Running a junior farmer field and life school - Empowering orphans and vulnerable children

carol — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:34:20 -0600

Getting started! : running a junior farmer field and life school, Empowering orphans and vulnerable children living in a world with HIV and AIDS

WIEGERS, Esther HILL, Catherine COLBERT,Patricia 2007

Country focus: Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe

In response to the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Food Programme and other partners have implemented Junior Farmer Field and Life Schools in some African countries. These are designed to empower orphans and other vulnerable children aged 12 to 18 years who live in communities where HIV/AIDS has had a strong impact on food security.A JFFLS seeks to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable boys and girls and provide them with opportunities for the future, while minimizing the risk of adopting negative coping behaviours. To increase these children's self esteem and livelihood prospects, a JFFLS imparts agricultural knowledge and life skills to orphaned and other vulnerable girls and boys. The knowledge and skills not only empower the children economically, but also help them to become responsible citizens with positive values regarding gender and human rights. The JFFLS contribute to the MDGs of combating HIV/AIDS and improving the lives of children, particularly in rural areas.

Information Provided by Carol Lombard, Department of Social Development Population Website

KM & Social Challenges

Accessibility & utilisation of HIV and AIDS services among the visually impaired in Kenya-Alice Yungungu, Alice Songok et.al.

KMAadmin — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:58:00 -0600

By: Alice Yungungu, Alice Songok, Patrick Mulinge - MOI UNIVERSITY, KENYA

HIV and AIDS has had a devastating social and economic impact in Africa. The continent is losing a lot of resources in form of reduced work productivity, absenteeism from work, deaths and funeral expenses, replacements and training of new personnel. The situation regarding the disabled and HIV and AIDS in Africa is in need of more attention because they are more susceptible to contracting HIV and AIDS compared to their non-disabled peers.

Many programmes and campaigns to create awareness on how to prevent, manage and live positively with HIV and AIDS have been set up in Kenya by the government, international agencies, nongovernmental organizations, faith-based organizations and community based organizations. These programmes and campaigns however are rarely made accessible to the visually impaired persons for instance, information is not provided in accessible formats like Braille and large print, and they have limited or no knowledge of how to live with HIV and AIDS or how to care for others with the disease. It is also evident that there are cases of illiteracy among visually impaired persons particularly in rural settings. Lack of skills is also an impediment to the health practitioners in providing HIV and AIDS services to the visually impaired. As a result, support services are not modified to suit the needs of the visually impaired. Additionally, the infected persons receive little support from the community due to social stigmatization thus accelerating their immunity deficiency. In some circumstances the vulnerability of the visually impaired persons to HIV is exacerbated by traditional beliefs and myths which presume visually impaired persons to be at no risk of contracting HIV and as a result they are excluded from voluntary counseling, testing and treatment facilities.

This paper seeks to address the plight of the visually impaired persons in accessing and utilizing HIV and AIDS services in Kenya. Based on these challenges, recommendations will be made on the ways and means of making these services more accessible to the visually impaired persons. As a result it is expected that this will increase the degree of utilization of the available HIV and AIDS services by the visually impaired persons with the intent of eradicating the HIV and AIDS scourge in Africa.

The authors are post graduate students in Moi University, Kenya. The first author is a visually impaired person pursuing a doctorate studies.

KM & Social Challenges