Strengthening Community Partnership and Empowerment (SCOPE – my placement organisation in Kilifi) manage and distribute the World Food Programme ‘Food by prescription’ programme to People Living with HIV/AIDS who have a low Body Mass Index (BMI) of under 18.5.
AIDS is well known for causing severe weight loss known as wasting. In Africa, the illness was at first called “slim” because sufferers became like skeletons. Whilst, less dramatic changes often occur in earlier stages of HIV infection.
SCOPE’s intervention tackles ‘slim’ by giving clients high nutrient food for 6 months to improve their nutritional level. The programme is an effective way to keep PLWHA healthy; Clients progress, gain weight and graduate from the programme.
The problem is sustainability. Once clients leave the programme, poverty often see’s them quickly deteriorate, lose weight and become vulnerable to infection and thus, are reliant on food support.
One of my objectives as a VSO volunteer was to help create a sustainable exit strategy for clients through facilitating the creation of Income Generating Activities – to do this, SCOPE had funds available under the USAID APHIA II Coast prevention programme.
And as with all VSO work, this was to be done through enhancing the capacity of the organisation to allow them to deliver the solutions over the longer term.
Developing internal capacity
We first started to enhance the Business Development training ability of SCOPE and specifically my colleague – Ruth Mugiirah. Ruth, a 25 year old Kenyan, comes from a Community Health/Peer Educator background and has excellent facilitation and community support skills.
However, Ruth had limited knowledge on business. So overtime, I worked closely with Ruth to develop a basic business skills training programme for groups in the local community. We helped several women's groups using this programme, primarily organising them to access finance and to manage their businesses better. Additionally, Ruth and I worked to enhance her documentation and organisation skills.
Working with the key stakeholders
We worked with SCOPE’s Food Distribution (FD) team, Malingi and Katunguu to develop a plan.
The FD team were familiar with the key stakeholders in the programme, the main challenges and issues facing clients. They introduced us to the stakeholders including KiKaso – The Kilifi and Kaloleni HIV/AIDS support group network of 30 groups, and the District Aids Service Coordinator, Mr Meshack. Together we decided to survey all groups of Kikaso to create a baseline level and to implement what we believed to the most suitable approach.
Working with Kikaso – Kilifi and Kaloleni HIV/AIDS Support Groups Network (30 Groups, 23 Active)
In March of this year, we met with the Secretary and Chairperson of Kikaso, William (Willy) and Chief Ndago respectively. During the meeting we agreed a programme to Survey members and develop the training. From this point to the training date, which included several hiccups and delays, we worked closely with Kikaso, particularly Willy and kept DASCO, who was extremely helpful, informed at every step of the process.
We completed the survey by May which gave us a baseline level of the skills and resources available to each support group, and thus, allow us to measure our effectiveness when programme at the end.
The survey showed us that importantly, no group said they had received training in Business or Agriculture in the past, presenting us with an excellent opportunity fill a need gap.
Training 23 HIV/AIDS groups and 7 Peer Educators
(Pictured above: 1. All participants and SCOPE staff pictured outside Kilifi District Hospital and 2. Me and Ruth (in the light brown shirt) pictured with some of the members of KIKASO and some Peer Educators)
From Wednesday 23rd June to Friday 25th 2010, in Kilifi District Hospital, SCOPE trained a representative from 23 support groups and 7 peer educators from each of the 7 districts in Kilifi and Kaloleni on Basic Business Management. The training was designed so that each representative and PE could return back to their support groups or peer educator groups and pass on the information to their members.
Over the three days trainees were trained on Basic Business Management, Savings, Finance and Records, Running Successful Groups, Accessing Credit and Agronomics. The trainers came mainly from within SCOPE whose extensive peer educator training experience made the ideal trainers. We also used an external trainer of Micro-Finance and forming Co-operatives, whilst DASCO also had a session on Socio-economic dynamics of HIV/AIDS in business.
The feedback from the session was excellent and all participants found the training extremely useful. Each has now developed a work plan to implement the learning's and Ruth and I have arranged follow-ups with each group.
It was a fantastically well run event, organised almost exclusively by Ruth with help from several other members of SCOPE and with invaluable help from DASCO and Kikaso.
Now we are working with USAIDs APHIA II Coast project to seek further funding for additional follow-up trainings. This should provide SCOPE and Kikaso with an excellent platform and momentum to really effect change with PLWHAs in our community. Whether it’s the sustainable exit strategy for the food programme remains to be seen.
But it gives us more than a slim chance of succeeding.
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