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Uganda in Crisis:
The Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children and Families
Action for Children’s (AFC) mission in Uganda is to: “Rescue children from immediate danger and give them an opportunity to develop a purposeful future.” This is done by providing services to children in dangerous or very difficult situations, as well as advocating for the respect and protection of children’s rights in families and communities.
Action For Children recognizes the fact that people’s needs are best known and explained by the people themselves. Consequently, their problems and needs can be best handled and or alleviated by the people themselves. They must take a very active role in solving these problems. Action For Children’s family approach respects the above concept. They just need somebody (AFC) to motivate and encourage them. Children need to be assisted in their own homes rather than being institutionalized in orphanages that are associated with low self esteem and decreased self worth.
There are many people who care about the plight of the world’s children. Fewer are those who dedicate their lives to making improvements. Jolly Nyeko is one of those people. Action For Children is a non-profit organization founded by Jolly Nyeko, who in recent years has been Director of Feed the Children-Uganda. The Jolly Nyeko Foundation has organized many other projects/services including an abused child recovery center; a woman’s ministry; a community farm, and several community service organizations. Jolly holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences, majoring Sociology, has a diploma in Law, a Masters in Economic and Social Affairs, and is currently completing a Masters in Leadership Studies.
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Holt’s primary goal in its alliance with Action for Children is helping HIV/AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children remain with extended family in their village community by providing counseling services and other support that enables heads of households to support their family. Children receive assistance under a community umbrella of interaction and protective support.
The target populations include:
- Families that are headed by children (child-headed families)
- Families that are affected by HIV/AIDS or other terminal diseases like cancer and TB.
- Families experiencing abject poverty; families that cannot afford meeting their basic needs.
- Single parent-headed families with many children/orphans due to HIV/AIDS.
- Grandmother/father headed families caring for orphans whose parents (sons and daughters of the grandparents) died of HIV/AIDS.
Holt and Action for Children’s major project objectives are threefold:
1) Community Child Counseling and Assistance Services. AFC staff will work to identify and train dynamic individuals and community leaders and further empower them to respond to the needs of AIDS-affected families and children in their respective areas.
2) Income Generating Activities. Increasing the capacity of families and households to cope with their economic problems and become self-reliant through the provision of temporary emergency food and medical assistance, vocational training, household competitions, and the provision of grants and micro-credit to purchase such items as tools, animals and other inputs to begin or expand family based businesses.
3) Children’s Brigades. These community groups are organized to help children meet their own psycho-social needs through counseling, life skills training, learning gardening skills, participating in group activities with other orphaned children (brigades), and through attending school in order to provide for their physical, emotional and mental development.
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