Speak for the Child

Location: AfricaKenyaSub-Saharan Africa
Funder: Children's Investment Fund Foundation,USAID
Duration: This project is no longer active.
Web Site:  http://www.aed.org/ourhope/

 

Speak for the Child supports families and communities in western Kenya to improve the health, nutrition, and psychosocial care of young children orphaned and affected by HIV/AIDS.  Speak for the Child began serving 500 children in Kakamega and currently serves approximately 44,000 orphans and vulnerable children in Western and Nyanza Provinces.  

Key features of the program include:

  • Recruiting and training household mentors who provide support to caregivers;
  • Establishing school, health clinic, and pharmacy agreements in order to cover preschool fees, immunizations, and medicines to fight malaria, acute respiratory illness, and parasites;
  • Ensuring that children have blankets, insecticide-treated bednets, and emergency food when needed;
  • Making certain that households have water purification products, soap, seeds and fertilizer. Providing income generating opportunities to caregiver support groups.  

The project has affected orphans in Kenya in many ways:

  • 95% of children enrolled are fully immunized;
  • 94% of eligible children are enrolled in preschool;
  • 59% of caregivers are combining and enriching foods to improve the diets of children under 5;
  • 63% of caregivers are involved with income-generation activities;
  • 61% of caregivers feed young children more frequently during the day;
  • 8% of caregivers have planted new crops or have prepared land for planting.
 
 

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FILM:

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Tumaini Letu—Our Hope is a film that follows the lives, struggles and indomitable spirit of three caregivers left behind to care for children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

 

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PHOTO JOURNAL: Helping Kenya's children orphaned by AIDS