Children club: a valuable vehicle for helping adolescence and youth to make healthy

choices- The FHI 360/Pamoja Tuwalee experience

PYSCHOSCIAL SUPPORT FORUM 2015; VICTORIA FALLS- ZIMBABWEPresented by Levina KikoyoFHI 360, Tanzania

Pamoja Tuwalee

Presentation outline

• Introduction•About children clubs approach•Methodology and materials • Sessions •Achievements• Recommendations • Conclusion•Acknowledgement

IntroductionBackground: Pamoja Tuwalee ( let us bring children up together) is a five year OVC program funded by PEPFAR through USAID- Tanzania and has been implemented since 2010. FHI 360/Pamoja Tuwalee program covers coastal zone( Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Pwani regions and Zanzibar) with 25 districts Overall Goal: To improve the quality of life and well-being of OVC and their householdsObjectives: The program has four objectives and one of the objective is to Empower OVC, particularly females, to contribute to their own well-being by improving their resilience, as well as their livelihood and self-care skills.Children’s clubs: establishing children clubs is one o the intervention to achieve the said objective.

About children clubs approach• A combination of age-appropriate and gender-sensitive life-

skills education • Psychosocial support activity that build on children’s/youth

strengths to increase self-esteem, and help them to make health choices• Reduce self-stigma and improve social skills• Instill coping skills that enable children to handle everyday life

stress and challenges and help them to make health decision

Methodology and materials • FHI 360 developed its children clubs manual back 2009 and

reached a number of children between 2009 to 2011 under TUNAJALI (We care -HBC and OVC) project• In 2012, based on the lessons from TUNAJALI , we decided to

revise the manual to include youth/adolescence reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention •We worked with REPSSI on its revision and trained clubs

attendants/volunteers who in turn establishes and run the clubs• Provide Ongoing supportive supervision to clubs attendants

Methodology and materials cont.• The guide has 14 sessions • The guide has also step by step guide on how to establish and

run each session including meeting with children themselves, their caretakers and getting their re-written consent. • It has annexes including:

consent form, games photos

Methodology and materials cont.

Trained Attendants 0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

315

412

727Total Number of the attendants Trained

2012 2013 Total

Sessions in the children club guideline• Relationship building• Our life history• My everyday life • My life, my friend and my school- what I like most• Love, Happiness and my body safety • List of life challenges• Trial and error, moving forward

Sessions in the children club guideline cont.• My future plan- setting the goal• My participation in my community• Challenges in this era of HIV/AIDS (10 sub sessions) - Knowledge about

HIV/AIDS, Prevention and Responses ; SRH etc• My capacity and ability- • My feelings • My dreams• Defining future group plan and graduation

Achievements

2012 2013 2014 20150

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

2654

5985

7921 8480

2763

6334

8406 8827

5417

12319

1632717307

Total children reached between 2012 to 2015

M F Total

Achievements cont.Through program observation during supportive supervision and a mini assessment conducted in 2014 that involved about 12% of the children clubs participants, children highlighted advantages of the clubs as;• Gaining self-confidence- ‘now I can ask questions which was difficult for me to ask such as how do I deal with the a night dream’, 16 yrs boy- Ilala DSM• Good school attendance• Having more friends - ‘I no longer feel being alone despite of being sick’ a 14 yrs boy in Kinondoni

Achievements cont• Being responsible to their health and their body- ‘I’m grateful for the

children club, I was fearing on how I will deal with period days when time will come, but through the club, we speak about it openly, 13 yrs girl- Kinondoni- DSM• Gaining new knowledge on HIV/AIDS – I knew about HIV, but through

clubs I have leant the important of being supportive to my classmate who is HIV+• Prevent VAC and fight negative gender norms • Setting their future plans

Recommendation

• Children should not be treated as recipients only, they should be given the opportunity to participate on issues concerning them.

Conclusion

• FHI360 find children clubs as the best intervention that allow children to learn, gain skills and cope with the stress

Acknowledgement • PEPFAR through USAID Tanzania• REPSSI• HUMULIZA Project (and founder Dr Kurt Madorien)• Masiye Camp• HIV/AIDS Alliance

Thank you for listening