This activity relates to other Track 1.0 HKID projects and the RAPIDS HKID.

The Community-based Care of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CBCO) program, a Track 1.0 Orphans

and Vulnerable Children (OVC) project began in FY2005. Christian Aid (CA), the prime partner, is a UK-

based international development agency with over 40 years of experience supporting more than 550

indigenous non-governmental and faith-based organizations in 60 countries. CA is working with the

following sub-partners in Zambia to respond to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR):

Catholic Diocese of Ndola (CDN), Copperbelt Health Educational Program (CHEP), Archdiocese of Lusaka

(ADL), and Family Health Trust (FHT). These sub-partners work with CA to implement quality OVC

programming in impoverished areas of Zambia, hard hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These locations

include both rural and urban areas of Zambia's Copperbelt region, marginalized peri-urban areas of Lusaka,

and rural areas of Zambia's Central, Eastern, and Southern Provinces.

The goals of the CBCO program are to improve the quality of life of over 16, 000 OVC by a) ensuring that

OVC have sustained access to essential services and are protected from all forms of abuse and

exploitation; b) developing the capacity of sub-partners and community institutions to support high quality

OVC programming; and c) sharing lessons learned, models, and best practices for replication of successful

approaches. CBCO has served a total of 11,333 OVC. 3,263 caregivers have been trained, as at semi-

annaul of FY2008 (March 2008). By April 2010, CBCO and its sub-partners will provide support to

approximately 16, 000 OVC and train at least 4000 caregivers.

Many CBCO households are not in a financial position to send the OVC under their care to school. As

such, CBCO will continue to provide support to OVC that are either not going to school or are on the verge

of dropping out, by paying for school fees, uniforms, and other scholastic materials. A rigorous targeting

process will be undertaken by sub-partners with the participating communities, using wealth ranking and

other participatory reflection and action (PRA) tools to identify eligible OVC. Deliberate measures will be

undertaken to ensure that girl-OVC are prioritized for education support. Some of the older OVC that are

either long-term school drop-outs and have difficulties integrating into the formal educational system or who

have already completed secondary school and have significant potential to go further in their studies will be

assisted to identify their interests and current skills. They will be linked to relevant and quality vocational

and tertiary training programs, provided they commit to supporting their younger siblings.

The majorities of CBCO beneficiaries lives in rural and peri-urban areas and greatly depend on agriculture

for both food and income. Since the program inception, CBCO has trained Savings and Loans Association

(SLA) facilitators and supported them to mobilize and train/mentor OVC guardians into SLA groups in their

respective sites, in order to strengthen the capacity of OVC households to generate income and access

credit. A total of 203 SLA groups have been formed in each site. They are saving significant amounts of

money, commenced the loaning process, and are engaging in income generating activities (IGAs). Within

FY 2008, this intervention was scaled-up to ensure all OVC households belong to SLAs. CBCO developed

extra materials and commenced the training of SLA members in entrepreneurial skills to equip them with

practical skills in business planning and management. CBCO will continue with training to strengthen

entrepreneurial skills for OVC guardians to ensure that they engage in lucrative IGAs, support linkages

between SLA groups and other service providers and ensure that the selection of enterprises is based on

reliable market information for increased profitability. SLA groups will continue to be sensitized to time their

liquidation of savings towards important yearly events such as the onset of the agriculture season or

beginning of the school year, so that they can use their portion of savings on important household expenses

such as purchase of agricultural inputs or payment of school fees.

As a long-term capacity building strategy for such households, significant efforts will continue to be directed

towards increasing food and nutritional security and household income by providing OVC households with

high-impact agro-based and off-farm self-help projects in the form of seeds and livestock etc, through their

already established SLAs and by training caregivers in sustainable agricultural technologies. The program

will continue to use a performance-based approach in providing self-help projects to SLA groups, while still

ensuring deliberate mechanisms for supporting weaker or extremely vulnerable OVC households, in order

to enhance effective participation and sustainability. CBCO will train caregivers and the OVC guardians in

best nutritional practices, especially for guardians of under-five OVC. This will include but will not be limited

to cooking demonstrations using locally available foods.

In FY2007 and FY2008, CBCO directed significant effort to providing quality Psychosocial Support (PSS) to

OVC that have undergone traumatic experiences or unusual hardships. A review of existing materials from

Regional PSS Initiative (REPPSI) and other organizations was conducted, and supplementary facilitation

materials for guardians and kids clubs were compiled. The program formed Kids clubs for OVC aged 6 to

11 and also delivered PSS for guardians during weekly SLA meetings. CBCO delivered Life Skills for OVC

aged between 12 and 17 years through youth clubs. CBCO will continue to support the existing Kids and

Youth Clubs and mobilize new clubs, and ensure that all SLAs have on-going PSS for guardians. Further,

the program will concentrate on improving the quality of facilitation by conducting spot checks on the kids

clubs and life skills sessions, being undertaken by volunteer facilitators, and this will form the basis for

appropriate capacity building to be provided.

CBCO will continue to promote the protection of OVC rights and to reduce stigma and discrimination. In FY

2007 and FY2008, more effort was directed towards strengthening continuous monitoring of OVC for

protection against various forms of abuse by allocating OVC mentors to each SLA group who regularly visit

OVC households to identify and manage cases of abuse, managing minor cases and referring major cases

to local authorities. The program will continue to ensure that these structures are operating as envisaged

and also ensure that the trained mentors properly manage both minor and major abuse cases through

established community-based systems like the Child-Protection Committees, community leaders, and the

Child protection Unit. Further, Christian Aid has sourced private funding to leverage the PEPFAR support

and integrate rights-based approaches in OVC programming. The first phase of the program, beginning in

September 2008, encompasses the research phase, which will determine the capacity gaps for services

that are being under accessed by the OVC, and determine roles and responsibilities of OVC duty bearers at

Activity Narrative: various community and government levels and the extent to which they are being fulfilled. The second

phase involves the provision of rights-based and advocacy training of OVC and their guardians, through

their SLA groups and community-level support committees to make them aware of their rights and lobbying

and influencing local government to better fulfill their duties. This will be integrated in the existing CBCO

activities and be implemented until the current phase of the program phases out in April 2010.

The program will continue to support community-based responses for providing care and support to OVC.

CBCO will roll out a referral system with clinical facilities and other OVC support programs like voluntary

counseling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), antiretroviral therapy

(ART) and other care and support programs. Further, the program will continue to integrate its activities in

sub-partner existing programs and structures, and encouraged the leveraging of funds from other sources.

CBCO will continue to participate in the OVC forum for coordination, and prevention of overlap and

duplication, and sharing of best practices. The program will, where possible, support linkages to the food

security, micro-finance, and education sectors by involving the Ministry of Agriculture in trainings, referring

matured SLA groups to fully-fledged micro-financing institutions, supporting them to register and attain legal

recognition and affiliate to other supportive institutions like district farmers associations and the department

of cooperatives. Linkages with the education sector will include soliciting for bursaries from government

and other programs for some OVC requiring tertiary and vocational training.

The program developed an OVC tracking system for use by all sub-partners for easy reporting. The system

aims to avoid double counting at program level and identify essential service gaps by monitoring the

targeted OVC in all six core areas. All the data is gender and age disaggregated to ensure equity in all

project interventions. Further, the system has incorporated quality assurance monitoring, involving OVC

guardians, non-beneficiary household and youths aged between 15-17 years as part of beneficiary

participation. The program will also continue to ensure this age group has representation in the community

OVC committees. Finally, the experienced program staff will continue to support the sub-partners to

implement interventions that adhere to PEPFAR OVC programming guidance, national, and international

standards. Christian Aid will endeavor to promote sustainability by building its sub-partners' capacity

through training and mentorship in various aspects of program management for effective program

implementation.

All COP 2009 targets will be reached by April 10th, 2010, when the Christian Aid contract for this phase

ends.

New/Continuing Activity: Continuing Activity

Continuing Activity: 14379

Continued Associated Activity Information

Activity Activity ID USG Agency Prime Partner Mechanism Mechanism ID Mechanism Planned Funds

System ID System ID

14379 3740.08 U.S. Agency for Christian Aid 6810 3042.08 Track 1 OVC: $1,042,966

International Community-

Development based Care of

OVC

8877 3740.07 U.S. Agency for Christian Aid 4967 3042.07 Track 1 OVC: $671,559

International Community-

Development based Care of

OVC

3740 3740.06 U.S. Agency for Christian Aid 3042 3042.06 Community $476,534

International Based Care of

Development OVC

Emphasis Areas

Gender

* Addressing male norms and behaviors

* Increasing women's access to income and productive resources

* Reducing violence and coercion

Human Capacity Development

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Human Capacity Development $59,500

Public Health Evaluation

Food and Nutrition: Policy, Tools, and Service Delivery

Food and Nutrition: Commodities

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Food and Nutrition: Commodities $44,600

Economic Strengthening

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Economic Strengthening $60,000

Education

Estimated amount of funding that is planned for Education $45,000

Water

Table 3.3.13: