Communities at Work: A Case of Local Responses to Care and Support of Children in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper discusses strategies that are currently being used by the Southern African AIDS Trust (SAT) to build the competence of communities to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS among orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) in Zimbabwe. It considers SAT Zimbabwe’s ongoing programming in OVC collaboration with UNICEF working with 10 community-based initiatives. The paper gives an account of the processes in the collaboration. These include the approach, the process of initiation, and service delivery. HIV and AIDS-competent communities will help to build knowledge and basic skills; create social space for dialogue and critical thinking; promote a sense of local ownership of the problem and incentives for action; emphasize community strengths and resources; mobilize existing formal and informal local networks as well as build partnerships between marginalized communities and more powerful outside actors and agencies–locally, nationally and internationally. The paper discusses some of the achievements and challenges faced in this process, concluding with a discussion of the need to set realistic goals when working in a context like Zimbabwe where the communities attempt to tackle problems that may be shaped by economic and political processes over which local people have little control.