Global Fund OVC Programs

The Global Fund Round 4 OVC Program: Making the Difference in Children’s Lives

The Global Fund OVC program began in July 2005 as part of the Government of Tanzania’s Round 4 HIV Grant from the Global Fund for Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM). As one of the Principal Recipients of the program, Pact Tanzania worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to implement the activities to provide support to Most Vulnerable Children (MVC). The program is implemented in 24 districts and is targeting 300,000 children. Under this program, Pact provides capacity building and grant funding to 32 Tanzanian and International Civil Society Organizations who are directly implementing the National Costed Plan of Action for OVC in cooperation with the Department of Social Welfare.

Due to our good performance, Pact was requested in 2009 by the GFATM to submit a proposal for the Rolling Continuous Channel of funding to continue the program past the current end date of June 30, 2010. The proposal was approved and endorsed by the Tanzanian National Coordinating Mechanism and was submitted to the Global Fund in early December 2009. A decision will be made in April 2010.

Pact Tanzania has supported comprehensive MVC care and protection programs in Tanzania and as of December 2009, 240,280 children identified as most vulnerable have benefited from the GFATM program interventions delivered by the Pact local implementing partners. This result represents 21% of national target of most vulnerable children as stated under the NCPA. The program has provided a wide range of services and support to the children and their families in the areas of health and immunization, education, psychosocial support, shelter, food and nutrition.

The impact of the grant investments goes beyond numbers. Rapid scale up of this program has meant that MVC rejoin with families, and that there are increased security and safety nets to care and protect children with improved coordination of MVC activities at the local government levels.

Pact Tanzania has mainstreamed WORTH economic strengthening activities in eight districts for MVC caretaker as a means of building the capacity of families to care and protect the children through three integrated approaches: literacy, community banking and small business development. By the end the program in June, 2010, more than 12,000 carers will be involved in WORTH activities, caring for more than 50,000 children identified as MVC. Scaling up economic strengthening to the families is an effective way of bringing stability and dignity to the lives of children and their carers.

The program has bolstered the districts councils’ response to meeting the needs of the MVC by establishing and building the capacity of the Most Vulnerable Children Committees. Pact Tanzania has spearheaded the implementation of the Global Fund model’s of local community ownership, performance based funding and inclusive partnership with multiple organisations with different backgrounds and capabilities which has proven to be central to the scale up of effective services and ensuring equity to MVC in respective districts. Pact and the implementing partners collaborated with the district councils to scale up the program with cost effective interventions (i.e. facilitating access to health care, education, PSS, Food and shelter) within a short space of time, enabling the district to provide appropriate services based on the actual need done through detail needs assessment which previously was not there.

Pact strives to work in close collaboration with its implementing partners to maximize the aid effectiveness and reaching children identified as MVC. Thus strengthening CSOs capacity, partnerships and coordination at the community level has been critical in order to intensify support and achieve sustainable impact. More than 90% of the program grant resources goes to support children through CSOs. Pact plays a vital role in ensuring services are reaching the children and that the governance of the services is done in an accountable fashion at all levels.

It is our great pleasure to implement this Global Fund program and to contribute to the Government of Tanzania’s efforts to reduce the number of children considered most vulnerable and to make a difference in children’s lives and in the communities in which we work.

Kevin: The Genius Who Dreams Big

When you see Kevin for the first time you might feel sorry for him. He’s eleven years old and cannot walk. But when you speak with him for five minutes, you’ll realize that he is very smart, a genius, some people say. He loves studying, and responds to everything in English.

Kevin Chogo lives with his mother, Maria Felemoni Mbwambo, a widow in Same district in Kilimanjaro. The mother is also taking care of three other children, a sixteen year old brother who’s in Form II, and younger brothers Jackson and six month old Nelson.

Kevin has a disability in his lower limbs and therefore couldn’t attend school until the ELCT Same Diocese supported him with a wheel chair and other school material in 2009.

The boy is a beneficiary of Pact’s Global Fund OVC education support. He joined standard one late as the assistance didn’t come in time. After three months at school he was upgraded to standard two. At the end of last year he was upgraded again to standard three because of his excellent performance. This year he is already in standard four, and it is incredible because it is rare to see a pupil upgraded three times in a single year.

“When Kevin was brought to this school I wanted to take him to the MEMKWA class because of his age. But because of his disability, I thought that it wouldn’t be wise to take him there as those classes are a bit far. We discussed with my fellow teachers and decided to test him and see if he can manage to cope in standard one,” narrates Rajabu Sengefu, Head teacher for Mpirani Primary School were Kevin studies.

“But in three months we realized that he was so intelligent and therefore decided to upgrade him to standard two. After two months we thought that it was better to upgrade him to standard three, because he was really doing well, so right now he is in standard four,” says the head teacher, adding that even they are astounded by his intelligence, and it has never happened before for a pupil to be upgraded three times in one year.

And the teachers themselves love having Kevin around. He used to complain that the desk was hurting him, and the teachers have decided to make their contribution by buying him a round-shaped table. They are also in the process of finding him a special chair.

Kevin’s mother also believes that her son is a genius. “He asks a lot of questions and he wants to learn a lot. I can’t even answer some of his questions,” she says. “I decided to buy him some exercise books and a pen and taught him how to write. He also always bothers his brother who is in secondary school with questions.”

Kevin is excellent in English and Mathematics, and very good in all the other subjects. And he also has some plans for the future: “I want to be either an accountant or a computer wizard,” he says. And he doesn’t end there; he wants the disabled to be supported so that they can take care of themselves and other too. He also prefers studying in a special school for the disabled where he could get more assistance in order to perform even better.

The discovery of Kevin is like the Cinderella story. He was identified as an MVC by the community, and the Global Fund made it possible for him to live his dream of going to school. We will continue to work with Tanzanian communities to locate and assist all other “geniuses” lie Kevin and to help them make their dreams come true.