) in at

least four PEPFAR Arks, two existing and two new ones in FY 2008, to provide peer counseling training on

HIV and AIDS at secondary school level (over 13 years). Food security and nutritional support of OVC and

volunteers is achieved through permaculture training and the subsequent establishment and maintenance

of vegetable gardens.

Quality Assurance and supportive supervision is delivered through monthly meetings with NOAH staff in

each region. This allows NOAH Ark Managers and community leaders to share successes and challenges

and to come up with innovative solutions to solve the problems specific to their communities. Monitoring and

evaluation (M&E) systems at community level are strengthened through ongoing training and data quality is

improved through immediate verification of all numbers reported. Ark staff are trained in all of the skills they

need for effective and cost efficient management of the Ark. Each Ark is responsible for its own budget and

financial management and for reporting and its own Information Management System. All training is geared

toward capacitating the Ark to be able to run independently and includes Financial Management, Computer

Literacy, Fundraising, Project Management and Governance.

ACTIVITY 3: Care and Support

Through community, school and other donor-support, NOAH establishes, staffs and supports resource

centers, satellite offices and satellite feeding schemes in 35 PEPFAR Arks. NOAH resource centers, apart

from being safe havens where children can interact with each other and with adults in a supportive

environment, also provide daily nutritious meals, access to educational support including ECD for young

children and schoolwork support for older children, computer rooms and libraries, and opportunities to

assess and monitor children's general health on a daily basis. Wherever children are identified as in need of

healthcare they are referred to appropriate facilities and provided with ongoing follow-up and care. Parents,

volunteers, children and teachers are actively involved in the maintenance and day to day activities of the

center. All Resource Centers which operate daycare or crèche facilities are manned by staff trained in

Ntataise's intensive 3-week course on ECD. PEPFAR supports the day-to-day costs of the 35 centers such

as staffing and materials and supplies (books, pencils, etc.). PEPFAR does not fund any construction of

new Arks.

Outside of the Resource Center structures children's health and wellbeing is monitored through monthly

home visits provided by Ark volunteers focusing on family-centered care. The home visit provides an

opportunity for volunteers to work with parents to apply for birth certificates and social welfare grants for

OVC as well as to assess the child's health, school performance and psychosocial wellbeing. All volunteers

are trained in bereavement counseling and play therapy techniques to enable them to interact with the child

and provide immediate psychosocial support wherever necessary. If the child is identified as being unwell

they are referred to a nearby clinic.

Activity Narrative:

In the interests of gender equality, NOAH actively monitors the number of girls and boys receiving services

at Resource Centers. In most Arks there are an equal number of boys and girls attending the center and

receiving services. Wherever discrepancies are noted Ark staff addresses imbalances through home visits

and additional follow-ups. Two of the PEPFAR Arks (one in Gauteng and one in KZN) provide programs

specifically for adolescent girls and in these cases there are usually more girl children attending centers

than boy children, though there is no gender discrimination in service provision. In addition, NOAH

volunteers and staff identify sick children and caregivers and facilitate referrals to the nearest hospital or

clinic for health assessment and where necessary HIV counseling, testing and ARV treatment. These

referrals are recorded, with an average of 75 children referred to clinics each month within PEPFAR Arks.

HIV Prevention is provided through a partnership with GoLD Peer Education program which will be

implementing programs in at least two additional PEPFAR Arks in FY 2008. NOAH has PPP with some

companies that have provided material/resource support in the form of school uniforms and/or food; others

offer the time of their employees to work with an Ark, its personnel and children.

Relationships with the South African Government (SAG) have been developed at the local, provincial and

national levels. NOAH partners with the Department of Social Development (DOSD) and Education (DOE),

to capacitate communities to access government funds and assistance. Local government representatives

are active members of Ark committees. Close relationships with local social workers are fostered and

encouraged. Seven NOAH Arks of the total 112 active Noah Arks are currently funded by the Department of

Social Development with further funding provisionally allocated to more Arks. NOAH has partnered with the

DOE in KwaZulu-Natal to provide long term sustainable support by integrating the Ark model into schools.

NOAH advocates for stipends for volunteers through the Department's Expanded Public Works Program

which aims to advance rural communities both socially and economically by involving them in government-

run programs. To date four PEPFAR Arks are accessing EPWP stipends for NOAH volunteers. NOAH is a

founding member of the National Action Plan for Children Affected by HIV and AIDS and has been

instrumental in policy development through this structure. NOAH activities contribute to supporting the

PEPFAR goal of providing care and support to 10 million individuals affected by HIV and AIDS by

increasing access to quality, comprehensive care to OVC.