Empowering goGo's to Strengthen their Communities

NEED

One in six (15.9%) South Africans between 2 and 18 years of age have lost a parent (5.3% maternal; 12.4% paternal orphans). Two percent of children < 18 years are double orphans – children who have lost both their parents. While the proportion of paternal orphans may be overestimated due to the migrant labour system,, these estimates still translate into at least 370,000 double orphans, close to a million maternal orphans and nearly two million children without a father. Research shows that 13.3% of 2-14 yr olds and 21.0% of 15-18 yr olds have lost at least one parent. Spatial patterns of orphanhood are consistent with the distribution of AIDS-related mortality, suggesting that orphans are more at risk of infection and morbidity from the disease.

Many of these children are being looked after by grandmothers (gogos). Older orphans are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse, perpetuating the cycle of HIV infection, particularly in households without adults.

To date, much of the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) focus in South Africa has been on securing subsistence needs for younger orphans, with relatively little attention paid to adolescents. Economic and social dependency on grandparents has increased, putting further pressure on the coping capacities of extended families with scant focus on better equipping caregivers. Timely access to social security and premature school-leaving remain significant problems that could be addressed by prompt case management.

OVERVIEW

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable in terms of HIV infection due to their developmental phase, which is characterised by identity formation, exploration of sexuality and increased susceptibility for group pressure. Drivers of HIV among youth are low self-esteem, peer pressure, transactional sex, pessimism, sexual coercion, low education and lack of parental communication. These drivers lead youth to engage in high-risk sexual behaviour (unsafe sex, early sexual debut and sex with multiple partners) and seem to be particularly powerful within the context of poverty.

Clearly teenage OVCs are even more exposed to the drivers of HIV and less protected than teenagers who receive support from caring parents or adult care givers. Older orphans are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse, perpetuating the cycle of HIV infection, particularly in households without adults.

Through this project, loveLife will encourage 500 grandparents to provide the kind of guidance and support needed by young people especially in cases where there are no longer parents to fulfil this function. By doing this, the programme aims to break the cycle of HIV infection in high-risk households by bolstering community-level protection for 7, 000 -10, 000 orphans and vulnerable adolescents and children.

The community-level intervention is supported by a media campaign on television and radio. loveLife provides direct training and continuing support to goGogetters to strengthen their knowledge of HIV and ability to access state and non-government resources in support of young people.

The goal of this project is to provide community-level support to orphaned and vulnerable children and teens. The programme does this by:

• Identifying orphaned and vulnerable children and teens in communities, and focusing on their specific needs: to remain in school, to identify and avoid abuse, to develop resilience to HIV and integrate into their communities.
• Enhancing the capacity of grandmothers to identify children and adolescents in need.
• Mobilizing community support for orphaned and vulnerable young children;
• Linking in with the existing social safety support structures, to improve community take up and understanding of services. To work with social structures, to improve their interaction with communities.

WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

• The project makes use of resources that the community already has - a group of dedicated and knowledgeable matriarchs, and merely equips them to do the vital work they do already but even more effectively.
• The program has four broad foci (listed above) but also gives goGo’s scope to deal with issues that are specific to the children or community in which they work.
• The program is very interactive and responsive, gathering the goGos in support groups to help them collectively solve problems, and to understand how best to assist them in their community work.

IMPACT HIGHLIGHTS

The goGogetter programme is focused on connecting at-risk teenagers with the resources they need to feel invested in society: education, safety and social security. loveLife’s independently commissioned research suggests that these interventions lower risk tolerance among youth and make them much more likely to listen to the HIV-related advice that loveLife and other organizations provide.

The program has many other indirect benefits. It connects the goGos and provides them with a sense of purpose that actually keeps many of them healthy and motivated. It helps build stronger community links, and often leads to other children (younger than the target group or non-OVCs) receiving assistance from the women.

ORGANISATION CAPACITY

loveLife started in 1999 after a consortium of healthcare organizations came together to combat HIV among South Africa’s youth. It is now one of the country’s largest NGO’s reaching 79.1% of young people and with support from a diverse array of foundations, corporates and donor agencies.

It has a holistic mix of projects and programmes all aimed at improving social structures to reduce risk tolerance amongst young people to prevent HIV infection. Programmes include the peer education network of 1,200 groundBREAKERs and 5,000+ Mpintshis who work in over 6,500 schools and in over 900 communities, to their public awareness campaigns driven through radio, their youth magazine UNCUT and mobile social network MYMsta. loveLife has 18 youth centres in areas of high HIV infection and works with 450 government clinics. The goGogetter programme, which seeks to empower grandmothers and other matriarchs to better care for the OVCs in their community, is a core part of this effort.

loveLife is an exemplary non-profit, run by motivated, professional people, focused on bringing about real and sustainable impact in creative and impressive ways. It has sector-leading measurement and evaluation systems, and is considered an example of best practice in the global HIV prevention field. The World Health Organisation recognises loveLife as one of the few initiatives in the world that can show a reduction in HIV infection.

PROJECT PROFILE

Key Strengths

• Concept: Uses community resources to their fullest potential and introduces no risk of a foreign model being ‘lost in translation’.
• Design: Provides the goGogetters with all the assistance they need in a cost effective way. Links innovatively to loveLife’s other ventures, with younger groundBREAKERs (peer educators aged 18-25) helping the goGos with more physically intensive tasks. loveLife’s marketing arm provides the program with some added prestige and public exposure.
• Capability: lovelife’s staff is well qualified and professional.
• Sustainability: The skills and support networks that the program develops are enduring and will last even if funding for the program ends.

Key Risks - Low

• Concept: goGos, by nature, are old and sometimes infirm. The program also has a drop-out rate, given the pressures of acting as such a community resource.
• Sustainability: The program will always rely on grant funding, but loveLife has substantial multi-year funding commitments from government and foundations.