Sustainability Through Economic Strengthening, Prevention and Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Background: This was a USAID Funded project implemented by World Vision Zambia (WVZ) and JCM was one of the partners under WVZ doing direct implementation in Northern (Kasama and Mporokoso District) and Central (Mumbwa District) Province from 2012 to 2016. The overall goal of the project was to strengthen the capacity of Zambian communities to provide sustainable HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support services in a harmonized manner to priority geographic areas, target populations, and stakeholder communities.

Achievement and Impact: The project supported over 26,438 Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and their households with nutrition and health and livelihood empowerment programmes. A total of 8,448 households were economically empowered through saving group and business skill development and had a total cumulative saving of K 291,504 which enabled them to expand their income generating activities and improve household income. In addition, the target households were empowered with goats, vegetable and fruit plants to promote nutrition through the production of nutritious food. To ensure that sustainability, JCM built the capacity of Community Based Organizations in the target districts and up to this date they have continued to run HIV/AIDS programmes in the communities.