TITLE: Community-based Orphan Care, Protection, and Empowerment Project (COPE)

NEED and COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: There is an increasing number of orphans and vulnerable

children (OVC) in Tanzania. These children face many barriers regarding school attendance, and often go

without proper nutrition and childcare. Their caregivers have difficulty securing income to provide for all of

the children's needs. COPE Tanzania, with mission funding to complement Track 1 funds, aims to reach

42,000 OVC and 10,000 caregivers during FY 2008 with quality services, ensuring that children continue

going to school and caregivers find a source of generating income. Through working closely with the

community and local government to identify OVC and deliver services, the project has been able to identify

and support a greater number of beneficiaries in the areas of psychosocial, education, health, nutrition, and

economic support.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: By March 2007, COPE worked with 471 Most Vulnerable Children's Committees

(MVCC) to provide support to 45,409 OVC in Dodoma and 1,500 in Zanzibar. COPE trained 52 service

corps volunteers (SCV) on OVC care and data storage. OVC identification was completed in four of the six

districts. Over 100 COPE clubs, through which children receive psychosocial support and life skills training,

have been formed and 1,384 caregivers supporting 5,525 OVC have been trained in Income Generating

Activities (IGA) with 37 caregivers currently engaged in pig farming. Africare is funded through both Track 1

and Mission funds.

ACTIVITIES: Each activity is directed at providing a comprehensive package of support and protection to

OVC and training their caregivers.

1. Enhance community capacity to coordinate care and support services for OVC and caregivers. 1a) Build

capacity of district officers on OVC care and support services; 1b) Train MVCC members in OVC care and

support from the 498 villages of Dodoma. 1c) Provide refresher training to 100 volunteers in working with

OVCs in their communities and with COPE clubs, providing them with psychosocial support (PSS) and life

skills training (LST) as well as OVC support, recording and reporting. Provide the community volunteers

with bicycles to enable them reach beneficiaries; 1d) Train MVCC members on their duties for OVC

care/support and data management; 1e) Support partners and communities in the Data Management

System (DMS) to ensure correct data management.

2. Provide life skills training, peer education, and psychosocial care and support to OVC and their families.

2a) Refresher training to 97 SCV as peer educators in PSS and LST and provide information, education,

and communication (IEC) and behavior change communication (BCC) materials to SCVs and youth,

reaching 12,000 children; 2b) Support peer educators to reach 10 children each with PSS each to reach

7,500 MVC and 20,000 youth; 2c) Engage communities in stigma reduction through targeted IEC/BCC; 2d)

Provide 50 COPE clubs with play materials such as balls, jerseys, and skipping rope for club members; 2

e) Support SCVs, partner organizations, and community members in providing PSS to reach 24,500 OVC in

Dodoma.

3. Increase access to educational support services to OVC. 3a) Provide scholastic material to 25,000 OVC;

3b) Provide school uniforms to 5,300 OVC; 3c) Give block grants to ten schools, thus allowing 250 children

to attend school

4. Increase access to health care and nutritional support to OVC. 4a) Train and support 300 caregivers

and 100 OVC in establishing backyard gardens and using the double-dig bed technique and irrigation

systems; 4b) Train 97 SCVs as TOT in nutrition promotion; 4c) Provide insecticide treated nets to 15,000

under-five children. 4d) Provide sanitary materials and water guard for safe water to 25,000 OVC and

caregivers; 4d) Assist 480 children who are responsible for the household or those with sick caregivers to

register and obtain support from the Community Health Fund; 4e) Identify children who are symptomatic for

HIV and link them to health services; 4f) Provide food support to at least 100 child-headed households.

5. Increase access to income generation activities (IGA) to OVC and caregivers, modeling a successful

program used by Salvation Army (WORTH) with a particular focus on women. 5a) Train over 1,500

caregivers, MVCC members, and existing associations of OVC and caregivers in basic entrepreneurship

and IGA activities; 5b) Enroll 50 older OVC for apprenticeships in vocational training centers; 5c) Support

OVC and caregivers in developing sustainable sources for generating income (access to loans); 5d) Train

caregivers and OVC in IGA groups on animal care for IGA; 5e) Provide tailoring and carpentry equipment

to support the development of youth as apprentices.

LINKAGES: Africare is a member of the OVC Implementing Partners Group and works closely with other

USG-funded and other donor supported implementing partners. Africare works closely with the government

Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, Education, and Gender at the national level to ensure that project

activities build on government strategies for child well-being and poverty reduction. At the district and

village level, the project works with government structures in planning and implementing activities. COPE

also supports local associations working with OVC and their caregivers and plans to build the capacity of 20

associations in IGA. With the assistance of Community Health Fund, COPE intends to enable children to

access necessary treatment as needed. The project addresses malaria concerns through collaborating with

the national Malaria Control Program (supported through the President's Malaria Initiative-PMI) to access

the Equity Voucher program for free ITNs. COPE is also collaborating with the Global Fund Malaria

Initiative. Africare also links with the Peace Corps Permaculture gardening program in Dodoma.

CHECK BOXES: COPE encourages gender equality, and facilitates support for girls to continue school,

especially secondary schooling. The project builds capacity within local organizations through training in

areas such as PSS and IGA. Independently, as well as through partnerships, COPE provides ITNs to

beneficiaries for malaria prevention. The COPE project focuses on providing comprehensive services and

encourages children to continue with school and vocational training. Additionally, COPE assists caregivers

with IGA, and teaches caregivers and OVC how to establish their own backyard gardens while providing

health and nutrition education.

M&E: 1. Africare will continue to implement the national Data Management System, and will use that

system for Monitoring and Evaluation. They will ensure sub grantees compliance with inputting data

regarding OVC identified at the local level. This information feeds not only into the national system, but is

also available to MVCCs at the local level for planning, decision making, and monitoring. It will also build

capacity of the district social welfare officers and M&E officers for the sub grantees and provide basic

Activity Narrative: training to use the purchased computers to ensure data quality. In addition, Africare will conduct routine

monitoring and quarterly field visits-to assess the quality of services provided, collect data, and provide

onsite refresher training as needed. Lastly, it will conduct mid-term and year-end evaluations.

SUSTAINAIBLITY: COPE will support capacity development of the district social welfare officers and local

CSO sub grantees. It will integrate para-social workers into local programs as they are trained. These

social workers will play a facilitative role to ensure the incorporation of COPE work plans, budgets, and

reports in the overall district response plans and integration of the OVC data in the local government

database.

COPE works closely with government structures from the entry into the community using the OVC

identification process, to the direct support of MVCC and caregivers. The project's support of OVCs, district

child forums, and communities in caring for OVC enhances ownership of the situation with locally grown

solutions. At the village level, OVC and participating households will be strengthened through training.

Africare may participate in an insurance pilot to provide free health insurance to families who are able to

take in orphans in order to strengthen those families. In addition, an increase in IGA activities in the

community will further enhance caregivers' earning potential and ability to care for family needs in the long

term without dependence on the project.