KITOVU MOBILE AIDS ORGANISATION

Our Vision:::::To See an Empowered Community With the Ability to Cope with HIV and AIDS and its impacts:::::

 

 

 

Kitovu Mobile Premises

Community Volunteers

 

Poor women

Poor rural women organised into groups through the self Help approach. Products of their solidarity and unity.....

 

Mats produced in Groups

 

House Construction

One of the many houses constructed by Kitovu Mobile for the grannies

Needy families!!

Geska has three children with no knowledge of who their father is. She used to stay in that poor shelter till of recent mobile came to here rescue.However,basic needs in the family remain in jeopardy.....

OVC

Many children in our target community have nobody to care after the loss of their parents due HIV/AIDS. You can give hope to one of these children,donate to them in kind and cash!

Grannies responsibility

Many grandmothers with no income in families are left in care of orphans.

Due to the associated responsilibility,grannnies end up dying early hence increasing the number of orphan headed households!!

 

 

Orphans and Family Support

The orphans and family support programme is one section of Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organization (popularly known as Kitovu Mobile).

It was established in 1988 to address the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) and their families. This was basically done through school support to orphans, construction and repair of houses, providing household materials plus income generating activities (IGA) for needy families.

From 1988 to 1997, this programme was supporting over 8000 orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) at various levels of education as well as offering school support in form of construction and repair of school buildings, training school teachers and provision of school IGA.

This support was however cut drastically in 1997 with the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE). Since then, the number of orphans supported in formal education has been reducing year after year due to financial constraints.

In 1998 Kitovu Mobile introduced the Mobile Farm Schools (MFS) approach to train Teenage school Drop Outs (TDO) in Modern Sustainable Integrated Organic farming skills. Since its initiation to date (2007), over 2000 teenagers have benefited directly with approximately 12000 indirect beneficiaries. Its impacts have been clearly studied, evaluated, documented and replicated in other parts of the world.
In an effort to empower and emancipate the poorest among the poor and uplift their common voice, a Self Help Group (SHG) concept was introduced in 2004 as a pilot project to cater for the needs of poor women. To date (2007), 42 SHG have been formed benefiting 585 women and 2340 Children.
In 2006 another project was initiated targeting grandmothers who experience multiple sufferings as a result of HIV and AIDS pandemic like grief, isolation, trauma, burden of caring for many grandchildren/orphans within an environment characterized by extreme poverty. In such cases, grandmothers have been found to be more affected than their counterparts, the grandfathers.

Programme Goal:

":Improve capacity of the people affected by HIV/AIDS to address the psychosocial and economic consequences of HIV/AIDS."

Specific objectives

1) Improved agricultural production and use of available natural resources among households of orphans and other vulnerable children that have dropped out of school within the four targeted districts
2) Strengthened ability of the target group to deal with psychosocial and economic consequences of HIV and AIDS and to control its spread

Target Groups:

1. Orphans and other vulnerable children
2. Teenage school dropouts
3. Grandmothers
4. Poor women
5. Community Volunteers.

Programme Activities:
1. Mobile Farm Schools (MFS)


In the current MFS approach, each group of trainees (TDO) stays on the programme for four years and the training is undertaken in four phases as below:


Phase / Yr One
Two weeks per month residential intensive training covering:
› Modern integrated sustainable organic agricultural skills
› Craft making and simple home economics
› Counseling skills and services; HIV and AIDS awareness, Behavior change process and communication (BCP/C)/ Education for Life (EFL)
› Home visits to provide support supervision and assessment of trainees’performance
› Financial and material support to put into practice the taught skills
› Extra-curricular activities –games and sports, music, dance and drama


Phase / Yr Two
Specialization in agricultural skills within groups:
› Formation of Mobile young farmers’Groups (MYFG)
› Facilitate MYFG to prioritize areas of specialization and conduct training
› Identify/Train Community facilitators
› HIV and AIDS awareness, BCP/C/EFL; Counseling skills and services
› Facilitate MYFG to register as Community based organizations (CBO) and open up bank accounts; introduce a credit and saving scheme in the MYFG


Phase /Yr Three and Four


Group intensification and withdrawal
› This includes group intensification and focuses more on consolidating the groups, giving start-up fund plus linking them to government institutions and other NGOs.

The successful trainees graduate with a certificate of adoption after completing phase/year four; the MYFG are handed over to the community and the programme withdraws from that area.


2. OVC and Grand mothers support


a)OVC Formal Education Support

› Identify, assess and recruit OVC for school support
› Follow up of OVC in schools to check on their attendance and performance
› Conduct family visits and follow up orphans that need psychosocial support (PSS)
› Hold workshops on HIV and AIDS awareness plus career guidance for OVC
› Conduct community/Guardians meetings to share information on child care and self sustenance


b) Grandmothers care and support

› Sensitize local leaders and other stake holders
› Facilitate grandmothers to form solidarity groups for peer support
› Conduct trainings for the contact grannies and local leaders in basic skills like herbal medicine use, counseling, first aid group
dynamics etc
› Conduct home and group visits for support supervision
› Conduct bereavement counseling sessions
› Provide medical care, food supplements and other materials like beddings, clothing and house hold utensils
› Construct and repair of houses and toilets for deserving grandmothers


3. Self Help Group (SHG) Concept:

› Sensitization and formation of new SHG
› Training of SHG and CLA on various social and economical issues
› Formation of Cluster Level Associations (CLA)
› Training Community Facilitators (CF) on the SHG and CLA Concept
› Organize staff, CF and CLA for experience sharing programmes
› Monitoring and supervision of SHG and CLA
› Linkages of SHG and CLA to other institutions
Achievements to Date (2007)
› There is a remarkable improvement in the living conditions among the targeted beneficiaries/ communities; 2000 OVC have been trained in modern agriculture and significant long term impacts have been realized socially and economically.
› The programme has an established gallery where products of the MFS trainees and pass-outs are marketed.
› As a result of the PSS, many OVC have managed to cope and deal positively with their multiple problems; from the acquired life skills in Believement Counselling Programme/Counselling, many OVC are identified as role models for young people in the community/they serve as behavior change agents; many OVC who have graduated in various courses in formal education are able to support their families;

100 grandmothers and 400 orphans are currently benefiting from the OVC and grandmothers support project and through groups, poor women have developed solidarity and have come to realize the importance of working together, they feel loved and cared for

The focus of the Kitovu Mobile AIDS Organisation (Kitovu Mobile) is to enable orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) who have completed their primary education to continue with secondary and tertiary education.

Every step a child moves ahead in their education gives them a better chance to survive.


Sr. Ursula Sharpe of Medical Missionaries of Mary initiated Kitovu Mobile in 1987, caring for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in their homes. Counseling and HIV-related prevention programs were added. The first volunteer community worker joined Kitovu Mobile in 1987; now there are more than 700 community volunteers. Educational support for orphans became increasingly important as Kitovu Mobile developed. Thousands of orphans have received support with school fees, uniforms, and scholastic materials. Kitovu Mobile also supported the community's construction and rehabilitation of school buildings, teacher trainings and income-generating activities. Kitovu Mobile is currently supporting over 140 Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC) in secondary schools and Tertiary Institutions for the whole of this year.


Kitovu Mobile is enabling OVC to acquire the education necessary to sustain them in life through the provision of school fees, exam fees, and other scholastic materials. To minimize both the short and long term psychological problems, we are providing individual, group and family counselling. We are also encouraging community participation and involvement in orphan care and support through regular community meetings with the beneficiaries.

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