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from the grassroots of Africa

• Reach One Touch One Ministries
• Support Activities in Poverty Eradication and Health (SAIPEH)
• Consol Homes Orphan Care
• Girl Child Network

Reach One Touch One Ministries

AIDS has significantly changed the structure of families across the African continent: men and women of childbearing age are dying, leaving their children and their elderly parents vulnerable.

In light of this challenge, Reach One Touch One Ministries (ROTOM) was among the first organizations to address the needs of impoverished older persons in Uganda’s Kabale District. ROTOM strives to address the spiritual, physical, emotional and psychosocial needs of older persons by providing nutritious meals, health care, group and peer counselling, basic sanitation, mattresses, shelter and funerals for community members who cannot afford them. ROTOM has become a vocal advocate for older persons in Uganda.

Many of ROTOM’s beneficiaries are grandmothers caring for their orphan grandchildren who are living in situations of extreme poverty. With SLF support, ROTOM provides 100 grandmothers with food packages, grief counselling, workshops on HIV/AIDS, entrepreneurship and parenting skills, medical screening and treatment. Grandmothers also raise small animals (chicken, goats, sheep and pigs) as a source of income. ROTOM provides school fees, supplies and uniforms for over 200 orphans in the community.

Support Activities in Poverty
Eradication and Health (SAIPEH)

Started in 1997 by a group of peer educators in Kenya, SAIPEH's initial activities involved theatre performances in rural areas to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS. SAIPEH soon extended its services and began distributing food, giving grants, providing skills training and counselling, running income-generating projects and sporting events. SAIPEH helps guardians and young people – especially women and girls – to take on leadership roles, build a sense of community, and break down barriers and stigma in communities.

SAIPEH has a revolving loan system, where grandmothers and other guardians can get a loan of 3,000 Kenyan shillings (about $50 Canadian) to start a small business. Many people open small shops, sell cereals or second-hand clothes. SAIPEH provides them with business training on skills such as bookkeeping, marketing and farming, and the loan recipients meet each month in ‘enterprise groups,’ where they pool their funds, pay off their loans, and save for the future.

Through SLF support, SAIPEH is providing loans and training to 40 guardians; running soccer and other sports competitions for women and youth; paying school fees for orphans; holding counselling sessions for orphans and vulnerable children; and providing food baskets to 20 grandmothers and PLWHAs each month.

Consol Homes Orphan Care

After witnessing the inconsolable grief of a young orphan at a funeral seven years ago, Alfred Chapomba set out to create an organization in Malawi that would “promote community participation in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children for their social, economic and academic advancement.”

The Consol Homes model is simple and sustainable: community members construct a village meeting place, known as the ‘Children’s Centre,’ where volunteers lead preschool and primary classes, and youngsters, as well as widows and grannies, meet for discussions, drama and role-play, or to grow vegetables in the communal garden.

With the help of an ever-growing network of volunteers, Consol Homes’ community support programmes provide care, support and advice to over 12,000 children, teenagers and adults in almost 50 communities in central and southern Malawi. Consol Homes’ remarkable success is a tribute to their well-grounded psychosocial model, to the involvement (from the beginning) of local stakeholders in each community, and to the leadership of orphans who feel increasingly empowered to help themselves and others.

With SLF support, Consol Homes supplies food and self-help projects for elderly guardians and child-headed households; provides children with school fees; distributes bicycles and cell phones to facilitate communication and increase mobility between communities, enabling caregivers to visit the chronically ill.

Girl Child Network

Officially established in 1999, the Girl Child Network (GCN) in Zimbabwe began as a girls’ empowerment club at Zengeza 1 High School, where Betty Makoni and ten of her students met regularly to discuss the grim reality of gender inequality and the deprivation, violence and insecurity that the girls faced on a daily basis. At the club, the girls were able to speak freely about their own problems, support each other, and devise possible solutions.

Today, GCN continues to promote and protect the rights of girls. Based largely in rural areas, GCN’s core membership is among girls aged 9-13 years. More than 30,000 girls belong to some 500 GCN clubs in Zimbabwe, spread out over 40 of the country’s 58 districts. They have also created three Girls’ Empowerment Villages, where survivors of rape and sexual abuse can seek refuge and rehabilitation.

Through SLF funding, GCN continues to support girls at risk by increasing access to education and reducing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS through the provision of school fees, supplies and other basic needs – including underwear, clothing, food and sanitary napkins – to some 1500 girls. GCN continues to build the capacity of girl clubs and community groups through income-generating activities.

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