Family Care Foundation partner Power of Love
Power of Love Care Centers
With a series of small grants, Power of Love has launched an innovative comprehensive project in Lusaka, Zambia, in partnership with a number of local organizations and communities. This integrated HIV project is envisaged as a pilot to be eventually replicated in urban and rural Zambia.
Our vision is as follows: Build a comprehensive, community-owned system of prevention, care and support to target the invisible, but increasingly large population of children and orphans infected and dying of AIDS.
The operational goals for the first 12 months of operations are:
- To reach and cover 25% of all HIV positive children (in the pilot community);
- To build and operate a hospice with capital costs of less than $50,000 and operating costs of less than $200/month/bed (comparable costs are $100,000+ in capital costs and $500 - $600/month/bed);
Hospice - The hospice will:
- Operate an OPC (out-patient clinic) on site.
- Operate a mobile-clinic to specific areas within the target communities to:
- Provide neighborhood-based medical response to the sick children;
- Support the community health workers;
- Follow up with cases discharged from the care-center.
Community Health Workers - The goal is to train a team of community health workers (CHWs) in basic medical response and implement the Hospice/OPD/Mobile Clinic's instructions around medication. In addition these CHWs will also be trained in HIV counseling and basics of community health.
Family Care Givers - The goal here is to train one member in every family where we identify a sick child with basics of first-line medical response. The intention here is to make the first line of medical response ubiquitous with the problem. The Family Care Givers (FCGs) will work in teams under a CHW and will be trained to reach out to the CHWs (as needed) who then reach out to the Hospice as needed.
Community Service Program - The goal here is to build a unique community system of volunteer Family Care Givers who: Agree to undergo a training program in care-giving and get certified;
Community Income Generating Program - The community health workers (CHWs) and the Family Care Givers will be included as beneficiaries in a "basket of earnings" generated by the community's income-generating activity (IGA). The intention of the IGA is to build into the system a source of sustained financial motivation for the CHWs and the FCGs. At this time micro finance programs are already in place and these will also be continued and targeted toward CHWs FCGs and caregivers of sick children in the community.
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