Implementing Multiple Gender Strategies to Improve HIV and ... - ICRW

• Mwangaza College
• WorldView Kenya
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
Start-up and
Implementation
Process
As a first step, the program cultivated local buy-in through several
stakeholder meetings. The program assessed all CBOs offering services to
children and selected 12 to offer services to clients through a contractual
agreement with FHI. Drop-in centers were identified within community
facilities. Community volunteers were selected through interviews and
trained on the program requirements. Clients then were recruited to
participate in the program, and service delivery and monitoring were
started.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) is a key partner in this program. In the initial
stages, before anti-retroviral therapy became free in Kenya, the MOH
offered free anti-retroviral therapy to all clients in the program. The MOH
also donated five acres of land to the project, which became a high-yield
modern farm producing an average of 1.7 tons of fresh vegetables per
week. The vegetables are used to feed HIV-positive families within the
program as well as in-patients at the provincial general hospital. Also in
collaboration with the MOH, the program built a pediatric comprehensive
care center at the provincial general hospital, where the number of children
receiving anti-retroviral therapy has increased from about 30 in 2006 to
1,478 as of August 2008.
Through the government’s Children’s Department, a networking committee
was formed to support the services being given to children. Nuru ya Jamii
also leverages FHI’s strong working relationship with the Provincial
Administration Office, especially in the areas of legal support, food and
nutrition. The Provincial Administration, including the local chiefs and district
officer, supplemented the farm-raised vegetables Nuru ya Jamii produced
with dry foods, such as rice and beans, to ensure the community drop-in
centers could provide food rations for the neediest families.
Local Involvement/
Ownership
The program was designed so that the community plays a key role.
Community members and local CBOs implement most of the program
components. Drop-in centers, the hubs of activities, were all selected from
community churches and halls. Community volunteers serve clients within
their own residential areas. Resources are leveraged from the community,
churches and chiefs offices within the area.
In addition, the program builds CBO capacity to run the program with little
initial support. More and more components are being handed over to local
CBOs to run.
Evaluation
Methodology
• Monitoring: Each trained volunteer has a diary to document daily
progress within each household they visit. Volunteers leave the diary in
the houses of the clients to show that the clients were visited and what
action was taken as a result of the visit. All information is collated and
analyzed in monthly reports.
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