Children’s Hope Malawi Inc.
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Mission Statement
Children’s Hope Malawi aims to address the debilitating effects of HIV/AIDS within the Mtogolo area—a rural community north of Zomba, Malawi, which is comprised of 50 villages and 25,000 inhabitants. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the region has led to a sharp rise of orphans, uneducated/unemployed youth, child-headed households, single mothers and overburdened elderly caretakers. Accordingly, our objective is to support the stabilization and rebuilding of the community by reversing the sense of helplessness caused by the epidemic. We develop holistic interventions aimed at enhancing the community’s social and economic wellbeing. This includes the implementation, in a participatory framework, of programs (and infrastructure development) that will improve the entire community’s access to our core programs -such as education, health, and economic well-being. Close monitoring of budget execution, expenditure controls, and project sustainability are an integral part of project implementation in collaboration with the community.
About This Cause
Children’s Hope Malawi (CHM) works in collaboration with the Mtogolo community in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world and one of the most highly affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Like many rural areas in Malawi, the Mtogolo community, a predominantly small scale agrarian society, suffers from a high incident of poverty that, if not addressed in a systematic manner, would be passed from generation to generation. The high prevalence of HIV infections has exacerbated the problem as it impacts on productivity and reduces house hold income due to the deaths or debility of the productive members of the rural community. In a collaborative framework with the community, CHM works to support HIV/AIDS prevention and impact-mitigation activities, at community and household levels. CHM, a USA-based charity, is composed of five non-salaried Board of Directors including a president, treasurer and secretary. On the ground level in Malawi, we have five non-salaried advisory board members drawn from various disciplines of expertise related to CHM objectives. A project team consists of a salaried project manager, accountant and administrative assistant, a non-salaried marketing officer, publicity secretary, technical adviser and a community coordinator. Core sectors of operations at community level, from which we draw interventions to support the target population, include health, education, economic livelihood, infrastructure development, and food security. In the health sector, the project runs a clinic that operates six days a week at minimal fee providing basic health care, family planning, assessment and referral services, laboratory services, under five clinic, palliative care, and HIV/AIDS prevention services. The clinic, which is manned by a salaried project nurse, clinician and laboratory technician, has saved hundreds of lives in its three years of operation. Activities under the education sector include after school homework and enrichment programs; early childhood development for 2-5 year olds; and adult literacy education. Economic livelihood operations include income generating activities (IGA) such as maize milling, dairy farming and a village shop to support project operations. Because women bear the burden of supporting households, CHM supports IGA for self-support groups through cooperative entrepreneurship. In addition, the community operates a communal farm that supports food security for orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC). Community leaders have time and again provided land to support various activities. Both the US and local board members contribute towards local efforts. Currently the project has no institutional donors and is urgently seeking donor support to further its charitable purposes. Identified target groups for whom CHM in collaboration with the community seeks to impact, include 2,500 orphans and OVC, 500 youth, 500 women, 200 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and 300 elderly citizens all drawn from the 25,000 population within the Mtogolo community of 50 villages under the jurisdiction of Group Village Headman Mtogolo, Traditional Authority Malemia in Domasi, Zomba District of Malawi. The following are immediate problems experienced by the target groups that CHM in collaboration with the community seeks to impact: Orphans and OVC: critically low school enrollment and high rate of school absenteeism and dropout for the small proportion that attend school. Youth: largely uneducated/unemployed among this cohort; high incident of substance abuse, alcoholism and criminality; exposed to unsafe sex and cultural practices that inhibit learning and lead to teen pregnancies and early marriages among girls. Women: own inadequate ancestral land for food production; lack seed and fertilizer inputs; unskilled and lack fund credit for income generating activities; predominantly heading households with limited resources. PLWHA: suffer from stigma; have challenges in accessing ARVs due to distance and cost of travelling. The elderly: fragile health conditions; minimal external health support; lacks basic necessities to support the orphans they care for. Rural Health care: unavailability of essential drugs such as malaria drugs in most health facilities is very critical and results in death for untreated patients. Food Security: inadequate land, lack of seed and fertilizer inputs results in low food production. Rural Infrastructure: poorly developed footpaths and footbridges are inaccessible especially to school children and the elderly during the rainy season. In view of the problems experienced by the target population, CHM recognizes that socio-economic factors and to some extent legal and policy framework cannot be separated from the overall implementation of the HIV/AIDS response. CHM therefore adopts a holistic approach to encourage multi-sector development in from which we develop poverty alleviation interventions. Accordingly, the project continues to seek multi-sectoral collaboration with government sectors, non-profit organization, community based organization, civil society, international communities and other sectors of society to benefit from human resource base, technical and financial expertise in addressing the causes and impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Media coverage of chiefs addressing HIV/AIDS problems in the Mtogolo area is one example of collaboration that can be noted from our website. The project will continue relying on volunteers and the self-help spirit of the village community to reduce costs while at the same time empowering the communities to take charge of their development needs. The strength of the project lies in the fact that the Mtogolo community is very committed to making the partnership with CHM work. Secondly the project focuses on community-driven initiatives which include the hiring and training of local participants within the community and therefore ensuring that the community contributes to the project’s sustainability while benefiting from the positive effects of the intervention. The aforementioned problems faced by the community are very critical and require urgent attention. Accordingly, CHM in collaboration with the community is seeking immediate financial support to create more possibilities to expand the impact of our outreach. The mtogolo community project has the potential of becoming a model for sustainable development, if given the required support. PROJECT GOALS The overall goal is to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS pandemic on orphans and other target groups through interventions that will lead to the improvement of social-economic well-being among the target population. PROJECT OBJECTIVES Orphans and OVC: to increase school attendance for orphans and other vulnerable children attending the project’s early childhood learning and after school enrichment programs. Youth: to support youth with skills, vocational training and educational sponsorship with a goal to reduce unemployment. Women: to support widows/single mothers with entrepreneurship skills that would increase household income to support their families. The Elderly: To institute palliative care system for HIV/AIDS patients and the elderly experiencing fragile conditions. PLWHA: to provide weekly counselling sessions and also improve ART delivery system to the target population. Health: to strengthen the capacity of the community health care system to ensure availability of essential drugs and other services to the community. Infrastructure Development: to support community participation in infrastructure development such as foot bridges for easy access to markets, schools and health centers. Food Security: to improve community’s food security by investing in cooperative large scale irrigation to benefit the entire community. STRATEGY AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES Education enhancement strategy for orphans and OVC: develop feeding plan for children; identify and register under- fives for health screening and treatment; submit building plan for a crèche; develop and submit caregiver training plan; link program with appropriate partners. Community Health Strategy: submit plan for drug procurement including pricing, dispensing and stock management; establish link with District Health Office; submit plan for ARV distribution; submit awareness plan for HIV/AIDS prevention. Training Strategy for Youth: identify vulnerable youth including girls; submit plan for vocational and educational sponsorship; submit plan for peer education (sexual reproduction, health, rights and HIV/AIDS); submit plan for HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness campaign. Enterprise & Microfinance development Strategy for Women: Identify existing village enterprises; formulate plan of action for micro enterprises developments; submit plan for business training. Food Security Strategy: Submit plan for large scale cooperative irrigation farming; identify groups to participate. Infrastructure development strategy: submit plan and budget for community infrastructure development; determine need for each village; identify and involve youth to participate in the planning and improvement process. Palliative care strategy for the elderly: develop palliative care plan for the elderly and HIV/AIDS patients; identify fragile individuals. PLWHA Strategy; Identify PLWHA in the community; submit plan for conducting counseling and motivational sessions to remove stigma; develop plan for a village based ART distribution. MONITORING In collaboration with the community, CHM will put in place a monitoring and evaluation plan to ensure that programs are on track, and effectively achieve the set out objectives of the project. Monitoring of progress will be a continuous process and it will be done to ensure that there was constant supply of information on the delivery of inputs and services by the project. EVALUATION Evaluation, a key management tool, will inform all project stakeholders about the effectiveness of the project, and make necessary adjustments in order to improve or change aspects of the program.