SAT Zimbabwe - Partners

Reached over 2,000 orphans and other vulnerable children with educational support services; livelihood, and psychosocial support.

Provides ongoing training and support to community based orphan care groups; supported the running of AIDS Action clubs where youths are educated on HIV and AIDS prevention.

Introduced a new intervention under the prevention programme, that is, peer education by training 20 peer educators (youths). The training covered among other things, behaviour change, information on HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and the roles of the peer educator. The peer educators have since started disseminating HIV and AIDS information and distributing condoms to their peers to contribute towards reducing HIV transmission.

Provides psycholosocial support to OVC between the ages of 6-18 years. OVCs are identified by the local leaders, headmen, chiefs and the communities. They provide parenting skills to child-headed homes and training to foster parents.

Successfully held community training meetings on palliative care, infection control, and counselling; supported peer education efforts through recruitment and training of peer educators.

People that received medical support have shown some improvement in their health status. To complement the drugs, FACT facilitated the establishment of herbal gardens.

FACT works with 76 AIDS Action Clubs. New developments in terms of how the project is run include the following: 1. Club patrons are increasingly playing a key role in facilitating HIV and AIDS information dissemination and education in schools. 2. Through SAT support some of the clubs such as Marist Brothers and St Monica have developed and fared well in national quiz competitions. Others have integrated home based care activities into the prevention programmes under the UNICEF funded 'Young People We Care programme'.

SAT funding supported the partner to implement activities in the following areas: home based care, HIV and AIDS prevention and impact mitigation.

Major achievements under the home based care include the following:

• Increase in the number of home based caregivers from 48 to 68 thus improving volunteer to client ratio which in turn reduces the workload of the volunteers.
• A number of clients were able to access ARV drugs after they were supported to go through CD4 count a prerequisite for going on antiretroviral treatment. In Rusape CD4 count is accessed through the private sector which is a bit expensive. In total 19 people benefited from the SAT support medication scheme.
• To enhance community competence, FACT facilitated community trainings on areas such as home based care, stress management, and positive living for community support groups.

Under the prevention programme, the following is being observed:

• an increase in the number of couples going for HIV tests before marriage - increased openness about HIV and AIDS status which is contributing towards reducing stigma and discrimination
• an increase in acceptance and use of condoms as one of the prevention strategies.

SAT support also enabled the retention of 76 children in schools. Some of the beneficiaries of the educational support programme went as far as university level of education.

Continued to advocate and provide counselling and clinical services for sexually abused children and their families; facilitated regional and national workshops on child sexual abuse.

Conducted workshops on safer sex for new members; boosted the membership of women from 8 to 49; contributed in the production of the SAT counselling guidelines on Men who have Sex with Men.

The partner significantly increased HIV and AIDS awareness in schools through the use of puppetry; and facilitated the formation of AIDS action clubs in schools.

The partner is reaching over 1000 people with home based care services and supporting over 500 children. The partner also imparts knowledge to home based care community volunteers on infection control, communication, counselling, patient care and record keeping

Has carried out advocacy work among Apostolic and Zion churches based in Gweru to influence change in church practices that promote HIV and AIDS infection among young girls and women as well as tackling stigma and discrimination within the apostolic churches. The partner conducted a gender mainstreaming workshop that was attended by 20 church leaders from the Apostolic and Zion churches. There seem to be some appreciation of gender equity and equality within the churches and also the importance that women play in society. The workshop also managed to link HIV and AIDS with gender.

Provided free legal services to the disadvantaged children and/or guardians in the courts of law on matters of civil or criminal nature including child sexual abuse, child labour, child maintenance custody and guardianship and legal advocacy.

Has carried out advocacy work since 2003 to promote the creation of an enabling environment for the elimination of stigma and discrimination, promotion of children's rights, and mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS within the churches.

The partner mobilised the community members to fight against the problem of HIV and AIDS regardless of their denominations. Reached 31 OVC and 200 people under the home based care programme.

Successfully advocated at community level for property and inheritance rights for women and children. At least 10 families managed to recover property that had been grabbed by relatives.

Provided educational support to 150 children infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Has carried out home based care programme, orphans and vulnerable children support with SAT support and the impact of such support includes the following

• The quality of care under HBC has improved as a result of support from SEVACA home based carers. There is a marked improvement in the health of patients who are under the HBC programme as some of them who were bed bound have regained their strength and are now mobile.
• Knowledge about HBC has improved among the caregivers and other family members
• OVC school attendance and retention has also improved. For instance two orphaned children were supported up to A Level and have since passed and awaiting university enrolment
• Early marriages have also decreased due to the awareness campaigns
• HIV disclosure has also increased as people want to access care and treatment facilities. The increase in disclosure cases also shows that stigma and discrimination has gone down

The HIV and AIDS prevention project achieved the following:

• Setting up of Youth Corners where youths can access information on HIV and AIDS. There are four functional youth corners established at schools and hospitals.
• Trained peer educators are performing their key functions such as facilitating HIV and AIDS information dissemination and education.
• Peer educators mobilised other youths to come to the youth corners where they interact with the peer educators and in the process learn reproductive health issues
• Strategic alliances have been established with local hospitals and schools some of which host the youth corners and also provide technical support to the peer educators.

Facilitated Psychosocial support camps for over 100 children.

Successfully hosted and facilitated a national documentation workshop; facilitated training of 20 girls and 3 boys on reproductive health issues and 70 other children on HIV and AIDS - bringing the children together and their participation in such workshops has significantly improved their social adjustment by creating an environment for the children to interact with one another.

Provided counselling services to 1300 people. The counseling department continued to provide counseling services to those in needy. The demand for counseling services continues to rise as The Centre gets referrals from the public, private sector and the NGO sector.

The Centre now has a functional support group of 15 � 20 children who are HIV positive. This is a positive development as this creates a supportive environment for the children. Children in the support group receive psychosocial support and treatment for opportunistic infections.

UAN youth groups won the provincial drama competition organised by the National AIDS Council; Successfully disseminated information on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs); youth programme successfully mobilised many youth to participate in HIV/AIDS related activities

Reached over 76 children with education support; organized camps for 30 children and training on children rights. It is worth pointing out that children are now aware of their basic rights that embrace among other things; survival and development, play, love, education, food and shelter.