Education & HIV Treatment for 100 Children-Murewa

Dear Rozaria Memorial Trust Partner

We are happy to share with you the work of Rozaria Memorial Trust in supporting the accessibility to education and health services to Children Living with HIV in Murewa District and we are now directly reaching out to 100 of them. The organization realizes that most of the children are under the care of guardians who are in often cases grannies; this creates gaps in the care of the children.

During the period of August to November 2014, we have offered various supports to the children. For this period under review we carried out the following to provide a continuum of care and support to the children and their guardians;

• School fees subsidies, we paid school fees for 63 kids of which fifty (53) are at primary level, 27 girls and 26 boys and ten (10) are at secondary level, 4 girls and 5 boys. Payment of school fees has been vital in the provision of on-going psycho-social support for Children Living with HIV as they are spared from the brushes of being send away because of failure to pay school fees.

• Provision of School Uniforms; a total of fifty six (56) children living with HIV were given a pair of school shoes. One of the students being assisted by the organization addressing local leaders, partner organisations and the community at large at local event said that “the provision of school shoes has helped a lot in closing a gap of us being looked down by our colleagues at school. Being at the same level with other students enables competency in terms of school performance.” The initiative was born after realizing more than 95% of the children receiving educational support from Rozaria Memorial Trust did not have a decent pair of school shoes and some even attended class with slippers on even during the winter season.

• Meeting with School Officials and children benefiting in school; to enable the creation of a supportive and conducive environment for Children Living with HIV, we carried out school visits in five (5) of the schools that the children attended that include Zhombwe, Magaya and Chitate. We met the school officials so that support the children in their educational, help in accessing their health whilst at the same time working towards eradication of stigma and discrimination in school. We also hosted a dialogue meeting with schools on positive living which was attended by 30 people i.e 20 teachers, 5 representatives of the guardians of the children and 5 other participants came from Ministry of Social Services, National AIDS Council and Ministry of Education.

Our initiative of supporting Children Living with HIV started in 2008 and through the on-going support we are now realising the fruits; one of our kids is now doing Advanced Level Studies. In 2015, we are prioritizing that all the children get complete school uniforms, school fees and nutritional support at household level. We can only achieve this through your support. For any further information, you can get in touch with us directly on Rozaria@africaonline.co.zw or rozariamemorialtrust@hotmail.com

Thank you so much for your continued support.

Kudakwashe Dizha
Coordinator
Rozaria Memorial Trust