There is hope for those who suffer from HIV/Aids
It was the beginning of a life-changing initiative when Children and Adolescents Are My Priority (CHAMP) was launched by mothers2mothers (m2m) on Tuesday at Protea Hotel Nelspruit.
MBOMBELA – CHAMP intends to reach more than 57 000 beneficiaries, of whom at least 20 per cent will be children and adolescents living with HIV.
NPO m2m will be responsible for this project – providing mentorship through CHAMP. It will direct the programme with support from partners Grassroot Soccer South Africa and Zoë-Life.
The United States Agency for International Development selected m2m to deliver this major project.
It serves orphans, other vulnerable children and adolescents affected by HIV in the province. m2m supports African health-care systems, while delivering empowerment opportunities for women.
The organisation employs, trains and helps to empower HIV-positive women as community health workers.
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The project has been live in the province for about six weeks. Simon Leballo, chief of party – CHAMP, said they operate in nine subdistricts in Mpumalanga.
“Most of our targets are spread equally, 96 per cent of our target is children aged between naught and 17 and four per cent should be their caregivers. The country needs more interventions that are CHAMP related to assist all our children so that they can be Aids-free adults.
We have a long way to go, but CHAMP is committed to achieving these targets,” Leballo explained. “In the past weeks we have recruited 70 family mentors including nine caregivers. We have placed them across the nine subdistricts.
“They have reached out to 5 000 households and it would be good to hear that the 70 per cent of the families that were reached are HIV positive. We have referred more than 140 cases to the facilities and we are constantly monitoring the turnaround,” he said.
Leballo said their day-to-day job is to make sure that they reach out to real beneficiaries and make sure that they get the care they deserve in their lives.
Frank Beadle de Palomo, m2m president and CEO, said they have managed to reach more than 10,5 million women and children Bridget Mpande Frank Beadle de Palomo, Fiona Burtt, Lazola Makhupula, Nozi Samela and Chad Rathner.
“We have created over 10 000 jobs for HIV-positive women. Mentor mothers are able to engage mothers. We have deliberately grown our model to reach children after the breastfeeding stage.
“We offer programmes such as early child development and adolescent sexual reproductive health,” he said.
Over the past 30 years of the global HIV epidemic, an estimated 17 million children have lost one or both parents due to Aids.
Four million live in South Africa. There are various ways in which one can get involved. For more information you can contact the local offices at 15 Russell Street, Leballo on 072-934-0631 or email him at Simon.Leballo@m2m.org.
