This activity links to ZDF HBHC (#8787), ZDF HVOP (#8786), and ZDF AB (#9170) activities, other Track 1.0 HKID activities, and RAPIDS HKID (#8947).

The implementation of this activity is through a bi-lateral buy-in to the Project Concern International BELONG Track 1.0 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) Project to provide care and support to AIDS-affected OVC within and associated with the Zambian Defense Force (ZDF). This activity is under the technical guidance and management of USAID with strong DOD collaboration. Due to the high HIV prevalence and AIDS-related illness and deaths in the ZDF, the number of OVC associated with the ZDF is growing. The precarious position of OVC is worsened by the fact that AIDS widows of deceased ZDF personnel often do not receive their husbands' benefits for long periods of time, up to five years. During this waiting period, AIDS widows have a very difficult time meeting the basic needs of their orphaned children. These AIDS widows and their children suffer enormous stigma and frequent exploitation. The financial situation of an AIDS widow and her children might be particularly strained if a proper will was not prepared before her husband's death and family resources like property and investments are grabbed by relatives. Those living outside the barracks are even more vulnerable, as they must pay rent and utilities. Once families and children leave the barracks, they receive no support from the military. This can lead to psycho-social trauma, malnutrition, dropping out of school, and basic neglect for the AIDS-affected OVC.

Prior to PEPFAR, there was no assistance available for the ZDF in OVC support. In FY 2005 and FY 2006, USG has been working with CARE International to assist ZDF with identifying priority issues and assistance needs involving AIDS-affected OVC who are taken care of by military families and OVC of military personnel who have presumably died from AIDS. In FY 2007, BELONG will adapt the Bwafwano model of OVC care and support following OGAC guidance to benefit the wellbeing of AIDS-affected OVC of current and ex-ZDF personnel in the military barracks and surrounding communities.

In FY 2007, BELONG will build capacity of parents, guardians, and school teachers to provide care and support and link to existing psychosocial, educational, medical, and other required support to OVC and their guardians. Building on BELONG strategies, and accounting for the needs identified by the ZDF, AIDS-affected OVC will be identified through one or more of the following channels: a) through PEPFAR supported home-based care programs managed by the ZDF; b) through lists compiled by ZDF personnel of AIDS widows awaiting their benefits, or other families caring for AIDS-affected OVC; or c) through schools catering to ZDF OVC. There are three kinds of schools attended by AIDS-affected OVC: 1). schools situated on the military base; 2). government schools situated just outside the military cantonments; and 3). community schools located in civilian communities surrounding the military bases, which are managed by Parent Community School Committees (PCSCs). BELONG will use its many years of experience providing educational support to OVC.

BELONG will train 200 teachers and caregivers in 20 sites (10 per site) to assess the needs of individual OVC and in the provision of psychosocial support to OVC and their guardians, using training materials developed for use in FY 2005 and FY 2006. These caregivers will in turn sensitize parents/guardians on the importance of psychosocial support, education, medical care, HIV testing, and pediatric ART. They will also help in identifying children who are experiencing loss and grief and will organize activities to help OVC build their resilience and meet their needs for self esteem and positive coping skills. Psychosocial support activities will include dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS prevention and children's rights. This will be done in collaboration with other organizations.

Other types of support which may be provided include support for education (assistance with fees where necessary, teaching and learning supplies, and support to improve the quality of schooling, as below); nutritional support; shelter; and other types of critical material assistance, depending on the needs identified for each child. BELONG will work closely with the ZDF to ensure ZDF-associated AIDS orphans receive their rightful benefits in a timely manner. Recreation will also be used as a strategy to disseminate information and to reach out to children who are out of school. This will maximize the number of OVC to be reached in the communities including those being cared for by military or ex-military guardians, or by widows or widowers of military staff. Untrained teachers in community schools will be trained in teaching methodologies and class management in order for them

to provide quality education to OVC. PCSCs will be trained in community resource mobilization and participation and in school and financial management. Community OVC Committees (COVCCs) and PCSCs will be trained to identify and implement OVC advocacy activities in their communities. The composition of PCSCs or selection of participants will allow for military or ex-military guardians to benefit from the training.

In addition to psycho-social support, AIDS affected OVC ages 0-18 will be linked to medical care. Guardians will be encouraged to take the children for HIV testing if they have signs of chronic illness or growth faltering. Those found to be HIV positive will be referred to ART centers for further management. The goal of this program is to provide holistic care and support to 2000 OVC in FY 2007.

Many AIDS widows fail to manage their benefits once received, due to a lack of entrepreneurship (business) skills. The project will therefore provide basic business skills from the 20 sites for widows waiting to get their spouse benefits. This will empower the widows with sustainable ways of taking care of their children.

Community mobilization and participation is an ongoing and underlying process of the activity, building on those initiated in FY 2005 and FY 2006. In order to promote sustainability and develop a sense of ownership and responsibility and to catalyze community collective action around issues of OVC, the project will strengthen the capacity of the District OVC Committees (DOVCCs) and COVCCs, including military and ex-military households, in community and resource mobilization. BELONG will document the participation of military or ex-military personnel or AIDS widows in these committees. BELONG will strengthen linkages with existing service providers or potential donors to scale up activities aimed at supporting OVC. These will include activities to ensure COVCCs and PCSCs refer children to counselors, healthcare providers, and Family Support Units where these exist. Currently, some of the schools are used as centers for child health activities. Discussions will be held with district health staff and neighborhood committees to conduct school health services to cater for the older OVCs such as de-worming and hygiene education. ZDF through the office of the OVC program manager will actively be involved in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the OVC program. This will promote ownership of the program by ZDF.

BELONG will use the existing monitoring and evaluation system to track output and outcome indicators and to ensure that duplication and double counting are eliminated.

The activity is designed to put in place sustainable community level support structures for OVCs, including a focus on capacity building of community level structures such as the PCSCs, DOVCCs and COVCCs; improving infrastructure; and promoting involvement and ownership by communities and the ZDF of activities designed to address OVC priorities.

This activity relates to other Track 1.0 OVC projects, RAPIDS HKID (#8947), and HCP HKID (#8903). The Project Concern International (PCI) Track 1.0 Better Education and Life Opportunities for Vulnerable Children through Networking and Organizational Growth (BELONG) project began in April 2005. Its goal is to increase the number of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) accessing quality services through sustainable, community-based programs that effectively reduce their vulnerability. In FY 2006, BELONG reached 63,124 OVC and trained 153 caregivers. In FY 2007, BELONG will reach 102,633 OVC, will train 5,318 caregivers, and will strengthen 417 community schools and community based organizations in providing OVC care and support. An additional 4,400 caregivers will be reached with economic strengthening initiatives, but are not included in the targets above. BELONG is an active member of the USG/Zambia OVC Forum and will seek to collaborate and link with other OVC efforts such as the RAPIDS project, other Track 1.0 OVC projects operating in Zambia, and other donor supported and GRZ efforts. Partners implementing the BELONG project in Zambia include PCI as the prime agency, Pact Inc., Futures Group, Bwafwano, a pioneer of community-based care and OVC support, Zambia Open Community Schools (ZOCS), a local NGO supporting OVC in community schools, and other community-based organizations. In FY 2007, BELONG will increase the availability of critical OVC support services, including quality formal or informal education, literacy and numeracy training, life skills education, medical care, nutritional support, and psychosocial support. Channels for reaching OVC include expanded collaboration with PCI's major local partner, Bwafwano, which will involve increasing Bwafwano's capacity to reach OVC through their home-based care program. Bwafwano will continue to work through the 37 established OVC committees and community leaders where it has an established presence (Chipata, Chansiniama and Tuchafwane in Lusaka Province; Mkushi District in Central Province). BELONG will train 70 volunteer caregivers to strengthen their capacity to provide care and support for OVC in a community setting. BELONG will conduct community sensitization activities to raise awareness on the role of OVC committees and to address issues affecting OVC, including stigma and discrimination. BELONG and its partners will bring essential support services to school children in approximately 113 community schools in Lusaka, Western, and Southern provinces, where it is expected to reach a total of 99,122 OVC, in addition to those reached by Bwafwano. These services will include access to education, nutritional support, HIV/AIDS and life skills education, psycho-social support, and other services in these schools. BELONG will support HIV/AIDS prevention through behavior change communication for children in target community schools, including an innovative approach involving HIV+ and HIV/AID-affected people in OVC program design and implementation. Caregivers at these schools will also be trained in psychosocial support, food and hygiene education, first aid, income generation, and school management. In FY 2007, BELONG will train 5,248 caregivers. BELONG uses a wraparound approach to leverage nutritional supplements from PCI's existing World Food Program school feeding platform implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, UNICEF, Zambia Community Schools Secretariat (ZCSS), and other key stakeholders. BELONG will strengthen the capacity of households providing care for OVC, especially women and older OVC household heads, to support themselves and their children through economic empowerment initiatives. This component will increase economic empowerment of participating households by adapting the WORTH model in partnership with Pact. The model will be used in mobilizing and forming successful women's groups that generate income based on the principles of self-help and empowerment. Through WORTH, OVC caregivers will be provided with access to literacy training, savings-led micro-finance and the development of micro-enterprises. A range of learning materials that guide the groups in business management, savings-led credit systems and literacy skills have been adapted and translated into the local language, Nyanja, and will be provided to all members. To date, 4,975 women have been enrolled, and seven community-based organizations have been identified as sub-partners to work with PCI to support this program component, with technical assistance from Pact. BELONG will continue to build the capacity of a network of local NGOs, CBOs, and FBOs to provide quality services to OVC. BELONG will work with Bwafwano as a primary partner to develop a detailed organizational capacity assessment plan which will be implemented in part through the "Centers of Learning" component and in part via other mechanisms of training, mentoring, on-the-job training, and technical support. A process of assessment will also be carried out with other identified local organizations that are selected for participation via a mapping process. The resulting capacity-building plans will include a variety of needs-based and cost-effective capacity building approaches. Linking organizations together will be actively promoted as a strategy

for connecting partners with information and other needed resources to support on-going capacity improvement and generate new approaches to working with children. The capacity-building approach will establish micro-grants that will enable local organizations to apply for small amounts of funds to help them begin or expand OVC programming, test promising new approaches, document and disseminate successful approaches, and replicate proven approaches. BELONG will work with local organizations and increase their capacity to serve as "Centers of Learning" in order to facilitate rapid scale-up of services. This component forms a major part of the BELONG project's strategy for sustainability. The project will strengthen Bwafwano and other "Centers of Learning" to serve in this network of learning, improving their abilities to assess and respond to capacity building needs. These Centers of Learning will provide mentoring and coaching in their designated network to improve the quality of OVC care. BELONG will document lessons learned and successful methodologies for serving vulnerable children and their caretakers. Building on the M&E system currently in use, BELONG will further strengthen its M&E system to track output and outcome indicators and also to ensure that duplication and double counting are eliminated. BELONG will build the M&E capacity of their local partners. BELONG's sustainability strategy includes, an emphasis on working together with and strengthening the capacity of local NGOs, CBOs, and FBOs through technical and organizational support, joint capacity assessment and planning to address areas of technical and management needs (including strategic planning, financial management, resource mobilization, etc.), and networking (linking less well-developed organizations with each other and with more established organizations for mentoring through the centers of learning and with sources of technical support in government and the NGO community). BELONG's close collaboration with Zambia Community School Secretariat, the MoE and the Ministry of Community Development and Social Sciences, and its ongoing advocacy efforts to improve government support for quality education targeted at the most vulnerable children at community schools will also help schools sustain their support to OVCs.

With $250,000 in Plus-up funding, BELONG will bring in experts to work with partners to develop, print, and disseminate guidelines, training material, and work tools for responding to the needs of OVCs aged 0- 5. BELONG will train OVC managers and trainers in how to operationalize the guidelines.

Table 3.3.08: