THIS IS A NEW ACTIVITY.

TITLE: Campaign for Female Education (Camfed): Tackling Girls' and Young Women's Vulnerability to

HIV/AIDS in Tanzania - New Partner Initiative Project

NEED and COMPERATIVE ADVANTAGE: The Camfed project will build on an already established

program in three rural districts of the Iringa Region, working with communities to strengthen their capacity to

tackle underlying causes of girls' and young women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: In FY 2008, initial program planning was finalized and activities started. The

administrative and programmatic foundation for the project was developed. Recruitment and procurement

for the program set up are in the final stages. A week-long planning workshop was held to prepare the

project monitoring and evaluation system, and to strengthen existing tools so that the protocol for data

collection was systemic and thorough.

ACTIVITIES: In FY 2009, the project aims to provide financial assistance for school expenses for an

estimated 7,480 orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC), and train teacher mentors who will provide social

support to 12,150 children, specifically targeting children coping with bereavement and family poverty.

Child protection measures will be strengthened at the school level to reduce vulnerability to abuse, and

ensure that children are aware of recourse options and sources of support. This project will also strengthen

school capacity to manage resources, including allocation of resources, to benefit OVC.

Camfed will build the capacity of community structures to support the 7,480 OVC beneficiaries to stay in

school. One of the ways in which Camfed will keep OVC is school is through Council District Committee

(CDC) Training. Consultants will train six representatives from each of the three CDCs (district committees)

on financial management and monitoring, and the rights of OVC. Committee members will use the skills

acquired from the training to monitor funds given to schools for purposes of supporting OVC and to ensure

that rights of OVC are not violated. The modules will include financial management, monitoring, and Child

Protection policies, and the National Guidelines for Community Based Care, Support, Social Protection, and

Security of Most Vulnerable Children. In addition, the CDC representatives will learn training skills which

they will use to train 750 school committee members.

Community committees will be mobilized to work with the education system to act as a protective and

empowering support source for OVC. These committees will strengthen local structures to provide

comprehensive support for OVC at critical transition points: the transition from primary to secondary school,

and from secondary school to independent adulthood. This period of time is when orphaned and vulnerable

girls are most at risk of entering transactional sexual relationships in order to provide for their basic needs.

Often times, young girls cannot attend secondary school due to lack of classroom places or other external

reasons, and this places them at risk as well

Additionally, 75 school committees will develop and implement transparent and accountable systems for

identifying and supporting OVC in addition to effectively managing grants to meet their educational and

urgent material needs. This process will ensure that the support is delivered to the targeted beneficiaries on

time.

To foster information sharing and apply best practices, a forum will be organized to disseminate information.

District committee members from each of three districts will meet once a year to share lessons learned,

review existing guidelines for selection of vulnerable children, and engage in discussions which can lead to

a cross-fertilization of ideas. Committee members will undertake exchange visits with other districts to learn

how other committees operate and to further share best practices.

Camfed will conduct community consultations to identify specific constraints to education of OVC, especially

girls. Information from these consultations will guide the community on the ways in which to take action to

provide support for OVC. Additionally, Camfed will train and support 90 female teachers to provide health

and psychological support to OVC in schools. Teachers will receive training from consultants on guidance

and counseling, reproductive health, mentoring, life skills, and HIV/AIDS prevention so that they are

properly equipped to provide much needed psychological and social support to OVC.

Camfed will provide bursaries to 1,000 secondary school orphans and vulnerable girls. Eligible girls will be

identified by CDCs, most vulnerable children committees (MVCC), and school committees. The bursaries

will be guaranteed for four years (the duration of secondary school). Girls will be provided with a

comprehensive package of support, including school fees, exam fees, transport costs, school uniforms,

shoes, stationery, health fees, and lodging/food in the event that the recipient lives too far from school to

travel daily. Grants for bursaries will be directly distributed to the schools, and heads of schools will be

accountable for the funds. Teacher mentors in the schools will manage the funds, which will be monitored

regularly by Community District Committees. Additionally, Camfed will provide block grants to 120 schools

to support the 7,480 OVC beneficiaries who are at risk of dropping out of school. These grants will provide

discretionary support to meet urgent material needs that include uniforms, stationery, and other special

needs such as eye glasses. Camfed will provide effective monitoring of bursary and block grants at the

school, district, and national level to ensure that resources reach OVC. .

To enable young women to reach economic independence through training and support of economic and

business endeavors, Camfed will train 180 young women in business skills and HIV/AIDS prevention. The

training will be carried out by consultants and Camfed staff. Also, Camfed will provide for the training of 15

Camfed Association (Cama) District Committee members in grants assessment, financial management, and

monitoring business grants in their district. Training will be structured to build the capacity of the Cama

District Committee to assist their members to run successful businesses and expand their economic

independence.

Camfed will enable three Cama District Committees to distribute 270 start-up business grants to enable

trained young women to start businesses, thereby improving their livelihood. These 270 women will have

received business skills training, 90 women in the first year, and an additional 180 in the following year.

Activity Narrative: Twelve young women (four from each district) will be trained in participatory research techniques. These

young women will then carry out a baseline survey and ongoing measurements to understand better the

relationships between economic empowerment, decision-making, and risk-taking. The results of the survey

will be used to help improve the Camfed economic empowerment program and maximize its efficacy in

reducing risk behavior related to HIV infection.

Finally, Camfed will facilitate international exchange visits for six Cama members to build the international

Cama network and ensure that Cama Tanzania benefits from lessons learned and best practices from other

country programs.

LINKAGES: The activity will support the implementation of the OVC National Plan of Action (NPA). Camfed

will work in collaboration with the existing Tunajali program of Deloitte Consulting in Iringa region to avoid

duplication of support. Camfed will also participate in the national Implementing Partner Group (IPG)

network for OVC to share best practices and lessons learned in reducing girls' vulnerability.

The project will benefit from a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Camfed Tanzania and the

Ministry of Education, ensuring lessons learned are directly incorporated into policies, avoiding duplication,

and strengthening the capacity of ministry structures at the district level. Camfed works in partnership with

a range of stakeholders, including Community Development Committees, the Cama young women's

network, Ministry of Education structures at the district, ward and national level, school committees,

teachers and other organizations, including the Tanzanian Family Planning Association (UMATI), and

Enterprise Development Centre.

M&E: Camfed will use the national data system. National OVC data management tools will be used to

record the identified girls to be supported by the program. The data from the district will be sent by the

Camfed M&E officer to the national system.

Internally, Camfed will use Camfed's M&E system, which includes regular financial and narrative reporting

from the school, community, district, and national level structures. Tools are in place to collect and analyze

quantitative data from schools and communities, including a program database which is technically

supported and monitored by Camfed International. Regular reports from stakeholders (including CDCs and

the Cama Committees) will also be captured in the database to provide a rich, qualitative source of analysis.

This analysis will inform training and mentoring needs as well as adjustments to implementation strategies.

Regular monitoring visits will be conducted by Camfed staff. Through strong links between the financial and

M&E system, Camfed will track and report on achievements in statistical, anecdotal, and cost terms and can

link individual girls and schools directly with the support they receive.

SUSTAINABILITY: Camfed's approach to strengthening existing community structures and empowering

communities to act promotes sustainability and continuity of the intervention. Communities have

responsibility for managing project resources, and this community-managed approach gives local groups

the confidence and experience to access, generate, and manage resources effectively in the long term.

The approach encourages local philanthropy to support project goals and activities. Close working

partnerships with government ensure activities are not only complementary, but often integrated into

ongoing Government of Tanzania strategies and approaches.

New/Continuing Activity: New Activity

Continuing Activity:

Table 3.3.13: