Family Care Foundation partner Akado Women's Group

      Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

      The hallmark of the Akado Women's Group in Mbita is that all the programs are interrelated and developed through input from the local residents. These efforts include:

• Counseling and awareness building about the disease, about the modes of transmission and also de-mystifying local myths (i.e. claims that HIV/AIDS is a form of black-magic).
• Prevention efforts including continuous counseling and education of young girls and women to resist unwanted sex, discussions on good sexual relationships.
• Distribution of free condoms and a comprehensive discussion of protection mechanisms.
• Medical testing of women and children, prenatal care and counseling, overall health-care counseling and provision of dietary supplements.
• HIV testing including pre and post-test counseling.
• Community-based program of caring for those suffering from full-blown AIDS in their homes with regular visits from traveling volunteer health workers. These CHWs (community health workers) who are all victims of the AIDS epidemic work tirelessly to care for the sick in the community as well as educate the family of the sick to care for them.
• Economic development programs for women. Building women's cooperative programs to pool their skills in stitching and agriculture and teaching widows to manage finances and small businesses. In addition, plans are in place to include a vocational training workshop where older orphans will be taught carpentry skills.
• Targeting cultural practices like widow-inheritance (that accelerate the spread of the infection) through education and dialogue.
• Finally, a newly launched orphan education and feeding program.

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