Prior to leaving Livingstone we had the opportunity to meet Susan, Coordinator in Southern Region of Home-Based-Care (HIV/Aids program) with the Care Organization. CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty by improving basic education, preventing the spread of HIV, increasing access to clean water and sanitation, expanding economic opportunity and protecting natural resources. This meeting allowed us to learn about the challenges Care faces in using home-based-care (HBC) volunteers to help HIV/Aids infected people. Here are some interesting highlights:
- 60% of HBC volunteers are male in the rural area, while 60% of HBC volunteers are female in urban areas. We believe one factor is that rural men have more “free” time to work than females in villages (recall workload of Mrs. Chilaw in Sinyendende).
- HBCs support an average of 5 patients each, working one hour each week per patient.
Incentives for volunteers (who are unpaid):
- keep their bicycles after two years in the roles
- provided surplus supplies i.e. chlorine, sanitation, etc, that they can sell to generate income
- bags, uniforms, and training that increases their skills capacity (for future employment elsewhere)
Susan, Coordinator in Southern Region of Home-Based-Care (HIV/Aids program) with the Care Organization
Because of the variety of challenges across the region, CARE is collecting data to show whether a bundle of services (Scope, C-Faarm, HBC, SCT, and/or SSCP) working together in a town or any combination of services leads to improved living conditions. It will provide invaluable information on what type of strategy will be needed to optimize their impact in respective communities.
Map of CARE cluster activities.
No comments:
Post a Comment