Society for Women and AIDS in Zambia
1. Introduction
HIV/AIDS is unique in history, in its rapid spread, its extent and the depth of its impact. It is also a tragedy for the individual men, women and children who are directly and indirectly affected by it, and presents a threat to the livelihood of households, communities and ultimately whole countries. HIV/AIDS is not only an increasing cause of death among adults, infants and young children, it is also impoverishing families leaving behind growing numbers of orphans in its wake. In Zambia the number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, approximately 700,000 is one of the saddest consequences of this epidemic.
In Zambia at the end of 2001, more than 1.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 9.8 million. The Zambia Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2001-2002 confirm that the current prevalence rate in Zambia is 16% among adults of reproductive age, 7.8% for women and 12.9% for men. Zambian women have suffered disproportionately from HIV/AIDS. They have a higher vulnerability to infection and have higher prevalence rates. Gender imbalances, explained by economic and social factors, have intensified the vulnerability of women. In so far as Zambian women are the traditional care givers within their communities, the burden of caring for orphans, vulnerable children and infirm husbands has fallen on them.
In Zambia gender based violence against women and children has been a growing concern. The cause being the unequal power between men and women, leading to the latter suffering violence at the hands of males. One of the main challenges facing the Zambian women is the dual legal system which favors men over women.
In line with Zambia’s HIV/AIDS policy, National Strategic Plan, Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper, the National Gender Policy and the National Youth and Child Policy, the goal of SWAAZ has been to promote women-led grassroots and volunteer- driven solutions to prevent, treat, and generally mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS and gender based violence on women and children. SWAAZ has been responding to these challenges by reaching out to the communities and ensuring grass root participation by both women and children in their efforts to reduce the negative impact of HIV/AIDS and gender based violence. Recognizing that there is a strong relationship between, HIV/AIDS, gender and human rights, SWAAZ’s strengths and values are embodied in the empowerment of women and the youth on issues such as HIV/AIDS, ART, SRH, life saving skills, gender based violence, women’s rights, children’s rights, HBC, psychosocial counseling, and youth abstinence and sexual behavioral change. Empowerment of women and the youth is also promoted with a strong emphasis on training them in income generating activities and their management in order to develop their economic self sufficiency. This expanse of involvement has seen SWAAZ reaching even the remotest of communities in most parts of Zambia.
2. Background
SWAAZ was founded on 1st December 1989 as a chapter of SWAA- Society for Women and AIDS in Africa. It got its first funding from board members contributions until 1992 when NORAD and other NGOs started funding the project. SWAAZ operates in all the nine (9) Provinces through 170 registered active branches and has a membership of 8,000 people countrywide.
3. Structure
As an organization created to empower women, SWAAZ has a governing board consisting of six women, each an active volunteer and each responsible for SWAAZ activities in one or more of Zambia's provinces. The board is charged with elaborating organization policies and guidelines and is intimately involved in programmatic decisions, creation of new branches, trouble shooting and strategic planning.
A secretariat, located in Lusaka and consisting of ten staff, is responsible for central administration of the organization's programs. The secretariat interfaces with branch leadership and provincial volunteers (Contact Persons) as well as with community based and faith based organizations within the national HIV/AIDS network. The program coordinator, who is a woman, reports to the board and oversees the staff. The field program officers, who report to the program officer, and the finance manager and administrative manager, are each women.
There are 150 SWAAZ branches dispersed throughout Zambia with significant presences in each province. Each branch is managed by volunteer leadership and chaired by a woman. Each branch is expected to be comprised of at least 25 women members.
Branches are connected to each other through a province based Contact Person who has been selected by the board and who serves as a resource person. The Contact Person links with the SWAAZ secretariat in Lusaka for technical assistance, resource development, financial support and generation of ideas which are then disseminated through the branches.
Because establishment of branches is local, effective programs and models at the branch level have included: using a local school as the hub of the branch with its outreach to families in the surrounding villages and building upon existing women's clubs for developing income generating activities.
Each SWAAZ branch builds partnerships with other service providers, community leaders, traditional authorities and governmental units in the community.
SWAAZ has a membership of 8,000 women serving their communities and focusing on serving in excess of one thousand orphans and vulnerable children.
4. Mission Statement
To promote grass-roots and volunteer- driven solutions to prevent, treat, and mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS and gender based Violence on women and children.
5. Overall Project Objective
To reduce the vulnerability of women, youth and OVC to HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence.
6. Specific Project Objectives
Objective 1: To raise awareness about issues relating to HIV/AIDS, Antiretroviral Therapy, Sexual Reproductive Health, youth abstinence and sexual behavioral change, human rights, and gender based violence among women and the youth.
Activities
-To conduct awareness campaigns on HIV/AIDS, ART, SRH, human rights, youth abstinence and sexual behavioral change and gender based violence
Objective 2: To promote traditional structures and methods in reaching out to communities on HIV/AIDS, Sexual reproductive health and gender based violence.
Activities
- Traditional Counsellors (banachimbusa) mobilized in the communities
- Sensitization of traditional counselors on issues of HIV/AIDS, SRH, human rights and gender based violence
- Providing support to traditional counselors to manufacture the crafts used as teaching aids
Objective 3: To empower women and the youth in order to enable them to become economically self sufficient and take care of their families.
Activities
-Training of women and youth in life-saving skills such as communication skills, leadership skills, and assertiveness
-Training of women and youth in various skills
-To provide financial support for developing the IGAs
Objective 4: To create VCT and PMCT centres
Activities
-To conduct awareness campaigns regarding VCT and PMCT
- To provide centres
- To provide VCT services
- To provide PMCT services
Objective 5: To support the participation of women and youth in local and international events.
Activities
-To support women and youth in international and national events on HIV/AIDS, gender based violence, Youth Day, Women’s’ Day etc
Objective 6: To improve the livelihood of OVC.
Activities
- Identification of OVC in the branches
- To conduct awareness campaigns
- To develop an OVC data base
- Provision of school requirements to OVC
- Provision of nutritional requirements to OVC
- To establish family support homes in all the Provinces
- Provision of psychosocial counseling to OVC
Objective 7: To provide psychosocial counseling to OVC and PLWHA
Activities
-Training of community based volunteers in psychosocial counseling
Objective 8: To improve the lives of the PLWHA
Activities
- Strengthen the capacity of community based volunteers to mobilize the community for access to treatment
- Train community based volunteers in HBC
- Provide support to community based volunteers who are providing HBC services to PLWHA
- Provision of nutritional support to PLWHA
Objective 9: To improve the physical and mental health of the OVC and the youth at the Family Support Homes
Activities
- To undertake health assessments by physical and mental screening the OVC and the youth at the Family Support Homes
- To provide dietary supplements, immunizations, and other treatment
- To under take periodical monitoring of the growth and development of the children
- To provide psychosocial counseling to the caregivers and the children
Objective 10: To strengthen advocacy programmes to influence policy and practice on issues of HIV/AIDS, gender based violence and ART
Activities
- To conduct policy dialogue meetings with Government officials and other stakeholders
- To document the outcomes of these meetings through newsletters
Objective 11: To improve information sharing and exchange among the youth on issues of HIV/AIDS, ART, gender based violence, SRH, and children’s rights
Activities
- To establish a recreation centre
- To train the youth in peer education
- To publish and distribute IEC materials on HIV/AIDS, ART, gender based violence SRH, and human rights
- To promote inter-branch exchange visits to share experiences
Objective 12: To identify and develop messages and activities to be integrated in recreation activities for the youth
Activities
- To conduct experience sharing workshops- focus group discussions
- To develop youth abstinence and sexual behavioral change interventions
- To conduct community radio youth programmes on issues such as HIV/AIDS, SRH, gender based violence, and children’s rights
- To disseminate information on HIV/AIDS, SRH, gender based violence, and children’s rights through drama and theatre
- To document the process through newsletters and audio-visual materials.
7. Collaborating/ Networking
SWAAZ collaborates and networks with the following organizations:
NORAD
UNICEF
Margaret Sanger International
AJWS
Community Without Borders
Netherlands Government
DFID
SWAA
Arts AID
HACI
SANASO
The local organizations that SWAAZ networks with are:
NGOCC
Ministry of Health SAFAIDS
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Community and Social Services
Ministry of Youth , Sport , and Child Development
National AIDS Council
Zingo
Family Health Trust
YWCA
ZNAN
WILSA
PPAZ
Kwasha Mukwenu
CINDI
CHIN
Youth Alive
Africa Directions
8. Monitoring and Evaluation
The SWAAZ monitoring team at the secretariat plays a pivotal role in developing monitoring and evaluation systems to track programme indicators to monitor the impact of the programs at community level. SWAAZ has put in place data monitoring tools and database to facilitate data collection. Means of verification include monthly reports on the day to day running of the projects prepared by the contact persons in each Province and sent to the secretariat. Project progress reports will be prepared on a quarterly basis compiled by the programmes and finance departments at the secretariat.
9. Challenges
SWAAZ has a vision to reach out to more communities in Zambia but it faces the problem of limited resources especially financial resources, inadequate transport is also a major challenge including lack of incentives to motivate the community based volunteers.
10. Sustainability
The anticipated long-term effects of the project on the communities served will take the trickling down effect of knowledge sharing and interdependence, aided by different IGAs incorporated in the projects. It is assumed that imparted information will eventually trickle down to various individual households otherwise nor served by the projects. The inter-dependence aided by IGAs will encourage the “barter system” where interchanging of products will be encouraged and made possible by already well established inter branch networks. In all these efforts SWAAZ sees sustainable socio-economic activities of the branches as a means to attain sustainable socio-economic development in that the members and the community will enjoy:
Increased food security
Increased incomes
Raised human dignity
Reduced crime and negative social vices
11. Achievements/ Successes
The overall achievements of SWAAZ on the prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDS has been enormous. At the community level women have begun to take on sensitive cultural issues, to educate communities and to help decrease stigmatization. Greater understanding of gender issue especially on gender based violence at the community level has been evidenced in the rural areas.
The number of communities in which SWAAZ branches have formed has been increasing. Membership in SWAAZ includes 8,000 women and 5,000 youth. For every member who participates in IGAs the impact on the community is multiplied.
In Solwezi the SWAAZ Kililabalanda branch managed to build a school, SWAAZ Fumbelo branch has also embarked on building a community school for the children in that community, in this area the source of water was a contaminated dam, SWAAZ mobilized funds for a borehole to be sunk ,now they have access to clean and safe water. SWAAZ Kabanana branch is pottery SWAAZ through NORAD bought them an industrial kiln but production has not yet begun because of lack of capital for materials and funds to install a three phase electrical unit.
Home Based Care programs have been strengthened in the rural areas because of the large number of people living with HIV and AIDS in the communities. One hundred community based volunteers from different Provinces who provide home based care services have been trained in HBC, psychosocial counselling and ART and also supported in this area.
Identifying and supporting OVC has been a fundamental responsibility for SWAAZ. SWAAZ supports over 2000 OVC in branches throughout the country.
Recognizing the importance of engaging youth in the prevention of HIV/AIDS, SWAZZ sponsors youth programs as the best form of prevention to ensure that the next generation is free of this devastating epidemic. Utilizing drama and poetry and engaging the creativity of youth has been enormously successful in building a corps of youth committed to addressing prevention of HIV/AIDS. The youth from SWAAZ Mtendere were nominated for the 2006 Ngoma awards and the SWAAZ Bauleni youth with assistance from the youth of the American International School will be having their art work auctioned in England in April this year. Isoka SWAAZ branch has established a transit home for babies that are orphaned from birth or dumped by the mother, these babies are looked after until they are one year and then they are transferred to established orphanages.
Lessons learnt
The youth programmes do not group young people as one audience but rather, address their needs based on age, gender, geographical, educational cultural and economical status therefore programmes must consider these differences during the planning phase.
The programmes should articulate and address the needs of the women, the youth and OVC and be of a social or economical benefit to them and the community.
That needs assessment is a pre-condition for any programme design, therefore pre-tested should be conducted before actual implementation for better understanding of the community.
That the involvement of the women and the youth in programme planning, implementation and management is the cornerstone of the success of the SWAAZ projects.
SWAAZ,
Plot 8266 off Vubu Road,
House # 40B,
Old NAPSA houses,
P.O.Box 50270,
Emmasdale,
Lusaka, Zambia.
Tel: 260-1-243359/60,
Fax: 260-1-243496
Mobile : 095 808451
Email: swaaz@zamnet.zm
ACRONYMS
AIDS - Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
CHAZ - Church Health Association of Zambia
CYC - Community Youth Concern
FHT - Family Health Trust
FSH - Family support home
HACI - Hope for African Children Initiative
HIV - Human immuno-deficiency virus
NZP+ - Network of Zambia People living positively
ICASO - International Council of AIDS Organizations
MSCISA - Margaret Sanger Centre International of South Africa
NGOCC - Non-Governmental Organization Coordinating Committee
NORAD - Norwegian Agency for Development
OVC - Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
PCI - Project Concern International
PMTCT - Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
PPAZ - Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia
SANASO - Southern African Network of AIDS Service Organization
SWAA - Society for Women and AIDS in Africa
SWAAZ - SocietyfFor Women and AIDS in Zambia
UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Fund
WCRP - World Congress for Religions and Peace
WHO - World Health Organization
WMC - Women and micro-credit
WFP World Food Program
WVZ - World Vision Zambia
YWCA - Young Women’s Christian Association
ZNAN - Zambia National AIDS Network
