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

NEED and COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE: Unfortunately, there is an increasing number of orphans and

vulnerable children (OVC) in Tanzania. OVC face many significant barriers in life. Few attend school and

often go without proper nutrition and childcare. Often, caregivers are either too old or too young, and do not

have the resources to meet the children's needs. COPE Track 1 aims to reach 36,800 OVC and 10,000

caregivers during FY 2008 by providing quality services to children, ensuring that children attend school,

and assist caregivers in finding a source of generating income. In addition to working closely with OVC

communities, COPE solicits local government funds to support OVC identification. COPE supports OVC in

various service areas, providing at least one service in order to improve the quality of life for OVC. Service

areas include psychosocial, education, health, nutrition, and economic development. COPE will support

communities to provide comprehensive, sustainable, and quality care to OVC. COPE receives Mission

funds to scale up quality and coverage of OVC services.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: By March 2007, COPE had successfully worked with 471 Most Vulnerable

Children's Committees (MVCCs) to provide support to over 45,400 OVC in Dodoma and 1,500 in Zanzibar.

COPE trained 52 service corps volunteers (SCV) on OVC care and data storage. OVC identification using

standards outlined by the national Plan of Action outlines by the MOHSW (Ministry of Health and Social

Welfare) was completed in four of the six districts of Dodoma. Children receive psychosocial support and

life skills training. The project trained 1,384 caregivers supporting 5,525 OVC in IGA with 37 caregivers

currently engaged in pig farming.

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

OVC and caregivers. Africare will:

1. Enhance community capacity to coordinate care and support services for OVC and caregivers by

supporting the government officers and partners in OVC care and support, supporting district child forum

meetings for youth to discuss issues and plan for their future, and support districts, 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.

Community support includes the provision of 50 COPE clubs with play materials in addition to reaching

12,000 children with psychosocial support and life skills training, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention messages.

COPE will support peer educators; each to reach ten children with psychosocial support each month.

Additionally, COPE will engage communities in stigma reduction through targeted information, education,

communication, and (IEC)/Behavior Change Communication (BCC) materials, COPE will also support

SCV, partner organizations, and community members in providing psychosocial support to reach 15,000

OVC in the Dodoma region.

3. Provide increased access to educational support services to OVC by providing scholastic materials to

6,000 OVC, providing school uniforms to 2,000 OVC, and giving block grants to ten schools to enable 250

OVC to attend school. COPE will also support 20 schools that were previously provided with block grants to

ensure children continue with secondary school.

4. Increase access to health care and nutritional support to OVC. This will include supporting 300

caregivers and 100 OVC in caring for backyard gardens and using the double-dig bed technique. Additional

support will be given to SCV in order to provide nutrition education to caregivers and OVC. COPE will

provide insecticide treated nets to 5,000 under-five children and identify children symptomatic for HIV-

positive status and link these children to health services. COPE will also provide sanitary materials and

water guard for safe water to 6,000 OVC and caregivers.

5. Increase access to income-generation activities (IGA) to OVC and caregivers using a successful model

used by Salvation Army (WORTH) with a particular focus on women. Support over 500 caregivers, OVC

members, and existing associations of OVC and caregivers in IGA will be facilitated through training in

areas such as market analysis and business management. Furthermore, 50 older OVC will be enrolled into

a trade through apprenticeships and in vocational training centers. Finally, COPE will assist OVC and

caregivers in identifying sustainable sources for generating income (access to loans) and provide training

for caregivers and OVC on animal care for IGA.

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 in order to facilitate sustainability. With the assistance of Community Health Fund,

COPE intends to enable children to access treatment when the need arises. The project also 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 Global Fund Malaria Initiative. Africare also links with the Peace Corps permaculture

gardening program in Dodoma.

CHECK BOXES: COPE encourages community-led approaches in care of OVC and encourages gender

equality and support to enable girls to continue with school. COPE project focuses on providing

comprehensive services and builds the capacity of community leaders and associations to assist families to

care for children. Caregivers and OVC are trained to establish their own backyard gardens while also

providing health and nutrition education. Vocational training for youth and IGA training are provided to

improve income and reduce the poverty/vulnerability of communities.

M&E: 1. Continue to implement the national Data Management System, and use that system for Monitoring

and Evaluation. This will ensure sub grantees completion of data input regarding OVC identified at the local

level. This data feeds not only into the national system, but is also available to MVCCs at the local level for

planning, decision making, and monitoring. Africare will also build capacity of district social welfare officers

and M&E officers for the sub grantees and provide basic training to use the purchased computers to ensure

data quality. It will provide for routine monitoring and quarterly field visits to assess the quality of services

Activity Narrative: provided, collect data, and provide onsite refresher training as needed.

Lastly, Afridare will conduct mid-term and year-end evaluations.

Feedback is routinely provided to staff, partners, community members, and district leaders to ensure quality

services as well as follow up of challenging situations. M&E data is used to improve project implementation

and documented by other service providers. A pre- and post-test during training ensures tracking of

individual progress while the progress of the project as a whole is being assessed from data of the baseline

survey of FY 2006.

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

CSO sub grantees. It will also integrate the newly trained para-social workers into their program. 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 OVC data in the local government database

for the national Data Management System. This will allow for adequate local decision making.

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

identification process, to the direct support of OVC 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, and

Africare may participate in a pilot to provide health insurance to households who are able to care for OVC.

COPE will encourage an increase in IGA activities in the community, which will further enhance caregivers'

earning potential and ability to care for family needs in the long term without continual dependence on the

project. Africare works closely with government structures from entry into the community (using the OVC

identification process) to support OVC, communities, and caregivers. The project builds a strong

commitment and involvement of communities thus ensuring sustainability. The community, political,

traditional, and religious leaders address stigma, discrimination, and denial associated with HIV/AIDS that

impede community action and progress. The project's support of OVCs, district child forums, and

communities in caring for OVC enhances ownership with locally grown solutions. Increased 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 donors.