The estimated 1.6 million children left orphaned and vulnerable by HIV/AIDs in Zimbabwe are the driving force behind everything we do at ASAP Africa. These children, left alone and isolated in a cruel world, are often sent to their rural homesteads to live with extended families - most often with aging and poverty stricken grandparents. To gain insight into the lives of these grandmothers' click here. ASAP's CHILD approach - Community Holistic Initiative for Local Development- aims to strengthen rural communities to meet the needs of the ever-increasing number of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).

An estimated 1.6 million children are left orphaned in Zimbabwe

Keeping these children in the care of extended families within their community is preferred over placement in an orphanage. The community provides children with continuity, emotional support, a sense of belonging and an opportunity to develop within their culture and traditions, as well as providing effective and sustainable care for the child.

Helping overburdened families nurture orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) is the ultimate goal of all of ASAP’s work. Working in partnership with UNICEF in Zimbabwe, and in line with the UN’s National Action Plan for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, ASAP strengthens rural communities and households, which helps them to fill the needs of these children.

Orphaned children are often sent to rural homesteads to live with aging and poverty-stricken grandparents

Since 2001, ASAP has been working to increase household security (Identified as Pillar I in the NAP for OVC), by implementing the Village Savings & Lending (VS&L) rural micro-finance project. Through VS&L, ASAP has already increased the household income of over 35,000 families in rural Zimbabwe, helping families take the first step out of poverty and onto the path of self-reliance. As a registered PVO in Zimbabwe, ASAP has earned an excellent reputation and expertise in implementing VS&L. Successful, and often multiple, project partnerships with CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Plan International and Concern World Wide, continue to benefit communities today. In 2011 ASAP was contracted by the Protracted Relief Program (PRP) in Zimbabwe to build the capacity of their project partners to implement the VS&L methodology within their organizations. In fact, due to the sustainable nature of VS&L activities, its often used as a successful project exit strategy.

Even after working through a decade of economic collapse and eventual dollarization, ASAP continues to witness families prospering through their VSLAs. During a period when many families were forced to sell their household assets, such as livestock, just to survive, ASAP's VS&L members were accumulating assets and prospering through their income generating activites. Although runaway inflation reached 4,000,0000,000% plus by 2008, ASAP had been promoting asset-based savings, which provided families with continued opportunities for success.

Information shared in ASAP savings clubs reaches the most remote and neediest families

By meeting regularly for savings club activities, VS&L actually strengthens community ties. ASAP uses the VS&L platform to add value to these regular meeting by disseminating additional skills and knowledge. For example, during the deadly Cholera outbreak in 2008, ASAP helped save lives by sharing knowledge on how to identify the disease, prevent transmission, and the steps to take if someone contracts it. Knowledge and skills shared with savings clubs cascades deeply into the community, reaching the most remote, neediest families.

In these rural subsistence farming communities, ASAP works to increase food security, family health, nutrition and overall productivity through agricultural skills training, always through the VS&L community network. In 2003, ASAP worked in partnership with the LEAD TRUST distributing 416 home drip irrigation kits to rural families. The USAID funded project aimed to increase the food security of families infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. ASAP was able to quickly identify the neediest qualifying households - again, through the VS&L community network.

Community mobilization, which is integral to the VS&L project, also allows ASAP to mainstream cross-cutting issues such as gender, HIV/AIDS prevention, child protection, rights based education and how to access basic services at very little cost. Discussing issues such as these, greatly increases the benefits to the community and ultimately the children.

Education gives orphans the opportunity to lead a productive life

Education plays an important role in ASAP's CHILD approach by working to help keep these needy children in school, providing vocational skills training, and improving the quality of education in these communities. To an orphan in a child-headed household, attending school is absolutely crucial; it provides a sense of belonging and structured time, and is often their only opportunity to interact with adults as role models. Education is the means for orphans to realize the possibility of a productive life, while minimizing the risk of being exploited and getting involved in behaviors that expose them to serious health-related issues.

ASAP provides life opportunities. When the people with a stake in their communities take action to improve their own lives, ASAP extends a helping hand so they can reach their personal goals and aspirations. Enhanced personal efficacy and self-esteem are the result. Fighting poverty is not enough, ASAP works to promote socially and economically constructive behavior, benefitting the community as a whole; strengthening and empowering to not merely meet the daily survival needs of OVC, but to see them prosper and thrive.