Development Aid from People to People

HOPE Mongu

Year Report January to December 2014

To U-landshjelp fra Folk til Folk, Norge

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Name of Project: Hope Mongu

Implementing Organization: Development Aid from People to People in Zambia

Report period: January to December, 2014

INTRODUCTION

The project offered counselling and testing for HIV in Western Province through mobile

drive and through centre care and support services. The project also disseminated information

and carried out trainings on HIV/AIDS prevention and management, including Prevention of

Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) to protect children born from HIV positive mothers.

Support groups were formed, carrying out Positive Living trainings and providing support to

OVCs through psychosocial counselling among other activities.

On the other hand, school and youth programs aimed at reducing the spread of HIV among in

and out of school youth. Some of the school going orphaned youth also received direct

support in form of school requisites. The out of school youth were supported with inputs for

gardening and small livestock to improve their livelihood and food security, and this was also

done for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) and their families. Advocacy and adherence

activities to support TB patients and PLHIV using ART were also conducted.

Counselling and testing ended in July 2014 when the New Start project ended. By the end of

the year (November) a new project started with focus on nutrition for the first 1000 days of

the child’s life starting from conception to the 2nd birthday. The project formed 1000 Parents

Support Groups with 1000 members who in 2015 will continue activities. The HOPE project

will come to an end in December 2014 and will be transitioned to Child Aid in 2015 which

will continue Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) activities.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Objective 1 - Improved health and welfare for PLHIV and their families

HOPE Mongu reached out to 50 support group members, providing them with support and

care services including trainings in positive living to support groups for people living with

HIV. The project also gave training to provide skills to generate income. The activities

included:

Saving groups: The project has so far trained 14, out of the targeted 50 support groups in

group saving. The three groups acquired skills in small business and financial management

systems and started saving in their groups, while also conducting individual businesses from

the loans given out by the groups.

Training of families to improve vegetable gardening: The project trained 50 support groups

in back yard gardening and crop management, and gave out seeds to 401 members from

different support groups to start back yard gardens. Lessons have been given on how to make

compost manure and on the importance of crop diversification in order to enhance the

wellbeing of the support groups and individual members.

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Treatment Related Activities: Various activities relating to treatment of TB and HIV/AIDS

were conducted by trained Treatment Supporters and the ART Adherence Supporters who

made follow-ups on clients who are on treatment. This intervention was done to ensure that

PLHIV adhere to the treatment procedures for people on ART and/or TB treatment.

Additionally, opinion forming meetings were conducted in the community and health centers

in partnership with the TB focal persons. The project trained a total number of 1,931 PLHIV

in positive living.

Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs): The project supported 100 OVCs in

different ways e.g. they were visited by project leaders and the outreach officers who are the

community mobilizers to give them psychosocial support. Among them, 50 were supported

directly with educational materials like books, school fees, pens, school bags, school shoes

and blankets while the other 50 were given psychosocial support through door to door

visitation by the community mobilizers and development instructors who engaged them in

different social activities.

Objective 2 - Reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS

Youth and school programs: The project reached out to in-school and out-of-school youths

clubs through school programs. The total number of schools reached were 30 for in-school

and 20 for out-of-school clubs. The project focused on sensitizing young adolescents to delay

and abstain from sexual activities. They were also sensitised on the dangers of alcohol and

drug abuse. The sensitizations were in form of lessons through organised games and drama

performances with the support of the development instructors. The development instructors

also trained the youths in bracelet making in order to help them generate income.

Condom distribution: The project goal was to distribute 1,000,000 condoms but exceeded this

to distribute 2,186,417 condoms within the operation area. This was done through the 33

established condom outlets, work places and by one-to-one distribution method. Male and

female condom demonstration were done by the trained condom distributers and volunteers.

Male Circumcision: The project counselled and referred 12,129 men for actual circumcision

to service providers, from a target of 11,000 men.

Objective 3 -Mobilizing volunteers to take active part in the fight against

HIV/AIDS

The project worked with 1,134 activists in project implementation. 200 care givers/treatment

supporters (TB/ART) carried out follow ups and gave lessons about adherence during

TB/ART days. A total of 340 Support Group activists spearheaded the mobilizing of people

for counseling and testing and 33 were active in condom distribution in the outlets. 265 youth

activists mobilized and educated their fellow youths about behavior change and effects of

drug abuse. 79 village headmen were active in mobilizing their subjects during the opinion

forming meetings in their communities. 30 teachers organized school HIV/AIDS action clubs

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from the different schools we are operating from. Finally, 187 peer educators were

distributing condoms from the outlets. The activists were mobilized during the time when we

were carrying out activities in the community, while some of them volunteered to work with

the project. Opinion forming activities were conducted with tradition leaders to help us

discuss the importance of couple counseling and early treatment of STIs with their subjects.

EFFECTS OF THE PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Improved income, nutrition and health for people living with HIV and their families:

With the support from the project to start up saving groups, the group members have started

up small businesses that are in turn giving them some extra income to support themselves and

their families. In addition the support group members who received inputs for gardening are

now able to eat their home grown and fresh vegetables. From the same gardening activities,

they are able to raise income through sale of vegetables.

Other ventures which they are doing are bracelet making, table clothes, door mats and ear

ring making, with the help of the development instructors (DIs). Kuomboka support group is

rearing local chickens and at the moment they have 43 local chickens. They have also

ventured into rice growing from which they managed to harvest nine 50kg bags of rice which

they are have been selling at the local market.

Increased care and support to people living with HIV: Due to the project interventions

through lessons, over 2131 Support Group members have managed to improve their health by

living a positive life. Examples of topics covered in the lessons were nutrition, safer sex

practises and adherence. The Support Group members have also started to take good care of

their personal hygiene and household surroundings by making use of Tippy taps, Dish racks,

Refuse pits and safe water sources.

Increased awareness of HIV/AIDS in the communities: there was a notable increase in the

number of men and women accessing female and male condoms, as seen in the report.

Furthermore, the number of men and women accessing VCT services was also higher in 2014

as compared to 2013.

Increased uptake of HIV prevention services: Due to increased knowledge, more people

accessing VCT services and were linked to service providers for, treatment, care and support.

The communities also undertook other prevention measures as a result of sensitization.

Women accessed family planning services and men accessed Male Circumcision services.

Increased uptake of counselling, testing and PMTCT services:A total of 22,728 people

have managed to access VCT, and those who tested positive were referred for further services

including PMTCT for pregnant women and men for Male Circumcision.

Increased number of activists taking part in fighting HIV/AIDS: A total of 2,131

community agents took part in fighting the spread of HIV and supported those infected by

HIV. The activists have supported those clients on ART and TB treatment to adhere and their

health has improved.

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ANNEX 1

OUTPUT TABLE

Comments: The project did not achieve the goals related to saving and micro finance. This is

because the concept of saving clubs were new and it took some time to get people to buy into

it. More will join in the coming year.

As the project started a new activity under the Scaling up Nutrition – 2000 families received

input for legumes and Cassava.

ACTIVITIES Goal for

the year Achieved Variance

Achieved

in %

# of staff 18 18 0 100%

#of activists and volunteers 1000 1134 134 113%

# of people directly reached with activities including

family members 60,000 60,204 204 100%

# of OVC in the programme 100 100 0 100%

Objective One-Improved health and welfare for PLHIV and their families

# PLHIV trained in positive Living, nutrition and food

security 2146 2131 -15 99%

# of PLHIV trained in nutrition and food security 2146 2131 -15 99%

# of households received pass on scheme/ gardening 400 401 1 100%

# of households benefiting from pass on loans of

legumes and cassava 2000 2000

# of savings groups 20 14 -6 70%

# of households benefiting from micro-finance 50 19 -31 38%

Objective Two - Reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS

# of people tested for HIV and counselled 19,600 22,728 3,128 116%

# of schools reached 30 30 0 100%

# of out of school youth clubs 20 20 0 100%

# of people reached with opinion forming actions 20,000 20,399 399 102%

# of males referred for MC 11,000 12,129 1129 110%

# of Condoms Distributed 1,000,000 2,186,417 1,186,417 219%

Objective three – mobilising activists to fight HIV

# of CATFs trained and connected 10 10 0 100%

# of Support Groups affiliated with Hope 50 50 0 100%

# of care giver activists 1000 1134 1134 113%

# of Service providers 25 25 0 100%

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ANNEX 2

SUCCESS STORY

Getting support to stop bad habits from HOPE

Mr Sitali (not real name) is a 34 year old man. Most of the time, he took too much alcohol

and smoked cigarettes. He started to experience health problems in 2010 but still continued

with his habits. Whenever he got drunk, he would have headache and fever, especially at

night.

The problem escalated after he was found with TB in 2011. The doctor advised him to cut

down on smoking and drinking whilst he was on treatment. This was not easy; the first step

he took was to try to stop smoking. After 8 months of TB treatment he recovered fully but

still he used to take alcohol, as all his friends did the same. During the time he spent with

them, he found himself going back to his old ways of life. In 2012 he had a TB relapse and

this time it was severe.

His situation was really bad because there was little money all the time and it was hard to get

food while taking medication. His family suffered a lot during this period. In 2013, after the

death of his wife, he started to see some symptoms such as continuous body pains. He used to

go to the clinic but was just being given pain relief medications (Panadol). This time around,

whenever he took alcohol, he fell very sick and experienced night sweat and fever, flu and

abdominal pains.

It was at this point when he took a step to improve his health. In February, 2014, he came to

Hope Mongu for VCT and testing services. He mentioned that all along, he had suspected

that he could be HIV positive but he just wasn’t ready to face the truth. After the test, which

turned out positive, the counsellor advised him to minimise on beer drinking and smoking, to

work on his diet and to join a support group for people living with HIV.

Later on he joined Lwaitisha support group where he was trained on how to live a positive

life and encouraged to minimise habits which deteriorated his health. He decided to stop both

beer drinking and smoking just there and then. From that time his flu and night sweat

disappeared. There were no more longer illnesses he could account for. This time he knew

that if he did drink, he could die. He knew how dangerous it was. He told himself never go

back and he is a very committed member of the support group.

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ANNEX 4

RECOMMENDATION

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ANNEX 5 – PICTURES FROM THE PROJECT

In the photos above and below - Bupilo Support Group members making bracelets

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A support group member in his home workshop fabricating hoes for sale as an IGA

A community review meeting in progress

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A member of Kozo Support Group making school bags and uniforms as an IGA

Breeding of local chicken is lucrative as an IGA

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Ilute Support Group holding a meeting

A courtesy call on a village headman during the project support visit

by DAPP Partnership Liason Officer