COMMUNITY HIV?AIDS WORKER &CED STUDENT

Hi Friends
I am Nemma again, I would like to share with you the preliminary stage of my research on HIV/AIDS and my Education and professional backgrounds, Future aspirations as a result of attending CED program, Areas of focus of my proposal related to CED Principles, Selected Community Based Organization Profile and Detailed plan for Participatory assessment

NAME OF STUDENT (MSc.CED)
NEEMA WELLU NSALLU

1. 0 EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
I am teacher by profession (Bsc, Ed) with ten years teaching experience science subjects. I joined the community work in 1997, since then I was employed by the Anglican Church of Tanzania (ACT) in Diocesan Develop Services Company as the Community HIV/AIDS Educator and Counselor. For the time being I am ACT provincial HIV/AIDS Coordinator. The following is the outline of my education and professional backgrounds.
1970 -1976 I attended Primary education at Shanghan Primary school in Mtwara regional.
1977 -1983 I attended Secondary school education at Tabora Girls Secondary and High School i.e.” O”level and “A” Level and I was awarded the Certificates.
1983-1984 I joined the National service for one year before I stated the college.
1984-1986 I attended Teachers Training College and I was awarded the Diploma in Education
1986-1997 I was teaching in Government Secondary Schools ( Msalato and Mzumbe) also I worked as a school counselor. Thereafter I was employed by the ACT as Community trainer and Counselor. Nov 1997 to Jan, 1998 Before I started a new job, the Organization sent me to Southern Province of Zambia to attend courses related to HIV/AIDS, Project Management and Counseling. This was a three months course including the field work. From that time onwards I was daily going to the community to train selected community members to become HIV/AIDS Trainer of Trainers (TOT), Counselors and peer educators. I was able to open 82 AIDS community projects in our area. The overall project was funded by ICCO and successful evaluated in November 2002. I received several in-service trainings to build my capacity in community work conducted by Support for Tropical Initiatives in Poverty Alleviation (STIPA) of Kenya which was funded by Evangelical Church of Germany, EED abbreviation for Evangelischer Entwicklungs Dienst. I attended 3 short courses: Participatory Rural appraisal (PRA), Participatory Impact monitoring (PIM), and Gender and Development. Other courses were facilitation skills, proposal write-ups and evaluation. Methodology used was based on Learner-centered, problem posing, self-discovery and action oriented (LEPSA) approach. I developed the training manual work which is now used by the organization to train our communities on various aspects i.e. PRA, PIM, Community based Health care, Gender and development, Gender and AIDS, Integrated Health in Church Ministry. From 2002 to date then my organization appointed me to be the Provincial (National) Health/HIV Coordinator, whereby I have been coordinating HIV activities in our 22 Dioceses for the past four years. We have 12 ACT hospitals and 35 Health Centers. I am involved in many Governmental meetings, such as planning meetings e.g. I was involved in writing the national AIDS policy, Prevention of mother to child HIV program(PMTCT) planning, Training NGO’s leaders implementation of AIDS National Strategic plan.I attended the National AIDS Conference conducted in Arusha and presented 3 Abstracts: ‘Knowledge , Attitude and practices in HIV and AIDS of a Tanzania faith based organization’ (Abstract no. 012), and ‘ Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV community needs assessments in 3 Rural Tanzania sites ‘ (Abstract no. 014) . Also I presented my paper to BURBANK University ,Los Angeles, California USA when I visited there in June 2005 on HIV/AIDS experience in Tanzania; and to the World Council of Churches (WCC) conference held at Porto Alegre, Brazil (2006) on the theme ,’God in your grace transform the world’
Besides doing my work I was taking my first degree through the Open University of Tanzania, from 2002 to 2006 when I graduated on 7th Oct 2006 where I was awarded the upper Second with honors degree in Bsc.Ed, April this year 2007 I was awarded by the Government a certificate of being an outstanding student in science among the female graduates of 2006. Therefore CED program is a continuation of my academic excellence.

1.2 FUTURE ASPIRATION AS A RESULT OF ATTENDING CED:
The demand of my work has initiated my desire to learn more about the Community Economic Development. This will give me a wide opportunity to learn more on; training and facilitating the community, project design and management, accounting and financial management, micro-enterprise development, survey, monitoring and evaluation, organizational management, conducting strategic plans, Basic economic principles etc. Through this CED Program I will be able to build capacity of community leaders to make informed choices, assist to plan and implement sustainable projects etc, facilitate strategic plans for development, monitoring and Evaluation of projects, sensitize and mobilize various communities’ participation and involvement of community members on developmental projects, train TOTs and other community workers, to generate knowledge on Project planning, implementation and management. Managements of funds at all levels of the organization or institution and Administration issues, report writings, proposal writing

2.0 THE AREA OF FOCUS OF MY PROPOSAL IN RELATION TO CED PRINCIPLES:-
I would like to conduct my study / research to the Youth Resource Center called Mambo Poa situated at Dodoma municipality to build the CBO capacity for services quality improvement. The CED areas of focus will be: Addressing the primary needs of target groups (Youth and Orphans and Vulnerable Children OVC) supported by Mambo Poa CBO, through PRA and PLA methodologies, which will lead them to priotize the needs during the community sensitization meetings i.e. sustainable supply of nourishing food and safe drinking water , security and safety of Youth and OVC, inadequate and affordable housing opportunity for health and recreation, increased quality of life through mutual support and opportunities for meaningful work
The second area of focus will be: Creating and supporting opportunities for community learning: Through Reproductive Health educating life skills and anti-AIDS education and other sexual transmitted infections STIs. The youth will be provided with education on life skills, development, opportunity of sharing knowledge of locality, opportunity to learn through doing participatory actions. The Research/ study will engage elders to sharing wisdom and experiences in different areas to empower youths, and OVC.
The third area of focus according to CED will be: Strengthening CBO on social/cultural economy through recognition, validation and structural support, valuing encouraging and supporting volunteerism setting up a skill exchange program, creating support for home health care and supporting cultural diversity and development.

3.0 IDENTIFICATION OF CBO FOR CED PROJECT
I was moved by the local community based Organization so called Mambo Poa Youth resource center dealing with youths and vulnerable children, the way they mobilize resources and provide opportunity for youth to learn, play and work. They have the recreation games and educational materials. The education center would do a lot and reach many youths and children if will be empowered with CED skills (based on 3 CED principles)
· I introduced my self to the organization and submitted a short letter of application asking for permission to study in their organization.
· I discussed with the employed staff and Youth leaders about the CED program clearly stated the goals and expected outcome of the research of my study/ research which conducted free of charge.
· The discussion provided a conducive environment to get the organization profile as well as permission to carry my study/research in the organization.

4.0 CBO PROFILE, MAMBO POA YOUTH RESOURCE CENTER
Mambo Poa is the youth center of HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Education in general. This Center is situated at “Mji Mpya” Street of Dodoma town. The Center is under the facilitation of a Non Governmental organization known as CMSR Tanzania. Before it was specially established by CMSR-Tanzania for youth activities, the centre was for the general Community Center of Dodoma Municipal Concil. CMSR- Tanzania is a Non Governmental Organization registered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs under Society Ordinance (1954) in 1997. From 1999 CMSR Tanzania has taken steps to implement STD and HIV/AIDS prevention and control as well as sexual and reproductive health education activities. Following this factor, Mambo Poa Youth Resource Centre was established in 2001 after the agreement made between CMSR-Tz and Authority of Dodoma Municipal Council, granting authorization to CMSR-Tz to rehabilitate and take over the running of Municipal buildings for Youth activities against HIV/AIDS and STI infections

Main objective: The main objective of Mambo Poa Centre is to reduce youth vulnerability towards contraction of HIV/AIDS/STIs infection in Dodoma region.
Specific objectives: The specific objective of Mambo Poa Youth Resources Centre includes:
- Provide correct information about HIV/AIDS/STIs through seminars, workshops, video shows, printed materials such as: magazines leaflets and posters conduct drama performances and HIV testing (VCT) services.

Activities and services provided / performed by the Center to date:
Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS/STI, training of peer educators on HIV/AIDS, seminars on reproductive health and life skills, Condom promotion and distribution, video show sessions, sports and art activities like: Drama and traditional dance, volleyball, table tennis, karate, weight lifting and body building.

5.0 PARTICIPATORY ASSESSMENT
Participatory assessment is the process of building partnerships with the target population (e.g. youths and OVC) of all or specific age group and background. By promoting meaningful participatory through structured dialogue, it includes holding separate discussion with the target population, in order to gather information on the specific problem and underlying causes to understand their capacities and to hear their proposed solutions.
Participatory assessment involves discussion concern and analyzing jointly with the target group, the protection risks (HIV/AIDS/STIs Prevention) that they face, to help mobilize communities to take collective action to enhance their own protection and forms the basis for the implementation of a community- based approach, so participatory assessment is one phase of a comprehensive situation analysis.

5.1 COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
Participatory community assessment was conducted through:
Meeting with various community groups such as: The CBO staff to plan for community meeting (public meeting with leaders), focal groups of boys and girls (Youth and vulnerable children, older children over 7 years to below 18 years) to provide them with key information and collect information, opinions from this most groups of beneficiaries. Another meeting will be conducted to youth and OVC with special needs. The selection of participants will be in simple random sample selection.
Use of development participatory tools: applied to identify and priotize major problem related to the area of intervention. Tools such as the. Participatory Rural Appraisals and Participatory Learning in Action (PRA, PLA)
Collect the information from other stakeholders: Such as other CBO, NGO, People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWAs), teachers and parents/guardians/relatives of children supported by the CBO. The assessment also will be conducted to the group of CBO staff who work with the community, to identify the main problems, wants, needs and solutions.
Surveys: mainly survey aims to collect information from the community, in form of questionnaires and filling the orphans mapping tool (forms), record reviews and interviews various groups of people.

5.2 ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT
The participatory economic assessment was conducted through various methods such as questionnaires, interviews, observations. The assessment was conducted in two levels, at organization level and at community level.l included number of youth assisted at CBO level and community level. The information collected included the number, age and sex distribution of beneficiaries and/or families. The value of support given to the target group, the catchments area, coverage population supported by organization (Number of delivery services offered by organization) At organization level, the budget, source for income of funding, investments, access to credit for creating work, resources used by organization e.g. Assets such as office equipments, vehicles, building and other supplies such as water and electricity. Sustainability strategies of the organization, if the organization has income generating activities for sustainability after the donor funding.
Cost affective assessment: The capacity of the CBO to deliver the services at most reasonable cost

5.3 HEALTH ASSESSMENT:
The participatory health assessment was conducted through records of diagnosed disease i.e. Also assessment should be through observation of physical problems, illness, risk behavior, children nutrition, health care services, hygiene and general cleanliness of household, housing and family sizes. Assessment, of OVC household sickness survey. To know common sicknesses and which time of year, kinds of health problems affecting the target group
Methodology to be used will be through discussion with health workers of the health facility nearby offering services to the selected group .Face to face interview to the randomly selected sample of beneficiaries. Health information filled in survey forms. E.g. nutritional status of children
Other method: Syndromic assessment of communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid, T.B Assessment through records( Secondary data) at home such as road- to health card for children under five, malnutrition, vaccinations ect. Records at the nearest clinic to see the most common conditions, records of acute problems such as mental disorders, disabilities, records of counseling testing HIV/AIDS

5.4 ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
The community members know their environment than any outsider. They did mapping of their locality and identify the key areas such as forest, water sources , through discussion, map making of including housing, pumps, roads, infrastructure,, the villagers should make these map on the ground using sticks and stone. Other information should be gathered though, observation, recorded documents e.g. Climate assessment- should involve the information on amount of rainfall per year, dry weather/wet weather, which also determine vegetation and food/crop production.
Use of participatory poverty assessment strategy: The health environment determined agriculture, productivity and food security. The health environment support people with income generating and provide them with building, cooking materials and medicine. Natural resources assessment will determine the economic situation of the place, poverty, economic sustainable development. The effect of environment to livelihoods is on people’s health and welfare since people’s health depends on good and clean environment for sustainable development. The environmental problems in unplanned settlements and slums include lack of safe disposal human excrete due to inappropriate sanitation management facilities, Sanitation systems are dominated by pit latrines, Sewage from the homes in towns determines the health of people, Polluted environment (industries areas) and families living in unplanned settlements, especially in slums, Deforestation- lead to bear land leading in decreased nature absorption capacity. Therefore participatory assessment will be an entry point to the community study/research.

References: Community analysis Manual and CED Program Student handbook 2007-2009