Holistic child development has four aspects: physical, socio-emotional, economic and spiritual, and there are different issues that we have to grapple with when applying our child development model to the child survival and child sponsorship programs.
This is what holistic child development looks like in eastern India. (more…)
Uganda is often held up as a model for Africa in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Strong government leadership, broad-based partnerships and effective public education campaigns all contributed to a decline in the number of people living with HIV and AIDS in the 1990s.
Despite this impressive reduction in the spread of AIDS in Uganda (from 30 percent in the 1980s to 6.5 percent to date), AIDS is still infecting and killing many Ugandans. Uganda’s HIV prevalence rate has stagnated over the past four years, meaning that the country is not managing to reduce the number of new HIV infections.
Damalie Andabati, the health specialist in our Uganda Country Office, says,
“Currently 6.3 percent of Uganda’s population is infected with HIV, and a new issue that has been discovered by the Uganda Virus Research Institute is that 66 percent of the new infections are among married couples.”
The reason for the high percentage in this unexpected group is not yet certain.
It is feared that HIV prevalence in Uganda may be rising again. It has been suggested that antiretroviral drugs have changed the perception of AIDS from a death sentence to a treatable disease. This perception may have reduced the fear surrounding HIV.
As part of our holistic outcomes around health, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV is part of the regular health screenings conducted for the parents and children at the child development centers.
Kansanga Child Development Center carried out a VCT session back in March and 233 caregivers and children were tested, which is one of the best success stories of beneficiaries being tested for HIV by Compassion Uganda.
Kansanga, a red-light district of Kampala, is a community in the slum areas, and the child development center is located one kilometer away. Much effort has been put in clearing this district of prostitution and raising awareness about preventing HIV. Many fear being seen going for the test or seeing the results they will receive from the test.
More than 60 percent of Uganda’s population is illiterate and ignorant, and others are even too poor to own radios from which they would hear information on where to go for testing. Our church partner staff, and government officials, are hopeful for the future — that with tireless effort in community training and sensitization this figure will be adjusted.
The first thing Heidi Partlow does each morning is check her e-mail. It’s always packed. As Compassion’s complementary interventions manager, she gets all kinds of e-mails each day.
E-mails about how to submit a proposal for a complementary interventions (CIV), e-mails from marketing departments about the particulars of a CIV, e-mails about a disaster that has just occurred.
So her e-mail inbox pretty much dictates her day. After attacking the onslaught of messages each morning, she has a cup of tea at 10 o’clock.
Then she spends a lot of time running around, especially during a week where there has been a crisis, like with the recent hurricanes, getting approvals for funds to be distributed.
But she slowed down enough to give us a peek into CIV and her world. (more…)
10 questions? Yes. You asked ‘em.
10 answers? Yes … kind of. They’re just not all in this post.
Here we go. 10 Questions With Dennis Tumusiime, a tours and visits specialist with Compassion Uganda.
1. Do the families that Compassion works with have a pretty good understanding about what the program entails, and are they open to their children being evangelized? Is there a balance between being so desperate that they feel they must enroll their children and thus expose them to the gospel in order for them to be educated and fed? (Kalaya G)
I’d say that 80 percent of the communities where child development centers are located have an understanding [at least partially] of our program components. There have been instances where children are denied the benefits of the programs by their parents because the parents have different beliefs and norms, but like you said, they are compelled to enroll the children because of lack of supplies to the children’s needs.
2. What are the qualifications for the project workers to work at the child development centers? (Kayla)
Each position, be it health, finance, or sponsor donor ministry has a professional element that an aspiring candidate should have. But Compassion also has a holistic approach to the work we do, and the same idea applies to the workers in the child development centers; they should be holistically qualified –- not just academically qualified. The applicant’s spiritual status matters, and it is paramount.
For the past month, we’ve been talking about our holistic child development model, and we did it with a series of posts called 10 Questions. But the questions are done now, other than this one. Got 10 minutes for a video?
It’s called Equipping the Church, and it explains our partnership with the local … anyone? … church. That’s right!
Who better to partner with when releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name than the local church? That’s a rhetorical question y’all. We said we’re done with the questions.
The local congregations are catalysts for community change. They command the resources and respect that are critical in developing the children in their communities. They make Compassion work.
Yesterday, Scott introduced our Complementary Interventions (CIV) program, and today he discusses his goals for CIV.
6. So would you say that CIV benefits the churches?
Absolutely. I believe that Complementary Interventions are one way we are equipping the Church to be the Church. Any of our 4,500 church partners can submit a proposal for a CIV grant. They assess the needs of the community, develop a strategy, and propose that strategy to us. They are then able to implement their solution in a way that blesses the entire community.
7. Besides the church, does CIV utilize any other partnerships in the field?
Often, other nongovernment organizations are in the field, doing things well that we can’t do. For example, Opportunity International is a wonderful ministry that provides financial services to the poor. We knew very early on that our partner churches should not become financial institutions. But by partnering with Opportunity International, we are able to network, to get the word out to the parents of our registered children, and to help them.
Partnership done right is a kingdom principle. We need to work with other organizations that are great at what they do so we can help as many people as possible.
8. How did you get involved with Complementary Interventions?
With my medical background, I first became involved with CIV through the AIDS Initiative. More importantly though, I was drawn to CIV because I completely believe in the mission of holistic child development. So many forces are conspiring against children in poverty. I wish $32 a month was enough to battle all of those forces, but more often than not, it isn’t. I just think about my own family. If I could pay for my son’s school fees, but couldn’t provide the medical care he needed, then it isn’t good enough.
9. What are some of your goals for CIV?
I would ultimately like to see CIV allowing us to care for each child registered with Compassion as we would care for our own sons and daughters. I don’t want to see them suffer unnecessarily. I want them to realize their God-given potential. I would like Complementary Interventions to become seamlessly integrated with each of Compassion’s core strategies.
10. Tell me about a time you’ve seen CIV work well.
I’ve seen so many examples of CIV working that it’s hard to talk about just one. There is one that may surprise some people about how CIV works, though. I heard about a boy in Kenya, whose brother was in our Child Sponsorship Program. This boy had already lost one eye to glaucoma, and the disease was rapidly taking his other eye. But because this little boy wasn’t sponsored, he couldn’t receive the medical care he needed. But what his family didn’t know was that a small allotment of CIV can be used for the medical needs of registered children’s families. So the church stepped in, asked for CIV funding, and now that boy, who would have gone blind, can see.
Another Saturday, another thought half finished.
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