CHAT Provides Support to Vulnerable Children
By: Shelley Smith, NPI Project Director
Continuum of Care for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania (CHAT) staff provides support to the vulnerable children in project sites around the country. The support provided includes educational (school uniforms, shoes, exercise books, pen, mathematical sets, school bags, etc), bedding (mattress, blankets /bed sheets), nutritional (diary milk and nutritious flour for under 5’s) and medical (for sick children and those infected with HIV).
Tanzanian school children
CHAT is providing these services through the well established network of churches in the surrounding communities. One to three individuals from each parish/congregation work along with our Community Volunteers (trained by the CHAT project staff) who provide Home Based Care to Palliative Care Clients. Together they identify the eligible vulnerable children and recommend them for a particular support. The project transfers the funds and the church district does the remainder of work, which includes the purchase and distribution of the items/supplies.
From July through September 2008 over 1370 vulnerable children have received education, bedding, medical or nutritional support. In the adjacent photo children have just received new school uniforms and supplies at a ceremony held at Marangu Lutheran Hospital. Although schooling is free, the uniforms and supplies which are necessary to attend are often beyond the budget of families who have members sick with HIV/AIDS and unable to work. The provision of these supplies allows the children in these households to stay in school.
CHAT adds palliative care capacity to home-based care programs throughout the Lutheran health care system in Tanzania. The overall goal is to significantly enhance the continuum of care for Tanzanian people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their families, including orphans and vulnerable children, by scaling up palliative care capacity and linking with existing Lutheran hospitals and congregations throughout Tanzania.
The Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa provides project oversight, technical assistance, coordination and administration of CHAT. The implementing agency in Tanzania is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) headquartered in Arusha. United States Agency for International Development provides funding for the project through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
Adapted with permission from the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa website, February 2009.
To learn more, please visit http://www.FHSSA.org.