Recognizing that the majority of orphans are cared for by family members, Project HOPE focuses on strengthening the capacity of caregivers to provide comprehensive care and support to improve the well-being of children. To address the increased economic needs of orphans and vulnerable children’s (OVC) households and assist in providing the means for sustainable, long term program impact, Project HOPE provides micro-loans and conducts savings mobilization for OVC caregivers to engage in small-scale income generation activities.
The project also uses the vehicle of these loan & savings groups to promote parenting training on the important domains of OVC care and support. Project HOPE developed an OVC-targeted educational curriculum covering essential OVC care and support. The training provides OVC caregivers with education and access to information and resources to help them support the needs of all children under their care, including orphans. This education encompasses a variety of domains including household nutrition, health, parenting skills, HIV prevention, appropriate protection, legal rights, and psycho-social support.
The economic strengthening activities are complemented by community outreach mobilization to further support the needs of OVC providers/caretakers and OVC. Project HOPE mobilizes a network of community based volunteers who are trained through a training of trainers (TOT) methodology on the specialized OVC educational curriculum. These volunteers will in turn identify OVC providers/caretakers within their community and provide home visits, training, counseling, and referral services for them to better improve the well-being of OVC under their support.,
Monitoring and evaluation are critical components of Project HOPE’s approach. Socio-economic profiles are collected on participants in economic strengthening activities to document changes in economic status. Project HOPE has also initiated low-literacy data collection tools that can be managed by the caregivers to empower them in knowing both current status and desired outcomes for the children under their care – referred to as a “parenting map”.
Project HOPE has documented increased income and improved financial resources for OVC caretakers, allowing them to better purchase school uniforms, pay school fees, buy an increased quality and quantity of food, and improve access to medical care. When combined with the increased knowledge about parenting and child-care issues across multiple domains of need, orphans and vulnerable children are shown to receive provide better care and support, and an improvement in their overall well-being.
The project is also active in Namibia and South Africa.
John Bronson
Director, Economic Strengthening Programs
jbronson@projecthope.org
April 2005 to April 2010
Unite For Sight's conference convenes a committed vanguard of thousands from more than 60 countries. The conference challenges students, professionals, educators, doctors, scientists, lawyers, universities, corporations, nonprofits, and others, to develop innovative solutions to achieve global goals.
The conference will feature 200 Speakers, including Keynote Addresses by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Sonia Sachs, Dr. Susan Blumenthal, and Dr. Harold Varmus. Social innovation sessions by CEOs and Directors of Save The Children, Partners in Health, HealthStore Foundation, mothers2mothers, among others, are planned. In addition, "Young Leaders of Social Change" Speakers are featured on the agenda.
