SUMMARY OF THE PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS OF THE SOLIDARITY COMMUNITY CARE ORGANISATION

The Solidarity Community Care Organisation provides the following main programmes and/or services:

1. THE COMMUNITY HOME-BASED CARE PROGRAMME

The Community Home-Based Care Programme of the Solidarity Community Care Organisation is primarily aimed at disease prevention and reduction in the community by providing primary community-based care and promoting community health for more than 10,000 people per year.

Under this programme, the organisation provides the following services:

1. Provision of high-quality community home-based care (basic nursing care) to alleviate suffering; including home visiting for physical care and psychosocial support of clients, distributing painkillers, multivitamins and condoms to HIV-positive people and community members in need;

2. Promotion of community health; including personal and environmental hygiene, access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation as well as food production, availability and security;

3. Assistance to HIV-positive people to live positive lifestyles through counselling, mutual support, encouragement and support groups;

4. Provision of treatment support to people on ARV and TB medication and facilitating referrals between the organisation and local clinics/hospitals, especially from the remotest and inaccessible (with poor road network) communities;

5. Training and supporting families to enable them to take care of their relatives at home;

6. Provision of community training in HIV-AIDS and TB care and support;

7. Provision of maternal and child health support services within communities (counselling and encouraging mothers to attend antenatal and postnatal services and helping to prevent child malnutrition through community (mothers) education); and

8. Supporting national child immunisation campaigns within the community; mobilising communities, raising awareness, direct participation and providing venues for immunisation campaigns.

To implement the Community Home-Based Care Programme successfully, the organisation urgently needs funding for the following activities:

a. Renovation and upgrading of organisation’s Community Health and Development Centre at Etope village, Ohangwena Region, for about N$200,000;

b. Procurement of medicines and pharmaceuticals for the provision of community-based healthcare, for about N$120,000;

c. Procurement of office furniture and equipment for the Community Health & Development Centre of the organisation at Etope Village, in Omulonga Constituency, Ohangwena Region in order to serve better the clients, for about N$50,000;

d. Procurement of office stationery for the Community Health & Development Centre of the organisation at Etope Village, in Omulonga Constituency, Ohangwena Region in order to run the Centre efficiently for the benefit of clients, for about N$10,000;

e. Maintenance of water and electricity infrastructures at the Community Health & Development Centre of the organisation at Etope Village, in Omulonga Constituency, Ohangwena Region in order to continue providing potable water and electricity to clients and the community, for about N$125,000; and

f. Provision of training in community-based healthcare, especially HIV/AIDS and AIDS counselling for both organisation and community members, for about N$50,000.

2. THE COMMUNITY MOBILISATION, INFORMATION AND EDUCATION PROGRAMME

This programme is primarily focusing on HIV prevention by mobilising, informing and educating communities to prevent HIV for more than 16,000 people per year, mainly through the following strategies:

a. Promotion of behavioural change, including reducing concurrent relationships and using condoms constantly and correctly;

b. Promotion of biomedical strategies, including male circumcision and the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT);

c. Promotion of treatment of HIV, other viruses and sexually transmitted infections; and

d. The promotion of social justice and human rights in HIV-AIDS.

For a successful implementation of its Community Mobilisation, Information and Education Programme, the organisation urgently needs funding for transport and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials.

Transport is needed in the form of 4x4 vehicle (s) to reach the outmost rural communities, but it can also be in the form of motorbikes, bicycles or money to pay for public transport when visiting inaccessible communities, for about N$589,900.

The organisation will accept IEC materials about HIV prevention and treatment that are applicable to the Namibian context. However, it also welcomes funding to develop IEC materials locally in consultation with the beneficiaries. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), health, including HIV/AIDS information, can be communicated through various channels (or methods) to increase awareness and assess the knowledge of different populations about various health, and HIV/AIDS issues, products and behaviours. These methods might include interpersonal communication; such as individual discussions, counselling sessions or group discussions and community meetings and events or mass media communication; such as radio, television and other forms of one-way communication, such as brochures, leaflets and posters, visual and audio visual presentations and some forms of electronic communication, for about N$260,960.

3. THE EMPLOYMENT CREATION AND INCOME GENERATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND POVERTY ERADICATION PROGRAMME

This programme is aimed at sustaining the organisation and its programmes, generating income for organisation members and the beneficiaries of its activities as well as contributing to poverty eradication in Namibia through employment creation for at least 450 people by December 2020 (the annual target is to employ about 100 people).

For a successful implementation of the Employment Creation and Income Generation for Sustainability and Poverty Eradication Programme, the organisation urgently needs funding for the following projects:

1. The setting up of three Community-Based Information and Technology Centres (CITCs) in Katutura, Oshikango and Oshakati, as employment creation and income generation projects in the regions and communities in which the organisation operates, for about N$420,000.

2. Sewing and Needlework projects (sewing of school uniforms for orphans and vulnerable children as well as knitting of babies/children garments by organisation and community members), for about N$250,200.

3. Vegetable and Fruit Gardens projects by organisation and community members (small and medium-sized gardens, where fresh vegetables, including cabbages, carrots, sweet potatoes, egg-plants, peppers, lettuce, sugar cane, beans, maize, watermelons and pumpkins, will be grown to feed orphans and poor HIV-positive people. The fruit plants such as mangoes guavas, pears and oranges will be planted for the same purpose. Any surpluses of the produce will be sold to the public for income generation to sustain the organisation and its programmes), for about N$75,000.

4. An Agricultural and Farming Implements Project for income generation (ploughing tractors are usually scarce in North-Central Regions of Namibia during the planting season. Thus, if the organisation acquires ploughs and other farm implements, it will be able to help its members and other communal farmers to cultivate their mahangu fields on time in order to produce food and ensure food availability and security while generating income to sustain the organisation and its programmes at the same time, for about N$260,000).

The innovative idea of setting up Community-Based Information and Technology Centres is a noble attempt to link Information Communication Technology (ICT) with HIV prevention and poverty eradication by attracting the public, especially people of 15-49 years’ age group, to the proposed centres with services such as ICT (or computer), training, selling of recharge vouchers (or airtime) for cell phones, copying, typing, email and internet services.

The idea is that while people are visiting the Community-Based Information and Technology Centres for the above-mentioned services, they will be educated and given HIV prevention and treatment information through specifically designed leaflets and distributing condoms from the centres.

The proposed Community-Based Information and Technology Centres will also run regular competitions concerning HIV prevention awareness and the winners of such competitions will be rewarded with free recharge vouchers (or airtime) for their cell phones. Those who on their own ask for condoms from the centres will also be rewarded with recharge vouchers for their cell phones on a regular basis.

In essence, the proposed Community-Based Information and Technology Centres will generate income for the organisation, create employment and contribute to HIV prevention at the same time.

4. THE SUPPORT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN PROGRAMME

The aim of this programme is primarily to support 500 disadvantaged children, especially orphans and vulnerable children, attending two kindergartens and two support centres run by women who are members of the organisation at Omutsegonime, Etope, Omadano and Otjomuise communities, in the Oshikoto, Ohangwena and Khomas regions respectively.

The support to be provided under this programme, include shelter-N$400,000 (basic structures or buildings to provide cover or protection for schooling and living), healthcare-N$100,000 (community home-based healthcare), schooling-N$90,000 (supporting kindergartens and pre-schools that provide schooling to children under the age of five), clothing-N$60,000 (especially with the purpose of providing hygienic protection, keeping infectious and toxic materials away from the children’s bodies and protecting them from harmful UV radiation) and feeding-N$120,000 (providing community-based infant and young child feeding –soup kitchens-, in accordance with UNICEF’s global strategy on infant and young child feeding, which has the overall goal of protecting, promoting and supporting optimal infant and young child feeding practices) , the total programme budget is about N$770,000.

The implementation of this programme is expected to result in improved nutritional status, growth, development, health and ultimately the survival of infants and young children, including the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding as the perfect way of providing the best food for a baby’s first six months of life and adequate complementary feeding of children from 6 months onwards, which is particularly important for growth and development and the prevention of undernutrition.

5. THE GENDER-BASED AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMME

This programme is primarily aimed at contributing to the fight against Gender-Based and Domestic Violence (GBV) in five regions and eight communities in which the organisation works. GBV is endemic in Namibia and the organisation has decided to contribute actively and effectively in preventing this scourge in order to promote peace within families, women’s rights and gender equality in Namibia.

This will be done by offering the following services to victims of gender-based violence:

1. Counselling and psychosocial support;

2. Formation of support groups for victims of GBV;

3. Referral service to social workers, psychologist and other relevant services, based on victims’ specific needs;

4. Facilitate access to legal advice as required;

5. Assistance with immediate needs such as safe accommodation and social needs;

6. Assistance to start income-generation projects and small businesses to promote self-sustenance;

7. providing a hotline number for victims of GBV; and

8. Producing GBV materials, including pictures and videos.

9. Conducting a massive community education campaign on GBV by conducting no less than thirty-six (36) 5-day workshops and seminars for 1,800 selected women and 900 men in the 5 regions in which the organisation operates in order to educate them on issues of gender-based violence, especially on the causes and ways of GBV prevention.

The organisation will also carry out a massive community community education campaign on GBV by conducting no less than thirty-six (36) 5-day workshops and seminars for 1,800 selected women and 900 men in the five regions in which the organisation operates in order to educate them on issues of gender-based violence, especially on the causes and ways of GBV prevention by conducting no less than thirty-six (36) 5-day workshops and seminars for 1,800 selected women and 900 men in the five regions in which the organisation operates in order to educate them on issues of gender-based violence, especially on the causes and ways of GBV prevention by December 2017. To this effect, the organisation needs urgent funding to the tune of about N$300,000.