Kennedy Oulu-Malawi
In our organizations quest to improve the livelihoods of AIDS orphans and vulnerable children in Chitipa-District, Northern Malawi, we conducted a vulnerability survey with the express purpose of identifying the various key indices of OVC vulnerability in out catchment. The issues that arose, propelled the organization to start an MED intervention approach for OVC in the district. Some of these issues include;
Children with disabilities will not go back to school after dropping out
OVC drop out are more due to inability to pay for school uniforms, learning and teaching materials, school development levy among others
Food is the highest expenditure category among OVC households
Income generation or earning is the resort mechanism to satisfy food needs
Lack of sustenance forces OVC to involve in child labour
OVC have very strong attachment to land and property across gender
With these in consideration, the organization summarised the MED agenda based on the following;
The intervention must avail food and target nutrition
The must be income earned
Land and property will be put to use
OVC or their household should generate own income for the interim
Their human rights must be respected and provided within this context.
In effect, the organization piloted a goat for goat project to benefit the identified OVC considering the need to mainstream them actively into the community set-ups, enable them trade and earn incomes so that they have the confidence to meet their essential needs and reduce their own vulnerability.
The following lessons have thus been learned in integrating MED for OVC in this project;
Poverty should be considered in absence of productive resources. Although it is a driver to vulnerability, in the event that resources are available, programs should be designed within that context so that poverty is not blanketted.
OVC needs support to be able to do things themselves. This support must emanate from the community. Help them feel part of the community and show them that within their adversity, they can still be productive
Design programs that are not alien to the cultural and socio-economic context within which OVC live.
Target MED programs that focus on reducing their vulnerability, not necessarily their poverty. Since within their context, poverty might be endemic to all, but people still access some essential services.
With a little capacity building, they will eventually cease to be chronically vulnerable. At least that is a starting point.
Thanks.
8 Comments
Attached abstract on the survey/Copy for conference
It was not meant for the conference, but can be shared and commented on also
Dear Oulu – thanks for
Dear Oulu – thanks for this. Viv Brinsdon
Quoting communities@seepnetwork.org:
MED for OVC in Malawi
Thank you so much, Oulu, for this detailed information on the study you conducted, as well as the attachment. I am sure that others working with OVC will find this resource very useful.
An area that is currently of interest to those working with OVC is measuring the impact of such MED interventions on the children themselves (rather than just on the household). I see that you have captured indicators such as school drop-out, child labor, nutrition, etc. What do you think are key indicators related to the overall personal wellness of the children themselves? Do you plan to measure changes in these indicators at the end of the project period? How would you ensure that these changes were directly attributable to the MED intervention?
If you (or anyone else on this conference) have had a similar project in the past and have measured these changes, it would be great if you could share some of your findings with the participants on the conference.
Thank you
Hi pauline; I appreciate
Hi pauline;
I appreciate your comment and i am happy to respond. I may not be so specific to your questions but will try to give a working experience.
It is not easy at times to specially focus on OVC perse as if they are not a part of the wider community. Agreed though that this assumption has caused untold vulnerability on them. In our case, we have just started the pilot program. The pilot program specifies OVC households not in the context of extended family or family support systems but as those households of Total OVC and living entirely on their own. If you like children headed households. When we speak of such households, we develop indicators on OVC as either individuals within that household or as a cohort. Effect is, that it specifically targets orphans who are heading the households and their sibling and or dependants.
How do we measure the impact of such MED interventions on the OVC well being?
At the onset, the survey identified and documented their individual and or household infoemation within different vulnerability indices(Refer to the abstract). Due to this we have documented their individual household incomes, access to nutrition, highest expenditure categories ie; education, health, economic livelihoods, income sources etc. We alrady have a baseline.
The intervention will thus monitor changes on these individual OVC benefitting from the project in all the vulnerability levels considered. This is on-going. the results of which will be conclusive later. BUT... it becomes difficult to consider all these without taking cognisance that the OVC will still depend on the community at different levels, in such cases some variables on interaction with the community(especially when issues of stigma and discrimination comes to play(Extreneous causes) then proxy indicators are given some credence.
Situations arise where the impact of MED on orphans is so succesful that they form a social group which lives beyond the context of the same community in which they belong. This introduces another king of discrimination.
therefore attributing all successes to MED in such programs may not be practical, but a certain percent of contribution can be determined holding other factors constant.
Unfortunately, the well being of OVC through such interventions is not that abstract, even though most donors will expact us to be abstract. So bad.
Life is a factor of the environment also. That is why in Malawi, we pursue the principle of inclusion of the OVC within family and community systems and structures.
I will definitely share such evaluations when they are completed. The report of the survey is available on request, but only until its publication is approved and authorised by the donors who are still going through.
Thanks;
ken Oulu
Dear Oulu Thank you very
Dear Oulu
Thank you very much for your contribution below. I have just visited
a project that is considering introducing SED for orphan headed
households. If you have any further documentation available, I’m sure
the NGO involved would be grateful to see it. The Project was LIFE 1
run in Butula, Western Kenya by REEP, a small indigenouse NGO.
You can reach me at vmb20@bath.ac.uk
Best wishes
Viv Brinsdon.
Quoting communities@seepnetwork.org:
Dear Pauline I’m sorry
Dear Pauline
I’m sorry to respond so late but I was away in W Kenya visiting a
porject concerning the livelihoods for people infected, and affected
by HIV/AIDS, including orphan headed households. It’s just a thought,
but could measuring the network connections made by the household as a
direct result of the MED intervention, and trying to measure if these
have been generally beneficial to the family would work.
My email is: vmb20@bath.ac.uk
Best wishes
Viv Brinsdon.
Quoting communities@seepnetwork.org:
MED for OVC
Thanks a lot, Oulu, for the detailed response. I agree with you that it is difficult to address OVC without taking into consideration the larger community support systems. We look forward to seeing the results of this pilot study, particularly on the child-headed families.
Re: income generating
Hi Children of Faith located in Jamaica over the last 6 years improved the livelihoods of household that is inffected and affected by AIDS. we see drastic changes intheir lives especially nutrition, school attendance move from 0%to appproximately 85% attendance of the school year, lesss time spent on the street and self esteem.
the last two years saw us getting their community members to mentor and assist with the IG when necessary and this is well as the OVC now feels accepted.
For the child headed household the community members share the responsibilty of helping with the household chores and allows the child to go back to school.
Nice to share and blessings.
Gloria