Tag Archives: home based care

Vol 1, Issue 2 of the Home-Based Care Alliance Quarterly Newsletter Available Online

09 Tuesday Aug 2011

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GROOTS International and the Huairou Commission are pleased to present Volume 1, Issue 2 of the quarterly Home-Based Care Alliance Newsletter. In this issue, caregivers from Home-Based Care Alliances in Benin, Zambia, Nigeria and Uganda share what drove them to begin caring for those in their communities and to organize Alliances to advocate for the priorities of those they care for and gain recognition from their governments.

Recognition by the government for their tireless work and contribution to their communities stood out as key to caregivers across their.  Caregivers from Benin working with ICA Lambassa share how they began providing home-based care when no one else was and organizing the caregivers in their communities to gain recognition.  A caregiver working with the Zambia  Homeless and Poor Peoples Federation and leader in the Zambia Home-Based Care Alliance who has provided home-based care for over half of her lifetime shares how her commitment has inspired others in her community to act and join her in calling for the government to recognize their work.   Two caregivers from the International Women’s Communication Center in Nigeria share how their experience receiving care while they were sick and bedridden inspired them to provide care for others also infected by HIV.   In Uganda, a caregiver from the Slum Women in Development shares her inspiration to take action in order for women in her community to have a strong voice to stand up against discrimination and to seek support from the government.  The newsletter also includes updates on global advocacy and news including caregivers from Uganda and Guatemala bringing the experiences of caregivers to the United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS in New York City and the appointment of Violet Shivutse, a caregiver from Kenya, to the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS steering committee.

We welcome and encourage anyone who receives this to print and distribute widely to caregivers you are working with and to share electronically with your networks.

Read the Home-Based Care Alliance Newsletter here.

The Care Economy-Not just “the business of women”

09 Tuesday Nov 2010

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“To support means that you give 100% love to that person. It is showing love to someone in need, if you have nothing to give, you are there for that person, you council and support people that feel rejected and are lonely.”
-People’s Process on Housing and Poverty, Zambia

On the 9th and 10th of November, the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development is hosting an international conference in London, UK, focusing on “HIV Care and Support: A Roadmap to Universal Access by 2015.” The goal of the conference is to shine highlight the critical role that caregivers play in achieving Universal Access of services and treatment for people living with HIV and AIDS, and to come away with a roadmap that principal stakeholders can use to lead synergistic and comprehensive actions in their care and support work while recognizing the vital work communities have undertaken to meet this goal. Conference participants will include caregivers, NGOs, representatives of networks of PLWHA, national governments and representatives from agencies including the UK Department for International Development (DFID) the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Health Organization, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to name a few.
In preparation for the conference the Huairou Commission asked organizations working directly with grassroots home-based caregivers in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa to lead focus groups in order to guarantee that home-based caregivers voices, perspectives and priorities are at the forefront of creating effective and truly participatory policies. The conference will be a test of the ability of communities, multi-laterals, bilateral donors, national governments and NGOs to ally and react in order to address local issues, in particular, appraising and embracing the contributions made by grassroots women and girls.

Home-based care providers from West, East and Southern Africa participated in focus group discussions that were conducted between the 11th – 22nd of October, a testament to their organizing skills and ability to rapidly organize and document their findings. The results of the focus groups will be presented at the conference by a delegation of Huairou Commission members: Shorai Chitongo (grassroots caregiver/Ray of Hope/GROOTS Zimbabwe), Osenaut Jimoh (Grassroots caregiver/IWCC Nigeria), Angela Make (Regional Coordinator/Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa), Frances Odong (Program Coordinator/UCOBAC); Violet Shivutse (grassroots caregiver/GROOTS Kenya/lead contributor on the Conference’s Technical Advisory group). Regrettably, and despite their standing as accomplished grassroots leaders of organizations who have travelled world -wide, our representatives from M, SA, and Z were denied visas without explanation by UK embassies in their country, disenfranchising them from representing their groups’ experiences and priorities — and significantly marginalizing the grassroots perspective–in this important consultation.

The focus group outcomes speak to caregivers central role in ensuring that communities severely paralyzed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic continue to be assisted with basic needs, psychosocial support and access to crucial health and healing information and services. 314 people participated in these discussions and while it was evident that care and support continues to be viewed as “women’s work”, men are slowly joining the movement. Caregivers were described as providing physical assistance to their clients by washing, fetching water, and preparing food and spiritual comfort through fellowship. Caregivers provide skills building combined with financial assistance through merry-go round savings and loans to encourage independence. Caregivers were viewed as positive influences and resources in the community as they supply a rich knowledge bank of tools to promote nutritious living-such as kitchen gardens, where to locate life saving ARVs, how to access organizations providing specific services, and significantly caregivers work to de-stigmatize HIV/AIDS and advocate for early testing to safeguard a sustained, healthy life. While the international arena is finally listening to these caregivers voices, there remain significant challenges ahead. The delegation of caregivers attending this conference have outlined nuanced recommendations for more cooperative partnerships moving forward: active involvement of caregivers and targeted beneficiaries in program planning and implementation, ensuring WHO and PEPFAR are carrying out M&E in coordination with caregivers, putting in place mechanisms for sustainability, ensuring that any and all programs being considered should compliment and strengthen not compete with on-going interventions, programming must be multifaceted taking into account food security, gender based violence, women’s access and ownership to land and property, and the recognition that caregivers are the very heart of care and support delivery and should therefore be acknowledge as part of the formal workforce and compensated accordingly.

In addition to this grassroots consultation, the Caregivers Action Network (which is facilitated by Huairou Commission, VSO International, HelpAge and Cordaid) convened a pre-meeting of caregivers and NGOs working on care and support in communities on November 8th. The purpose of the pre-meeting was to create a unified agenda to bring into the high level conference.

For more information, contact shannon.hayes@huairou.org

Uganda Ministry of Health Recognizes the Need for Remunerations to Home Based Care Givers

17 Friday Sep 2010

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Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare recently dialogued with the Uganda Ministry of Health. Below is an update from Alice Kayongo.

I was thrilled when I read the summary of your radio interview on our AIDS work. It clearly communicated our need and desire. I believe it is a huge motivation to our grassroots care givers in the sense that they will be able to see and know that the struggle for recognition of HBC work by grassroots women still continues at international, national and local levels. We need not to give up until a time when we shall have a breakthrough.

I can report that in Uganda, the Ministry of Health has appreciated the work that care givers are contributing towards the HIV/AIDS response. HBC givers are now being recognized and recently, at a meeting of policy makers and implementors within the Ministry, formal ways of recognition agreed upon included;

a) linking HBC givers to social services such as microfinance institutes so they may be able to access loans, linking them to national agricultural advisory services and other social services.

b) training and providing certificates to home based care givers and other community volunteers.

c) provision of bicycles.

d) formal recognition during community meetings and at health facilities where they refer patients.

The most sensitive aspect of this meeting was the agreement on remuneration of HBC givers and other community volunteers. In as much as the entire team at the meeting agreed that there is a high need for remuneration of these actors as a way of increasing their motivation and retention, the most difficult part was on sustainability of this initiative.

As you may already know, Uganda has established a Village Health Team (VHT) strategy (a network of community volunteers established in Uganda to facilitate health promotion and prevention, service delivery, community participation and empowerment in access to and utilization of health services) which is supposed to be operational in all villages. We have lobbied at national level that HBC givers in a given location be made part of the VHTs. Now that the Ministry is aware and cognizant of our desire, we have to move down to do the same at district and community levels (where final decision on selection of VHTs is made) in order for this idea to be widely and seriously accepted. Each VHT must be comprised of 10 people and there are over 1,000 villages in the country. And in addition to these, there are other existing community volunteers not necessarily part of the VHT strategy but are also doing a lot regarding health promotion and prevention and therefore need to be remunerated as well.

As such, the issue of remuneration was recognized but put on halt for some time until a clear strategy on how to implement it is put in place together with sources of funding. — we will keep following this up irrespective of the resources needed to do so.

We shall share the summary from your interview with HBCA focal persons in their next meeting that will bring together UCOBAC and NACWOLA caregivers as they share their experiences and lessons from the recently concluded IAC.

I thank you so much and commend you for the interview you made on behalf of all caregivers world wide especially grassroots women caregivers.

Alice Kanyongo-Uganda Community Based Association for Child Welfare (UCOBAC)