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 (October 2006 to March 2007), BELONG

reached 46,297 OVC (4,661 with primary direct services and 41,636 with supplemental support) and trained

350 caregivers. In FY 2008, BELONG will reach 66,546 OVC, will train 9,000 caregivers, and will

strengthen 258 community schools and community based organizations in providing OVC care and support.

Five thousand caregivers will be reached with economic strengthening initiatives and are 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., 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 2008, 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 in Lusaka and Central Provinces, and expand

into new areas in rural Lusaka, Buccaneer and Ngwerere. Training will be provided to 50 volunteer

caregivers in these new catchment areas 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 250 community schools in Lusaka,

Western, and Southern Provinces, where it is expected to reach a total of 63,047 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.

Caregivers at these schools will also be trained in psychosocial support, food and hygiene education, first

aid, income generation, and school management.

PCI will continue to identify new children through the home-based care platform using the OVC community

committee members, home-based care or OVC caregivers and self referrals to home-based care

community centers and community schools. PCI will develop and strengthen referral linkages between

community schools and DHMT clinics in their geographical areas and home-based care organizations so

that children are able to access Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) services, Antiretroviral Therapy

(ART) services and other health services. Through partnership with home based-care organizations in the

surrounding communities, PCI will encourage referral of children to palliative care services and ART

adherence support services.

PCI will continue to promote child/youth participation in decision making, monitoring and evaluation. In FY

2008, children will be represented in the provincial community schools committees (PCSC) and will

continuously participate in making key decisions on the management of community schools. PCI will

promote quarterly school competitions where children will be encouraged to express themselves through

poetry, drama and debate to encourage them to bring out issues affecting them, such as HIV/AIDS, VCT,

ART access, puberty challenges, stigma and discrimination.

PCI will sensitize the PCSCs and communities, with which it collaborates for school-aged OVC, about the

needs of infants and young children. PCI will help the community recognize its positive practices as well as

needs of the under-five children that are not being adequately met. PCI will support PCSCs to provide a

loving and trusting environment, an opportunity to play and socialize with other children, to express feelings

and ideas, and to learn positive cultural practices.

PCI will support community schools to include promotion of under-5 healthy habits such as nutrition

education (breastfeeding, weaning); water purification and basic hygiene; promotion of immunizations;

promotion micro-nutrients supplementation and de-worming medications; provision of bed-nets and

education on proper usage; education on the identification of childhood illness and where to seek

assistance; education on HIV/AIDS, prevention/ABC, VCT, PMTCT, treatment/ART, and stigma-reduction

activities. BELONG will use a wraparound approach to leverage nutritional supplements from PCI's Food

For Education (FFE) Program that will be implemented in collaboration Land O'Lakes and other key

stakeholders amounting to $100,000.

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 have been provided to all members. To date, 5,000 women have been enrolled, and

seven community-based organizations are working with PCI to support this program component, with

technical assistance from Pact. From July 2006 to August 2007, over 200 groups have been formed; total

group savings as at August 24, 2007 were K119, 863,000.00 (almost $30,000); literacy levels have

improved among the rural women; over 2,000 women have their own micro businesses, and 11,550 OVC

are benefiting indirectly through the Worth model.

Activity Narrative: BELONG will continue to build the capacity of a network of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs),

community based organizations (CBOs), and faith based organizations (FBOs) to provide quality services to

OVC. BELONG will work with Bwafwano as a primary partner to implement the detailed organizational

capacity assessment plan that was developed in FY 2007 and 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; including support to Bwafwano to mentor other identified local organizations

that have been selected for participation in the BELONG network.

BELONG will work with select 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 work to 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 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 monitoring and evaluation (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 will expand to new districts and identify new partners to

facilitate increased numbers of OVC have access to services, ensuring that end line targets are met.

BELONG's sustainability strategy includes, an emphasis on working together with and strengthening the

capacity of local organizations through technical and organizational support, joint capacity assessment and

planning to address areas of technical and management needs (including strategic planning, financial

management, and resource mobilization), 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

the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Community Development and Social Sciences, Zambia Open

Community Schools 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

OVC. All FY 2008 targets will be reached by September 30, 2009.