2020 brought a whole host of unexpected challenges. However, since we know our communities well, and with a few adaptations in service delivery, none of the children or their families contracted COVID. We strengthened our education, and training systems to ensure that we can continue to provide the services our community needs while keeping everyone safe from COVID. Your continued support helped build the infrastructure essential for an effective response to the pandemic. Thank you! For a glimpse into a COVID education workshop watch this short video.
2021 may bring more uncertainty, but our faith in the strength of our program activities has been confirmed. Thank you for the gift of health to HIV+ orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia.
Sending you and your family a tsunami of love for the holiday season and for 2021.
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New “Safe Park” Format: “Safe Park” was designed for the children from the community to learn and play in a safe environment. Last April, regular program activities were replaced by COVID education workshops for children. These workshops are free and open to all children from the community. Since most families in the community had little knowledge about COVID, education was provided. Two COVID prevention workshops are conducted every week. PPE and a small snack are provided. About 40 children attend each week.
Goal: Our goal is to keep families informed so that they follow all protocols (hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a mask) to stay safe from COVID.
Impact of Program activities: As a result of attendance in COVID education workshops, children have better knowledge about COVID prevention and the importance of using masks and frequent handwashing. Stories of two children given below highlight the effectiveness of these educational workshops.
Claire (name changed) is a 12-year-old who tested positive (her parents are positive) when she was three years old. She has been on ARV medication for the past few years. Before she started medication, she complained of diarrhea, cough, rash, and fever. After she started ARV’s her health started improving, was attending school but did not like it much. Caire has been participating enthusiastically in “Safe Park” games and workshops for the past two years. She enjoys interacting with other children, playing games, and learning about COVID prevention. With regular participation, she knows how to prevent COVID, her mental health has improved, and her self-esteem is better. She is a fourth grader and likes school.
Nancy (name changed) is a bright 14-year-old, studying in grade 10. She is enrolled in “Safe Park” and in our pediatric HIV care programs. Prior to enrolling in “Safe Park”, she had several questions and doubts about her HIV positive status (her parents are living with HIV). In her own words, “ I was adhering well to treatment, but I never wanted people around as I felt there was no need to live because I had already been given a death sentence’’. Participation in HIV workshops and interacting with other children (both positive and negative) helped her adjust to her positive status. She says, “Safe Park has made me feel free and know am not the only one in this situation”. She is now better adjusted to her status, knows how to prevent COVID, and likes interacting with peers.
Program activities help several hundred children like Claire, and Nancy to improve in physical and mental health, learn about HIV and COVID, and are better adjusted to their difficult circumstances.
Thanks for keeping children and families safe from COVID.
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“Safe Park” was designed for children from the community to learn and play in a safe environment. Due to COVID, program activities were cancelled for the months of April, May, and June. In July, we resumed “Safe Park” in a new format to provide education and prevent the spread of COVID.
New “Safe Park” Format: Since most families have little knowledge about COVID, and children are out of school, we are now providing education on COVID prevention and PPE to children from the community. Two COVID prevention workshops are conducted every week with social distancing. PPE and a small snack are provided. About 40 children attend each week.
Goal: Our goal is to keep families informed so that they follow all protocols (hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a mask) to stay safe from COVID.
Content of COVID workshops: Topics discussed during these workshops are:
Stay safe. We are all in this together.
Thanks for keeping children and families safe from COVID.
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Happy Dad's day. Here is heartwarming news from the ground in Zambia. Last month, along with our partner Greenway Appliances, we launched an innovative project that provides clean cooking stoves to vulnerable families. These stoves have a minimal carbon footprint, are almost smoke free, use less fuel, and cook food faster. The stoves were pre-tested for smoke generation, fuel availability/cost, local recipes, cooking speed, and ease of use before the project was launched.
Goals of this project are to improve the health of families, save money on fuel, and income generation. So far, recipients love their new stoves as they are easy to use, smoke generation is almost nil, and they are saving money on fuel costs.
Beneficiaries: 10,000 vulnerable families living in impoverished neighborhoods.
Due to COVID-19, “Safe Park” was cancelled around March 20. However, we have started providing stoves to families who are enrolled in our “Safe Park” program.
Thank you for giving the gift of play to vulnerable children in Zambia.
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Wishing all moms, a beautiful Mother’s Day.
As many of us continue to work from the safety of our homes, we are reminded that it is a privilege to have a safe shelter, ample food, and good health care. However, this is not true for most families enrolled in our weekly games and educational activities program in Zambia. To keep children healthy and COVID free, "Safe Park" is cancelled till June 1, 2020. We are working hard to keep children and families safe from COVID-19.
COVID-19 has created loss of livelihood and uncertainty for families that were food insecure and in poor health pre-COVID and are likely unable to provide even one meal a day for their families going forward.
Stay safe. We are all in this together.
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