Healthlink Worldwide

Overview

Drawing on our experience of working on memory work projects in Africa, the Indian initiative of child-centred HIV and AIDS approaches (IICCHAA), addapted the African approach to working with children and families in India.

Healthlink Worldwide and Child In Need Institute (CINI), in India, used a child-centred approach, drawing on memory work, to empower vulnerable children to be able to cope with the changed situation in their lives and foster a child-friendly environment free from stigma and discrimination.

IICCHAA was adapted from the International Memory Project, and drew on the experience of our partners in Africa. Healthlink Worldwide facilitated an opportunity for south-to-south learning by setting up an exchange in India, between members of the National Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA), which was the first organisation to do memory work in Africa, and CINI.

IICCHAA was first piloted in India in 2006 and has evolved into a model of comprehensive child-centered approaches to HIV and AIDS, empowering families and communities to address the special psychosocial needs of children.

An evaluation of the initiative in 2007 noted that the project was unique within in the field of children’s projects on HIV and AIDS in India and found visible outcomes, such as the improved psychosocial status of children and increased parenting skills, of its success.

A second phase of IICCHAA (2008-2009) helped to establish a replicable model, based on the Indian experience. While the primarily focus is on families affected by HIV and AIDS, IICCHAA also recognises the importance of creating a community support system to enable disclosure both within and outside the family structure and it has helped to create a child friendly space where everyone works together to ensure the basic rights of the child without any discrimination.

Healthlink Worldwide worked closely with CINI, providing technical support for:

• Participatory needs assessments involving parents, children, service providers, community leaders, etc.;
• Developing the programme implementation guidelines, training and a communication package, and adapting the child-centred approach to the Indian context Organising the Training of Trainers, who then developed the capacity of community trainers to implement memory work activities in the community;
• Developing tools for monitoring and evaluating memory work, and
• Capturing the learning and promoting knowledge sharing.

In the first phase the Master Training was co-facilitated with NACWOLA (one of our partners from Uganda) and the participants involved mostly the project teams from all the coverage states. In the second phase the Training of Trainers programme was extended to include other potential groups such as programme managers, trainers, counsellors from key govenment departments, NGOs, as well as institutions working on child development, child rights, youth development and HIV and AIDS; members of networks of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS, professionals from organisations working in participatory communication and advocacy and professional from training institutes.

The IICCHAA training guided trainers through a course to support parents and guardians affected by HIV and AIDS by helping them to:

• Share information, hopes and fears with their children;
• Strengthen each child’s sense of identity and belonging, and
• Plan for the future care of their children.

The course was highly participatory, with scope for learning through practical demonstrations and sharing of experiences by people involved in implementation of the Indian memory work. This helped in initiating a network of professionals experienced in memory work in India, who provide a wide knowledge pool.

The experiences of IICCHAA were captured in a UNICEF China publication: Responding to children, young people and AIDS, a collection of good practices on the treatment and care of women and children with HIV, vulnerability reduction for youth and stigma reduction.