User:Cotfone

(COTFONE)Community Transformation Foundation Network is an indigenous non-governmental, non-profit making, non-denominational, charitable organization founded in 2003 as a CBO. COTFONE was registered with Masaka District Local Government (District CBO Registration Department), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (National NGO Registration Board) and Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs (National Registrar of Companies) since 2006. It has the mandate to plan and implement massive development strategies designed to improve the standards of living of the marginalized population in the community of Masaka and the neighboring areas. COTFONE’s mission is a commitment to support underprivileged community members through psychosocial, emergency relief and humanitarian aid and services globally.

COTFONE was licensed to operate in Masaka district (now divided into Lwengo, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu and Masaka districts) with its headquarters located in Kiwangala trading centre, Kisekka Sub-county, Lwengo district.

COTFONE has a secretariat consisting of 45 full-time and part-time paid employees as well as volunteers all headed by the executive director who are experienced in education, social policy, ICT, Decentralization, Governance, Human rights, Public Administration and Service delivery, financial management and accounting. COTFONE has an annual general assembly and a five elected Board of Directors (2 female) with an overall membership of 1020 members, 631 of whom comprise HIV/AIDS OVC.

Brief Organizations history.

COTFONE was founded to respond to the growing levels of vulnerability among young OVCs living in rural households. The plight of the young people is affected by HIV prevalence among young cohorts, socio-economic vulnerability, and lack of employable skills for school dropout youth and continued abuse of the fundamental rights of children and youth. Therefore, the organization was formed with a mandate to mobilize and work with young people to develop themselves, by addressing their HIV/AIDS, Adolescent Sexual Reproductive health, education, vocational and economic needs.

Vision; A community where underprivileged community members are supported to cope with their situations and surroundings

Mission; Commitment to support underprivileged community members through psychosocial, emergency relief and humanitarian aid and services.

COTFONE’s objectives:
 * Increase access and equity of appropriate education for vulnerable community members such as orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), youths other target groups.
 * Improve community based health and nutritional status of community members for better quality of life.
 * Contribute to poverty alleviation through appropriate interventions and strategies for transformation of impoverished communities.
 * Ensure respect and promotion of human rights and dignity.
 * Contribute to the environmental conservation and protection.

Key Organizational strategies:
 * 1) Provision of free appropriate education to children living on the margins, such as girls, children orphaned by AIDS, victims of domestic violence, and children prevented from attending school because of cultural barriers or the remoteness of their homes
 * 2) Training in vocational skills children who did not get the chance to go to school but are above primary school age
 * 3) Community Based Health As a way to improve the health standards
 * Hygiene/Sanitation/Human Development/Reproductive Health (in schools/Centre/Villages).
 * Health Education on Behaviour Change/ABY on HIV/AIDS
 * Anti-AIDS Club:
 * 1) Eradication of Extreme Poverty and Hunger
 * 2) Environmental Conservation Capacity Building in Social Justice/Gender/Advocacy
 * 3) Volunteer Service Program

Guiding Principles;

COTFONE intends to pursue its program in the next strategic period with the following guiding principles in mind;

Community Participation; COTFONE stresses the importance of bottom up planning regular meetings with different groups of people i.e. widows, orphans, lawyers, defence volunteers, community leaders, etc whereby problems, opinions, and strategies are discussed. This creates an upward and downward flow of information, opinions, and decisions. These groups, being the partners are part and parcel of the planning process of the program. Their participation in discussion of issues concerning them and in line with the program objectives enables the enhancement and sustenance of the program.

Gender empowerment;

Women hold high responsibilities in the community, as women are the principal beneficiaries of the program (widows), their role in planning and implementing the activities geared towards addressing the protection of OVCs is very crucial in the program. However, women face a lot of barriers that hinder them participating to their full capacity in the community. The courses for women groups, guardians, and caregivers are particularly suited to giving them knowledge of their full potential and legal rights. Others include will making and gender mainstreaming. Women volunteering to serve as defence volunteers and other local leaders derive from the above efforts directed at creating awareness for justice. The COTFONE program coincides with the national and regional/district gender development plans regarding orphans and widows.

Gender Mainstreaming;

Gender awareness for men and women is conducted as a prerequisite to mainstream gender in the program activities. This brings about a balance in the roles and responsibilities of men and women in the community thereby increasing participation of men in caring for the sick and the needy and enabling women to assert themselves more effectively.

Sensitivity to Vulnerability;

COTFONE was designed with the aim to cater for the lives of the vulnerable individuals (orphans and widows) within the Masaka Region. The target groups are vulnerable to many circumstances such as abuse, stress, trauma, poor living conditions, inadequate food supply, land shortage, abuse of women rights due to gender insensitivity, illiteracy, and lack of accessibility to economic resources etc. The Program also recognizes the particular vulnerability of women and young people and targets them with special interest.

Services Provided by COTFONE;

Looking back to 2003, when COTFONE set sail, devising locally feasible ways to improve the lives of desperately needy children of Masaka in the wake of increased AIDS-Orphaned Children Today, we cannot fail to thank the Lord for the significant successes scored. During those 6 years, we have been part of enormous progress for many orphans and vulnerable children.

Before the advent of COTFONE’s interventions in the area of appropriate education; community based health and environment; poverty alleviation; human rights and gender equality and global cooperation, untold numbers of OVCs were in desperate state lacking care and support due to deprivation of these social and economic services. In the 2000s, only the most privileged children had a chance to go to school. Instead, most (Orphans) were forced to go to work before they were able, thus being condemned to lives of illiteracy and hardship. By 2010, a considerable number of them have had access to free quality primary school education and other social services, through COTFONE.

Clearly, we haven’t finished the job. And we will not relent until we have brought health, education and food security to every single one of those millions of children Uganda.

COTFONE cannot overcome all the deprivation and disasters of Uganda, but we asked: “Can’t we do more for children in need?” So we raised the bar for ourselves: Our strategic goal for the next five (5) year strategic period is to contribute to the improvement of lives and welfare of HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children below 17 years in Lwengo district.

All of these COTFONE activities are a part of Uganda’s effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. COTFONE is adamant about maintaining the success in the education and HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness sectors, while simultaneously pursuing activities around MDG’S that have yet to be achieved, such as poverty eradication. By implementing strategies that have been successful, and applying them to the goals that have yet to be achieved, we hope to come up with innovative ways to contribute to the accomplishment of all goals.

The total number of people reached by COTFONE in Uganda is approximately 10,869. Of this population reached, 2,069 people are HIV/AIDS infected/affected including 1010 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). And it is important to note that we can only reach about 25% of the population due to organizational constraints. Although COTFONE is beginning to develop, its demands from the community are greater than its ability to provide these increases in services.

COTFONE STRATEGIC DIRECTION 2011-2015;

Strategic Goal;

To contribute to the improvement of lives and welfare of HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children below 17 years in Lwengo district.

Situation analysis Background

Over 12 million Children in sub Saharan Africa have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Despite advances in HIV prevention and treatment, the number of AIDS orphans is programmed to be approximately 18 million by 2010. (UNICEF/UNAIDS/DFID 2006)

In Uganda, about 2.3 million children are vulnerable (MGLSD 2004). It is also estimated that 880,000 children have been orphaned as a result of AIDS, 100,000 to have died of AIDS, and about 84,000 children aged 0-14 are living with AIDS,(UNICEF 2005).

Despite the reported decline in HIV prevalence rate from 18.7% in the early 1990s to currently 6.5%, AIDS related deaths and the number of orphans have remained high.

In Lwengo district, orphans and other vulnerable children account for 24.8% of the total children. Orphans alone account for 14.4% and other vulnerable children account for 49.5% of the total children in the district (2007 OVC mapping). Though a number of interventions have been put in place to address OVC problems, a number of OVCs still lack basic needs. National statistics show that only 9.7% of the total orphans receive psycho-social support, 15.4% received educational support while only 3.4% receive food support. In Lwengo district there is only one OVC service organisation compared to 8929 Orphans (2007 OVC mapping report) that need immediate interventions. HIV/AIDS OVCs are burdened by household chores; are less visible and often do not realise their educational aspirations. They have limited access to good nutrition and experience emotional and mental stress. All these compromise the development of a child (UNAIDS 2005). The 2003 mid term review of the National HIV/AIDS strategic framework (NSF) indicated that there is little evidence of integration of OVC concerns in mitigation interventions. Programs that provide life skills training, HIV prevention measures, HIV counselling and testing, legal support systems, support to coping mechanisms to address the effects of HIV/AIDS, nutritional management, livelihood skills, child friendly services including ART are not adequate for children below 17 years. Studies show that OVC caregivers have an important role to play in the lives of OVCs and yet they have not been fully integrated into OVC interventions (2008-2013 Lwengo District OVC strategic plan).

HIV prevention strategies for children mainly focus on abstinence. However, this has not worked well as over 1,682 OVC girls in Lwengo are already child mothers. Information education and communication interventions therefore need to be supported with life skills and behaviour change communication trainings for OVCs and care givers.

Stigma against HIV OVCs is still high in communities. However, access to treatment and protection from child abuse has remained limited. To make matters worse a lot of child abuse cases go on within the communities but little is done to apprehend the culprits. There is no single organisation that offers legal protection for OVCs in the district (2007 District OVC mapping report).

Human rights Abuses

Despite the fact that Uganda’s 1995 Constitution protects the rights of all its citizens against harassment or abuse of any kind, the rate of rape, defilement, sexual harassment and child sacrifice continues to escalate at an alarming rate. According to community-based research conducted by ACFODE (2006), the main contributing factor to this increase is poverty lack of awareness and unfavourable laws. Because OVCs and especially girl-children are educationally, politically, legally, socially, and economically marginalized, they are far more prone to becomes targets of such crimes. Unfortunately, it is frequently those that are close to the victim that commit the offence. Males such as teachers (and other school workers), friends, husbands, brothers, and co-workers sometimes take advantage of their societal-enforced male dominance in order to quietly abuse those they know trust them.

Today, the problem remains on how to reduce/get rid of this startling and unacceptable pattern. Although there is protection for education and girl-children under Ugandan law against such crimes, they are not properly implemented. Most people are unaware of their basic rights and/or what to do if their rights have been violated. If the trend of rape, defilement and sexual harassment continue to accelerate, it will break down the basic societal structures by greatly disorienting those involved. It is a problem that must be dealt with swiftly and proficiently (through both legal means and moral means) in order to halt its degenerating effect on education.

Proposed Solution;

COTFONE is proposing strategies that focus on management of OVCs at the household level as well as advocating for integration of OVC programmes and services into the district / sub county development plans. These strategies are intended to build the capacity of care givers to ably manage and care for OVCs in homes and also to equip the OVCs with life skills that will enable them make informed decisions and acquire vocational skills that will enhance their employable skills for gainful and self employment. The strategies will go along way in bridging the gaps between caregivers, OVCs and the policy/ decision makers.

The proposed strategic intervention will specifically address the following gaps: management and care for HIV OVCs, advocating for inclusion of OVC services into district programmes, promoting behavioural change communication, equipping OVCs with life and Vocational skills and providing income-generating opportunities for the OVC households. Life skills and behaviour change communication trainings will build OVCs’ self-esteem and ability to cope with life challenges and make informed decisions. A select group of 40 OVCs will be given an opportunity to identify a vocational skill of their choice where they will be supported for 3-6 months training. Idle OVCs will engage in IGAs and in particular child mothers.

To ensure beneficiary involvement in strategic implementation a community/beneficiary involvement delivery model will be adopted. Community leaders will select among themselves members to form the Sub county community OVC teams (SCOTs). These will take the lead in reaching out, making referrals, counselling caregivers and OVCs in their areas. A community social mapping exercise will be done to select the most eligible OVC households for IGA and OVCs for life skills and vocational training. Program Description;

The proposed strategies will be implemented in all the 8 sub-counties of Lwengo District. This program intends to support activities that encourage improved life skills and capacity among caregivers to manage and care for OVCs. To promote quality care and management of services to OVCs.

This strategic plan will target out of school OVCs boys/ girls who are idle and the child mother OVCs aged 17 years and below. Idle OVCs in this context have been defined as those who are 17 years and below, are HIV positive, or parents died of HIV, are out of schools, heading a household, are not involved in any gainful employment, disabled, and living in a household where the care givers are not biological parents and are aged 50 years and above. Child mother households are defined as those households where females aged below 17 years are not living with their parents, are HIV positive, parents died of HIV or living with ageing and weak parents, are not living with the father of their child and do not get any kind of help from the fathers of their children.