Amandla AIDS Fund Founder Carlos Santana visits with children in Ingwavuma
who benefit from ANSA's It Takes a Village program

There are more people in South Africa living with HIV/AIDS and more children orphaned by the disease than in any other country in the world.  In response to this crisis, Artists for a New South Africa launched It Takes a Village (ITV), a groundbreaking collaborative program that provides comprehensive services to AIDS orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in South Africa.

ITV works to strengthen the capacity of hard-hit communities to effectively respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis in their midst.  ITV is based on the belief that we all need to work together to ensure the well being of every child, which is why in Zulu, ITV is called Ingane yami eyakho, or "My child is your child."

ITV aims to meet the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs of OVCs in meaningful and sustainable ways.  The ITV program focuses on serving OVCs who have fallen through society's safety net, including:

• orphans living in child-run households, where a child is living alone or the eldest child is raising his or her siblings
• orphans taken in by neighborhood families in informal foster care
• orphans taken in by elderly relatives with scant resources
• vulnerable children whose parents are sick or dying

As there is little possibility of building a sufficient number of group homes or orphanages or finding adoptive families for the overwhelming number of children in need of care, ITV works  to enable OVCs to remain with their siblings, in their own communities, so they can retain their friends, neighbors, and culture, while continuing to go to their own schools.

Communities for the ITV program are selected based on the following criteria:

1. The severity of their AIDS orphan problem and the need  for programs to address this.
2. The presence of a competent local community-based organization that can-with support, training, and assistance-implement the ITV program effectively.
3. The close proximity of a government antiretroviral treatment site, so ITV can get caregivers, parents, and children tested for HIV and in treatment programs, if necessary, in order to prolong life and prevent additional deaths.

ITV was initiated and is funded by ANSA.  ITV is overseen and managed by the highly respected AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) and implemented by effective local community-based organizations (CBOs).

In 2005, ITV began operations in the South Africa province of KwaZulu-Natal, the South African province most severely impacted by the disease and ground zero of the global pandemic.  ITV's pilot programs were launched in the communities of Ingwavuma, Groutville, and Etete where it is currently serving over 3,500 children.  ITV is implemented in these communities by three CBO partners: Ingwavuma Orphan Care and Zizise Education Trust in Ingwavuma, and Sinosizo Home Based Care in Groutville and Etete.  Through the work of these implementing partners, with training, technical support and oversight from AFSA, and ongoing support and assistance from ANSA, local capacity is being strengthened so these communities can respond more effectively to the AIDS crisis in their midst.

The partnership with local organizations is a vital part of the ITV program and is advantageous on many fronts.  The CBO implementing partners are staffed primarily by community members and residents of neighboring communities, allowing ITV to be cost-effective.  The partnership also brings training and employment to the communities that ITV serves and helps ensure that the development of new skills remains in the community and in South Africa more broadly.  In turn, CBO staff members provide invaluable insight, language fluency, and cultural understanding, allowing them entry into households, families, schools, churches, community groups, and the community-at-large that often cannot be penetrated as effectively by larger national and international organizations.

Impact and Accomplishments

Since its inception in April 2005, ITV has provided extensive interventions for the 3,500 OVC it serves.  Highlights include:

Basic Needs

• Providing monthly food parcels for 348 orphan households (4-10 ppl/household)
• Serving daily meals for an additional 663 OVC
• Supplying clothing and school uniforms for 538 OVC
• Purchasing and installation 20 school water tanks for drinking, sanitation and irrigation of community food gardens
• Establishing food gardens (2 at community centers, 16 at schools, and 82 at homes) benefiting over 1,500 children
• Conducting extensive home repairs for 19 OVC households
• Digging a new borehole in Ingwavuma; a pressure pump to sustain water pressure; plumbing materials; and ongoing plumbing services for the maintenance of the borehole, providing much needed relief to hundreds of community members

Social Services

• Conducting scheduled home visits to monitor the well-being of OVC and identify any new children in need of care
• Providing paralegal services to locate or attain documents needed to secure government welfare grants, foster care grants, scholarships, HIV testing permissions, and other support, including over 3,000 OVC birth certificates, government identity documents, and processing of death certificates
• Securing 331 government foster care grants at ZAR620 per month (2007 figure only)
• Conducting 142 foster parent screenings, 240 foster care placements, and 513 foster supervision visits (2007 figure only)

Respite and Psychosocial Services

• Establishing 5 Support centers providing after school care services and life skills sessions for approx. 500 children
• Founding 12 children's support groups with 422 children participating
• Organizing holiday programs to support approx. 600 OVC during school closures
• Enrolling 35 OVC ages 10-16 in Camp Bambanani to impart practical life skills in an atmosphere of joy and fun
• Enabling approx 150 OVC to participate in the Children's Radio Project, a training and production which enables children to make radio programs about issues affecting their lives which are then aired on Maputaland Community Radio.
• Developing 5 plays and 9 workshops in the Healthy Living Forum theatre project, reaching 323 adults and 467 students during 16 performances

Training

With an eye on continued capacity building within the affected communities, ITV also provides trainings, seminars, and forums for the staff of participating partner organizations.

• Accredited trainings include: Child and Youth Care; Ancillary Health Care, and Auxiliary Social Work. In total, over 100 staff members have participated.
• Two Learning Community Forums, the first in February 2007 and the second in September 2008, to enable the partner organizations to receive further training, to share best practices, to review the goals of the program, and to voice and address any concerns.
• A symposium in May 2007 for project partners and other stakeholders to exchange their experiences in implementing a cohesive OVC program.
• One Learning and Sharing Conference in October 2008. Two participants from each of the three ITV CBOs attended.

Miscellaneous

• ANSA also purchased a new 4-wheel drive vehicle, including complete funding for insurance and vehicle maintenance, to one CBO operating in a rural area where there is great distance between households, enabling them to provide services to approximately 50 additional OVCs and sick caregivers per week.