Help for HIV/AIDS Orphans in Africa (4)
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Response to Peter: HIV/AIDS orphans and Junior Field Schools
Dear Peter and All,
Hello, and thanks for your observations. I love the model and
idea of what FAO is doing, and this will very well compliment
what my small nonprofit in W. Kenya (KAIPPG) is doing -- with
great success -- with our Nutritional Field Schools, which are
helping women (most widows and many farmers, with families to
support) in the communities we serve to increase their own food
security and nutrition, at the same time that they have crops to
sell for much-needed income.
Because some of the women in our program are young women, we in
essence are already doing a type of "Junior Field School". It's
great, in my opinion, that others are thinking along the same
lines, and with FAO and some of the larger orgs involved in this
type of activity, there will hopefully be opportunities for a
broader "replicable" effect than we as a small grassroots non-
profit can have by ourselves. The modes and means by which this
can happen can be debated.
Young women in particular need this type of capacity-building,
let alone the food itself, as a means to feed themselves, sib-
lings, and sometimes sick parents. Since caretaking falls upon
young women most predominately, any type of program which might
be of help to them should in my view be encouraged.
Already today I have gotten an e-mail from a youth org. in
Kenya, wanting to use this model for a similar project. I'm sure
this idea and model will have great resonance elsewhere too, and
encourage nonprofits like KAIPPG to continue along these lines
with their own projects. I understand your concerns and would
reply that my hope is that FAO and other orgs will as a follow-
on work in direct linkage with many grassroots nonprofits to
disseminate this model, providing at the same time some small
grants as a practical means (via equipment, technical expertise,
seeds, funding) of implementing it, hopefully in conjunction
with others.
CTA has done this with its GenARDIS program, which gives a 5,000
Euro grant for grassroots projects addressing the theme of
"women, agriculture, and technology". KAIPPG's grant has allowed
us to develop a project in which 100 women in our NFS have be-
come 500 women helped through a combination of technology, peer
education, arts, and skills-building, and a second grant will
allow us to reach many more. All of them have children, most are
single parents now, so they are caring for many "orphans" (i.e.
children with one parent). If these children can also be engaged
in a similar project and activity (and then draw in their peers,
which would be important for more extensive replication), that
should produce twice the impact.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, and hope we can work together
to create and implement programs that do work, are cost-
effective, and will help to address the dire situations which
poverty, malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS engender.
All best wishes,
Janet Feldman
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net