THE BURDEN OF CARE FOR CHILDREN
The social support systems (The family, church, schools and community leadership structures) that used to provide the safety nets for children at risk in the communities are weakened by conflict, poverty and disease.
The number of children at risk is increasing daily, and many of these children live in poor households with limited access to adequate food, shelter, clothing, health care and education.
Secondary caregivers are struggling alone to care for themselves and the increasing numbers of orphans and other vulnerable children in their homes. The extra burden that the caretakers experience makes them regret why they agreed to take on these responsibilities, and in turn, they abuse the children emotionally and physically.
The trauma after the loss of their primary caregivers is far greater than before, due to multiple losses encountered along their journeys of life, loss of contacts with other siblings and their property. And without having savings or any means of financial resources, the children may face a more difficult struggle with new restraints. 

The effects of conflict, poverty and disease on Children and their families are far reaching and never experienced before in human history! If this trend if not checked, there is a possibility that children in this community will have a future where they will be forced to sacrifice their innocence and fend for themselves without a family or cultural value system, failing to remember the safety and nurturing arms of their mothers and assume adult roles at an early age!

It is from this background that Mt. Elgon Self-Help Community Project seeks to facilitate a process of building strong circles of support around children at risk. The project has carefully selected approaches that do not alienate the efforts of the families and communities in trying to respond to their problems but rather builds on them and creates a platform where individuals are able to re-define the purpose of their existence and reinvigorate what they hold precious.

Activities carried out in the program include the following;

1. Provision of shelter for OVC households

This project is aimed at providing shelter for the neediest people in the rural communities. These people are generally categorized as single mothers who are taking care of many orphans and other vulnerable children and live in very poor houses. With the help of Habitat for Humanity Uganda, we were able to construct 38 new houses, 78 pit latrines and 38 birth shelters for OVC households by June 2009.

Over 512 people have benefited directly from this scheme. Several contractors too who were in charge of the construction, as well as professional builders, carpenters, cement suppliers and unskilled laborers benefited too.

This project involves a great deal of cooperation among the community, because it is the community itself that provides local materials for building and food for the workers. We feel that besides providing shelter for the needy, this project has brought our community closer together and has embedded important concepts of organization, mutual effort, and community mobilization.

For sustainability purpose, we are planning to acquire a machine that makes bricks to help us generate local income and materials so that we can continue providing shelter to the needy families.

The project is also promoting good hygiene and sanitation practices in these homes. Members are taught on how to keep their homes clean with proper drainage system, washing water at the pit latrine and drying rags.

The Project has trained the house beneficiaries in gardening skills. The aim of this initiative is to improve the nutritional status of household members and raise their incomes through the sale of vegetables. Each house beneficiary is attached to a saving group and the project encourages them to save in order to improve their economic status.

2. TRAINING

Mt. Elgon Self-Help Community Project runs different trainings for children, caretakers, community volunteers and community leaders in the areas of Psychosocial care and support, Family planning, Reproductive Health, Life skills, organic farming, Apiary, management of children and women clubs and Narrative practice.

In the area of psychosocial care and support, we have adopted REPSSI Materials and adapted some to suit our local context. 

1.      Introduction to psychosocial care and support

2.      PSS Mainstreaming guidelines

3.      Memory book for adults

4.      Hero book for children.

5.      The Journey of Life series.

6.      Tree of Life.

7.      Solution focused approaches to counseling.

8.      Kids club

For more information about these Materials or training, contact REPSSI at info@repssi.org

Other training includes;

Narrative Therapy, Life skills, Organic farming, Reproductive health rights, Business skills, Organizational Management. Etc.

3. COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMS

a) Peer led HIV prevention

Peer educators are trained in HIV prevention and reach out to children and youth across the target communities, raising awareness on HIV and AIDS, mobilizing children and youth to engage in social and recreational activities. They also provide peer counseling, and teach life skills such as self-awareness, communication, positive living, problem solving and assertiveness. Music, dance and drama, debates, sports and games are used as avenues for children and youth to come together, transfer skills, and increase their knowledge on issues that concerns their lives.

Enhancing access to condoms by young people ‘Operation Dodging HIV’ is a strategy put forward to enhance HIV prevention among young people. Young members of the community engage in unprotected sex. Two of the main reasons why they don’t use condoms are the cost and the fear of embarrassment or stigma from the community when they go for the condoms in shops or health centers, especially for the young children under 16 years. In order to deal with this problem, Mt. Elgon Project with the support of Adir, a volunteer from Israel, launched an operation aimed at increasing the accessibility of condoms for the sexually active youth. Backed up by official government support, the project provides a constant supply of free condoms to the young community members. The condoms are distributed by the volunteers of different clusters in a simple, efficient, non-preaching way, while assuring the privacy of anyone who applies for condoms. “Operation Dodging HIV” was piloted successfully in one cluster and has been recently extended to the other three clusters. Youth are also involved in sports and recreational activities and are taught livelihood skills to be able to live a productive and independent living in the community.

b) Community Conversation Meetings with Child Care Providers

At the end of each month, Mt. Elgon Self-Help Community Project holds community conversation meeting with various categories of people who include teachers, religious leaders, and cultural leaders and communities volunteers. Conversations are mainly around actions that people are already geared towards responding to the problems that people are encountering in life. Trauma in its sense is multi faced and makes people to lose touch with a sense of whom they are, their values, hopes, dreams and aspirations become fainter and the dominant stories spin around the problem. Through community conversations, the project helps communities to develop alternative stories that give meaning to life, enables them to re-define their identity and reach new realizations in life.

4.    EMPOWERING CHILDREN, YOUTH AND WOMEN THROUGH GROUPS

            a) Children Clubs
The program has established four children clubs in different communities for purposes of reaching many children with quality care and support services. We have opened space in the community where children come to play, learn new skills, share stories, form relationships, participate in team building exercises and help each other to copy with the effects of adversity.

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Contact Person
Caleb Wakhungu, Team Leader
P.O BOX 425, Mbale Uganda Tel: 0782401711
Emails: Administration, admin@elgonproject.org
For general enquiries: info@elgonproject.org,

elgoncommunitylink@yahoo.co.uk