Project reaches orphaned and vulnerable children

A targeted urban intervention programme in Zambia is helping to keep orphans and vulnerable children in school by supporting their caretaker families. Zambia is among six countries in Southern Africa experiencing food shortages due to a combination of factors, including drought and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Aid agencies estimated that, at the height of the past year's food security crisis, some 2.7 million Zambians required food aid. While the latest harvest will ease shortages, there are still those without coping mechanisms who remain extremely vulnerable and in need of aid. WFP intends to scale down its general food distributions during and after the latest harvest. "After June 2003, WFP will be scaling down its operations to target approximately 480,000 beneficiaries, 300,000 of them through agricultural recovery food-for-work programmes and 180,000 of them through OVC- [orphans and vulnerable children] centred programming," explained WFP Zambia spokeswoman Sibi Lawson. Lawson told PlusNews on Monday that the Urban Intervention programme was prompted by the "extremely high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in urban areas of Zambia, combined with the high levels of food insecurity we were witnessing in [the capital,] Lusaka". Orphans and children, who were one of the most vulnerable groups when a crisis hit, were targeted by the project: "they are often the first to be pulled from school", she said. The urban programme, currently operational in 80 sites around Zambia, was a "pre-emptive" strike to prevent OVCs from dropping out of school. WFP was able to reach 31,012 orphans and vulnerable children, and 16,838 households or "host families". Lawson said "numerous studies" had shown that the best way to provide support to orphans was to support their caretaking families. WFP provides the children with a hot breakfast of fortified porridge at their schools and, contingent upon the child's regular attendance at school, a take-home ration of 50 kg of grain for the caretaking family. "The latest addition to the programme has been the training of drama and theatre groups in 'Theatre for Community Action'. This comprises techniques of participatory rapid appraisals, script development, group discussion facilitation and evaluation of audience response. The groups then use these techniques to develop plays and music that are intended to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS," Lawson noted. The groups perform their plays and songs just before the beneficiaries receive their household rations. "The groups also perform at the drop-in centres for street children," she added. WFP plans to expand the Urban Intervention programme, as the project has received "huge support from both local and international communities". "Over the next year, WFP plans to scale up this programme to support 60,000 OVCs and their caretaking families, as well as to introduce additional components to the programme - such as school and community gardens," Lawson said.