Community mobilization to addressthe [i.e. address the] impacts of AIDS : a review of COPE II [community-based options for protection and empowerment] program in Malawi : January 17-30, 1998

The report covers the period 9/97-1/98. Save the Children Federation of the United States is the implementing agency. Efforts have focused in the Mangochi District's Namwera area, where a 1996 COPE workshop spurred development of the Namwera AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC). NACC, in turn has, first with COPE's help and then on its own, organized a number of Village AIDS Committees (VACs) that have identified orphans, people who are ill, and other vulnerable individuals; helped orphans return to school; trained care givers in home-based care; raised funds and provided material assistance; started youth anti-AIDS clubs; developed community gardens; and organized structured recreation activities to respond to the psychosocial needs of orphans. AIDS committees have also been formed at the district and community levels. Community ownership is the essential element in COPE's approach and the key to project sustainability. A key COPE strategy for mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS is to strengthen the economic stability of communities. The evaluation suggests that this can be done through two complementary approaches: by creating a community safety net by generating resources locally to mitigate the consequences of HIV/AIDS, and by providing microenterprise services to enable poor families and households to shore up their resources. Five types of microenterprise services have potential for the latter purpose: microcredit (organizations in Malawi with which COPE can work in this area are identified in the report); savings mobilization; linking producers to markets and to sources of agricultural inputs and advice; and apprenticeships linking youth to artisans in the informal system. Includes recommendations for pursuing income generation activities, as well as for increasing the link between care and prevention activities, an area which deserves much greater attention than it has received. One of the goals of community-based efforts to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS is strengthening the economic stability of communities; the villages most vulnerable to the impacts of HIV/AIDS are already poor, and if too many are pushed from poverty into destitution, their needs will overwhelm VACs and erode their capacity to raise funds to provide support. Building community economic capacity can be done (1) by creating a community safety net through the generation of local resources to mitigate the consequences of HIV/AIDS, and (2) by providing microenterprise services so that families and households can shore up their resources. Five types of microenterprise service have potential for this purpose: microcredit programs; savings mobilization; market research; linking rural villages with agricultural inputs and advice; and apprenticeships linking rural youths to artisans in the informal system. Among programs addressing HIV/AIDS issues, the potential links between care and prevention activities deserve much greater attention than they have received; programs targeting HIV prevention often operate in isolation from those providing care for those with the disease or made vulnerable by its impact. Linking the two types of programs might help reduce the spread of HIV because the empowerment that comes with effective community mobilization reinforces among participants the sense that they can affect the circumstances of their lives. This awareness may increase their receptivity to adopting behaviors that reduce their risk of HIV infection. Also, personal involvement in community-based care efforts raises participants' awareness of HIV/AIDS and provides opportunities for program staff to discuss with them how HIV is transmitted and to convey prevention messages. In addition, responding to the difficulties of orphans and widows may motivate community residents to avoid risky behaviors that could ultimately have similar consequences for their own families.