Much is happening within Africaid's "Zvandiri" psychosocial support programme for young people with HIV in Harare. Never has it been so busy and there is every prospect of substantial expansion over the coming months and years. For now - here is a brief update.
Recruitment
Numbers continue to rise and there are now over 250 children and adolescents registered on the programme. Almost all of them are members of one or other of the Support Groups based within fourteen different communities across Harare and Chitungwiza. A new Youth Group has been formed for those who have grown out of the age group for the normal groups and it is proving very successful.
Zvandiri House
 This lovely house and garden is where Africaid has its headquarters. It is a peaceful haven to which each and every member of the programme is welcome. "Zvandiri House" is the administrative hub of the programme where the Community Coordinators are based, and is home to the Zvandiri support and training centre where many of the programme's meetings and activities take place. Examples of these are the Zvandiri Choir and the Zvandiri Dance Group.
Peaceful it may be much of the time, providing a calm facility for the daily administrative tasks, but when forty or fifty kids are there, plus their group leaders, it is a delightfully noisy, happy place with different activities going on in different parts of the house and garden!
Computerisation
It is essential that Africaid is able to keep appropriate records, firstly to help it support the individuals within its programme, secondly for accountability and quality control so that it knows what it is doing, and thirdly to measure its success and progress in statistically valid ways. These are not only required by Africaid itself but they are important for informing outside agencies about its work and its needs.
 Africaid is therefore enormously grateful to EMIS, the leading supplier of clinical record systems to British General Medical practices, for the donation of an EMIS LV record system. This was delivered at the beginning of Feb 2008 and has proved sufficiently flexible to be successfully adapted for use by the Zvandiri Psychosocial Support Programme. Already all the kids have been registered on the system and after a period of staff training the system will go live on April 1st 2008. From that time all contacts with individual kids will be recorded on the system in such a way as to permit very accurate analysis of the activities taking place within the programme. Regular reports will be generated automatically by the system to assess activity levels, progress and outcomes.
Photo: Community Coordinators with the new EMIS computer system.
Team News
Despite very limited financial resources Africaid continues to expand its team. First and foremost there are the kids themselves, who give so much back to the programme. Most obviously there is their own book, "Our Story" but their contribution to the care and support of each other is perhaps the key feature of the entire ethos of the Zvandiri programme.
 The two Community Coordinators Eliza and Rita have been joined recently by Eunice, a qualified teacher who is volunteering with Africaid to establish a catch-up school at Zvandiri House.
There are fourteen Support Group Leaders, one of whom also cooks a hot meal each day at Zvandiri House for children who would otherwise go without any proper meal. And there are all the other people who give their support, time and energy to help the programme in a whole variety of different ways.
 Photo above: Left to Right: Rita (Community Coordinator), Eunice (teacher), Susan (Group Leader and cook), and Eliza (Community Coordinator). And a magnificent metal giraffe...
Photo: Eunice teaching Geography to two of her pupils.
"Our Story"
This was written by members of Africaid's first support group in 2006 and 1000 copies were produced for local distribution in Harare. Our Story explains HIV infection to children and makes use of pictures painted by a Zimbabwean artist specially for the book. Crucially and unusually it is written by children who are already HIV+ve. They know better than anyone what it is like to be in that position and they explain it to other children in their own words, with the knowledge and support they have gained from being members of an Africaid psychosocial support group. The book has been so successful that UNICEF has recently not only provided funding to print 10,000 more copies, but also funding for a group of the young authors to travel to various areas throughout Zimbabwe, distributing and talking about their book and their lives with HIV. Their presentation is remarkable, humbling and inspirational.
Our Story will be a source of comfort, information and support to thousands of kids in Zimbabwe, and eventually no doubt to even more in other countries as well. Africaid is now turning its attention to the production of a second book!
Funding
Africaid continues to benefit locally from support from the Dutch and British embassies, and also now from the United Nations in the form of UNICEF. And as always it benefits from the donations of individuals around the world.
Words cannot convey the gratitude Africaid feels towards each and every one of these individuals and organisations, for without their support the programme would inevitably collapse completely. Immense difficulties remain, particularly within a hyper-inflationary economy, but with this support Africaid can continue to expand and reach forward towards its potential.
Thank you all. |
Maruva Trust is working with HIV positive children to develop support materials for their HIV positive peers around the world.