St. Lucia Programs
Day Care Program
Our objectives are to:
- Provide therapeutic day care, safe, loving environment to children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.
- Provide supportive social services to children and their families in order to enhance the quality of their lives.
- Collaborate with other community resources to insure the children's and their families' needs are met.
- Prepare pre-school children for entry into primary school as most of children who are HIV positive and are orphans lack the opportunity to attend school and thus found they are old to start preliminary classes at formal school our day care program prepare them to start formal classes at government public schools.
- Children are counseled about their diseases and adherent to ART drugs regular check up of CD4 count and management for those on tuberculosis drugs vitamins and supplements are provided during the day.
- Children are taught on how to prevent the disease from spreading and to eliminate the stigmatization facing them and their families.
- The day care programs support parents and care givers who most of them are old grandparents so as have time during the day to do other incoming generative activities for their self sustaining while these children are in our care during the day
Home Based Care (HBC)
In 2005 St. Lucia received a grant from the International Council on Management of Population Programs (ICOMP) and Government of Tanzania through TACAIDS. The funds were used to train community health workers, who are now working with St. Lucia and reach 6,023 people in the Baraa Ward and other health workers are working in the Moshono Ward in 4 sub-villages and reach 23,000 people. The home based care work has now extended to other Arumeru wards in Arusha region.These efforts are now sustained with the support of Pamoja project, New Mexico, USA.
The coverage area includes that of Arumeru district in Moshono village; Arusha municipal in Baraa ward and currently the project has been supporting households whose children are identified as most vulnerable per the government identification process most of these children, their parents or care givers suffers various chronic diseases.
Activities under this program include:
- Outreach home visits for patients and families and provide preventive health education on importance of early diagnosis of diseases for those who are sick (example is prevention of communicable diseases such as Tuberculosis and diarrheal diseases) by educating them on proper use of toilets and use of soap and water so as to reduce cross infection And in Maasai communities use of well ventilated house, avoid sleeping with Animals in the same house, cleaning of environment and referrals when they are sick and need medical care services.
- Preventive health education and on self examination on breast for women on reduction the possibilities of breast cancer
and referral of suspected cases
- Working closely with community leaders on creation awareness on mobilizing resources for vulnerable groups and patients and link the needy with service providers who can provide support.
- Ensuring adherence to drugs including Anti-tuberculosis and Antiretroviral therapy.
- Support and empowerment of caring skills (teach family basic Nursing skills) for primary care givers and encourage families and community to do voluntary counseling for HIV TEST.
Most Vulnerable Children project in Arusha Urban
Tanzania like other Sub Saharan countries continues be deeply affected by HIV and AIDS. The epidemic poses a threat to the country's economy and social networks and has exacerbated the vulnerability of most children, their house holds and communities.
St.Lucia Nursing Home and Orphanage in partnership with the Government of Tanzania, PACTT and Save the Children UK.
In the district of Arusha Urban the project is implemented by St. Lucia Nursing home and Orphanage covering 17 wards of Arusha municipal Targeting 7070 children for various support including Shelter, Education for primary, Secondary and Vocational Education, prevention of Malaria by supporting children with mosquito nets, provisional of wheel chair for disabled children, health care support through the use of community health fund where by 7070 children will be reached and 35,000 families and care givers benefit under this CHF (community health fund support), Psychosocial support will be provided for children and care givers food and nutrition for under fives.
The provisional of care is through Most vulnerable children committees and the local community leaders at grassroots level. St.Lucia Nursing Home and Orphanage is is sustaining this support by strengthening the most vulnerable children committees by supporting them with the knowledge to on how to support the MVC through local community mechanism of searching for resources.
Identification of the most vulnerable children
This is done by the department of social work and committees (MOST VULNERABLE CHILDREN COMMITTEES) at community level selected by local leaders and communities using data from the population census. A standard classification of most vulnerable children has been developed that incorporates demographic characteristic and indicators of poor living conditions including the following children;
- Those living in child headed households with no adults
- Those living in elderly households with no adult from 20-59 yrs
- Those with one or both parents deceased
- Those with disabilities
- Those in rural areas; Children with one surviving parent living in a house with poor quality roofing (grass or mud) and those with disability living in a similar poor conditions
- Those in urban Areas; children with one surviving parent living in a house with poor quality roofing (grass and/or mud) or with poor wall materials or without toilet facilities and those with a disability living in similar poor conditions
This classification recognizes that not all orphaned children are most vulnerable children and it equally recognizes that children living with a parent can be most vulnerable.
Giving Rights to the Silent Majority-Children in Tanzania
St.Lucia Nursing Home and Orphanage has partnered with the Sathe the children Uk, to implement the four year program of Rights and Economic justice for children from 2009-2012 through SIDA support.
- Problem Analyzed -
Children in Tanzania face a difficult time. An estimated 1 million girls and Boys (10-12% of all under 18's in the population) are living in extremely vulnerable circumstances.
36% of the population live below the basic needs poverty line. Children are disproportionally affected by poverty, which manifest differently for girls and boys of different ages. Children who are poor, who come from large poor female households, or who are orphaned are most likely to suffer from rights violations including being engaged in hazardous forms of labour than those who are not.
Children represent over 50% of the population in the country, but in terms of budget allocations, children welfare is still relegated to the private sphere of the family, community, CBOS, and NGOS, and remains politically marginalized from the mainstream concerns of the governance and economic policy. Despite some progress with Millennium Development Goals, there is widening gap between rich and poor and urban and rural Tanzanian children. There is significant economic growth in some sectors, particularly mining and tourism but very little growth in Agriculture sector on which most children and their families depend.
Opportunities missed in childhood, such as good nutrition and education, can cause irreversible harm and trap children in long term poverty. Poverty at household level and very low level of investment in basic infrastructure such as schools and health care facilities or transport for economic activities make life hard for children in Tanzania.
- The Overall Goal -
The overall goal is to contribute towards ensuring children, especially most vulnerable children, are able to claim their rights, identify innovative solutions and receive support from duty bearers. Through this program children will be able to claim their rights to protection, education and heath care and obtain appropriate support from quality social, political, economic and legal systems at community, district and national levels.
- Activities Are: -
At individual and household level this involves creating resilience and confidence amongst children (boys and girls in different areas) their parents and career to take a stand against child rights violation in their area, create innovative response to these violations, and to hold their democratically elected leaders accountable. This will be made possible by:
- Establish and strengthen children's councils as their main platform for children parents and carers to become more aware of their rights and effectively address cases of rights violation
- Promote greater understanding amongst children councils, community based organization, most vulnerable children committees and community members of what vulnerability means to children in different context(including poverty,hunger,emotional or sexual abuse,lack of access to legal support and basic needs)
- At local government level the program will focus on creating awareness,commitment and sense of responsibility among district and councilors to incorporate children issues in district plans, budget and by-laws to improve service delivery for the children
Orphanage for abandoned children with life threatening diseases
St.Lucia Nursing Home and Orphanage is currently taking care of 28 children ranging from 4 to 17yrs, most of these children come to St. Lucia Nursing Home and Orphanage due to various discrimination reasons and they normally come in the fourth stage of their disease, very sick and failure to thrive, most of the time they look younger than their age when they are admitted due to poor nutritional status and care in their communities. Medical and nursing care is provided at the centre with adherence of Tuberculosis and antiretroviral drugs, but also children are taught life skills activities example, raising chicken, milking feeding pigs etc, gardening, together with psychosocial counseling, playing and creating various learning activities.
Hospice for terminally ill patients with chronic disease
Despite the strengthened HBC activity within the communities, there are still poor and discriminated patients who need care to sustain their lives or allow them to die in peace. The services provided include medical and general nursing care (feeding, bathing, massage, turning of patients etc), nutritional food and supplements. We also provide Antiretroviral and Tuberculosis management, palliative care and spiritual support. Psychosocial counseling is provided upon recovery to enable patients to live positively and adhere to medication and treatment. The aim of this project is to reduce death among adult patients, and thus reduce the number of orphans which is steadily increasing. This program has also helped in reducing stigma by educating communities on how to care for their loved ones.
|
|
