This activity relates to other track 1.0 OVC projects, RAPIDS HKID, and HCP HKID.

Family Health International (FHI) began implementing a Track 1.0 OVC program Faith-based Regional

Initiative for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (FABRIC), in Zambia, in August, 2005. In FY 2007,

FABRIC worked through 17 FBOs to reach 4,500 OVC in five districts with food and nutrition, education,

psychosocial, and heath support. The number of OVC reached surpassed the target set for the year. Of the

total OVC reached, over 70% received support in at least three core primary direct services. In FY 2008,

FABRIC will provide support to 11,000 Orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC).

This activity has four components: (1) capacity building and financial support of Expanded Church

Response (ECR); (2) capacity building of ECR's local partners; (3) essential service delivery to OVC

according to need; and, (4) collaboration and linkages with GRZ and other key service providers. Through

these four components, FABRIC will build and strengthen family and community capacities to provide a

sustainable supportive environment for orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

In FY 2008, FABRIC will continue providing technical assistance to its local partner, the Expanded Church

Response (ECR) in project management, OVC technical areas, and monitoring and evaluation to ensure

that they have appropriate knowledge and skills to support quality OVC activities in their communities.

FABRIC will continue to strengthen ECR's grant making and grant disbursement mechanisms and its

capacity to provide technical and managerial support to FBOs. FABRIC will also continue to focus on

improving ECR's overall knowledge and skills in OVC programming. This includes ensuring that an

effective and reliable data collection system for monitoring and planning is used by ECR and their local

FBOs partners, data collected is of high quality, in line with USG, GRZ, and FABRIC strategies and

expectations. Capacity building activities includes training, supportive supervision, and mentoring, and will

provide ECR staff with skills to set priorities/target and provide quality services.

The second project component is capacity building to ECR and their local partners to ensure program

sustainability. In FY 2008, in addition to 152 caregivers trained in FY 2007, FABRIC will train 100 caregivers

about how to integrate immunization, food and nutrition, deworming, TB and malaria prevention information

into their messages, especially for OVC under five years. Training will also encourage activities and

services for adolescent OVC, including referral for reproductive health education services. FABRIC will

continue and strengthen the OVC identification process which is done by trained FBO care givers and at

household level using a child and Household Assessment form, which a criteria for eligible OVC.

FABRIC will continue strengthening ECR's grant management capacity and will provide technical and

managerial support to FBOs. Monitoring activities will focus on improving and ensuring quality in the

established OVC projects. Regular supervisory visits to monitor the quality of service provided will be

conducted by the FABRIC Director and monitoring and evaluation officer.

In FY 2008, FABRIC will improve ECR‘s technical ability to support the trained OVC care givers as they

implement psychosocial support, basic nutrition counseling, and educational support activities. FABRIC will

continue to encourage guardians to be more resourceful in the use of local available foods e.g. groundnuts,

beans and soya and to provide food preparation counseling. To ensure more sustainable food security

support from locally available partners, FABRIC will link ECR and the sub-partners to Ministry of Agriculture

and other programs such as National Food and Nutrition Commission and World Food Program (Food for

assert). Educational services will include material support to vulnerable children and includes items that will

facilitate school attendance such as textbooks, exercise books, pencils, school bags and uniforms. In

addition, FABRIC will provide recreational, socialization and play opportunities including day, weekend

and/or holiday camps. Older OVC (Youth 14-17) will continue to be involved in making decision in what they

what the program to do for them. FABRIC will also continue to invite health workers to make presentations

and have discussions with the youth on prevention of HIV and other STIs, gender and sexuality,

implications of early pregnancy etc. The FABRIC program will continue to establish linkages and referrals to

other services available to OVC and their caregivers to ensure their diverse needs are met. FABRIC will

refer OVC in need of health services to local health institutions to access ART, anti-malaria, CT and any

other ailments. FABRIC will also train OVC guardians in early childhood development skills in order for

them to adequately engage the under-five OVC and ensure quality child growth.

FABRIC will continue to support six of the 18 FBOs with income generating activities (IGAs). Although the

IGAs have been running only for 5months, Poultry (chicken) layering and brick making have proved to be

more effective. They are able to get good profit as market is readily available and both chickens and bricks

are on high demand in both urban and rural parts of the country.

The third project component is the delivery of essential services to OVC according to assessed needs. In

FY 2008, FABRIC, through ECR, will continue to support the 17 local partners to expand and improve

quality of OVC services. These partners will reach 4,000 OVC with psychosocial support, educational

programs, nutritional support, health care, and, through referrals, legal and other services. In FY 2008,

FABRIC will train 100 new OVC caregivers who will in turn train the OVC primary caregivers in caring for

OVC, including those infected with HIV. Selection and training of secondary caregivers will continue to

emphasize male involvement. In particular, an effort will be made to work with the existing Men's Christian

Fellowship Committees within various churches since men are traditionally the decision-makers and their

participation could have great influence on community attitudes towards and support of OVC. Secondary

caregivers will be trained to mobilize primary caregivers to participate in national child health week,

especially for under five year olds.

In the final component, collaboration with GRZ and linkages with other stakeholders, FABRIC and its local

partner ECR will work closely with government representatives and local leaders, including provincial and

district authorities, and with recognized community and religious structures, such as Community AIDS Task

Forces and Pastors fellowship, to ensure they are supportive of project activities. FABRIC will continue to

link the projects to the appropriate government services. In collaboration with the Zambia Prevention, Care

and Treatment Partnership, FABRIC will establish and support community-level counseling and testing and

referral for antiretroviral therapy in Luanshya district. More than two-thirds of the households under the

FABRIC program will benefit from an ITN distribution program by RAPIDS. ECR and the local FBOs will

also be encouraged and assisted to set up linkages with other health and social service providers within the

community, through established referral systems, to ensure optimal use of available services and maximize

Activity Narrative: the benefits to the OVC, their caregivers and families. Linkages will be made for ERC and their FBO

partners to organizations, such as the Young Women's Christian Association, that address issues of social

inequalities between men and women and harmful gender cultural norms and practices which are fueling

the HIV epidemic. In FY 2007, FHI leveraged private funding ($6,000) to support income generating

activities for six FBOs and will continue to give financial management guidance to these in FY 2008 to

ensure OVC directly benefit from the profit.

The FABRIC approach is aimed at ensuring the OVC programs are sustainable and will continue after the

project concludes. Through building the capacity of ECR and its local partners, FABRIC is increasing the

technical expertise, financial management and organizational capacity of local partners while strengthening

their networking skills and collaboration with other implementing partners and the GRZ.

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