Happy New Year from us all! 2009 was an extremely busy year with the Zvandiri programme expanding and many new, exciting projects starting. We are thrilled to announce that at the end of the year, Africaid's Zvandiri programme was documented as a best practice under the Government of Zimbabwe's Programme of Support for OVC (PoS). The PoS is currently funding Africaid, together with Maruva Trust, Children First and UNICEF. 

The Zvandiri programme has been steered over the years by the children themselves and we are sincerely grateful to them for sharing their experiences so that the programme could evolve in such a way that is appropriate and helpful. As each year passes, more and more of the Zvandiri children are taking up leadership roles in supporting their HIV positive peers through innovative, child-led activities. We will update you on these projects next month - this seemed appropriate news for now to kick off the New Year!

Sincere thanks to Maruva Trust and all its supporters, but also to Africaid's other donors - Children First, UNICEF and the Government of Zimbabwe's Programme of Support - for all the support and encouragement in 2009 and we look forward to another exciting year in 2010.  The children have already been busy, running their own training workshops in two different communities in Harare for 120 HIV positive children.   

But more about that next month and don't forget that you can hear more from the children themselves on their own Children's blog.

When the Best Practice document is available, we will upload it for your interest. Enjoy the site and please do sign up for the mailing list so that we can send you more news about different projects.

Happy New Year and THANKYOU!!

Nicola and the Zvandiri Team