Jireh Christian AID Org. & Community Dev.,JICAOCOD
’Father of fatherless & Defender of Widows’
About Us
An Emergency!!
A catastrophic situation has in northern and eastern as terrential rains have deversted the areas!! Thousands have been displaced, they need basic supplies etc. Your support is highly needed!! Fol,low the link at 'Support Flood Victims' for your material/finacial support.
1. Brief Description & Background
Jireh Christian Aids Organisation & Community Development (JICAOCOD) was established in 2000 and registered as an indigenous Faith Based Organisation (FBO), and a Community Based Organisation (CBO) on
JICAOCOD was established with the aim of empowering the most disadvantaged poor and desperate children, men, women and general families facing welfare problems caused by poverty, wars and HIV/AIDS; and to uphold the sanctity of human life by helping them meet their physical, emotional and spiritual needs. It also brings awareness to communities,help fight stigma caused by HIV/AIDS and community development.
JICAOCOD as an organization has effectively offered care, support to the poor and desperate families, prevention on HIV/AIDS related issues, Income Generating Activities,
2. Problem Statement
i)HIV/AIDS Prevalence in the Community.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is one of the gravest challenges to health and also to the prospects of social and economic development and global security.
As the country was rebuilding its infrastructure and economic base, the HIV/AIDS pandemic started its endless journey of destruction at individual, family, community, and country levels. AIDS is the leading killer disease in the country, which has claimed lives of both men and women of ages mainly between 12 years and above. Yet as shocking as these deaths are, the impact of HIV/AIDS does not end with them.
Because those dying from AIDS are mainly people in the prime of their lives who are often parents, a less well-known and calamitous effect of AIDS is the vast numbers of children orphaned by the disease. These endure overwhelming and largely unmitigated losses, living in societies/communities already weakened by under-development, poverty and the AIDS epidemic itself.
ii)Poverty
This has brought devastation in African families due to the problem of the extended families mostly caused by HIV/AIDS. The taking in orphaned children by relatives has severely over-stretched the resources of the extended families. This problem of the extended families in addition to providing food, clothing, education, love and affection for all the extra children, it has also become a major social challenge in the AIDS affected families. These families with many children and few adults are particularly prone to malnutrition, abuse, and neglect.
Since, 75% of Ugandans are farmers, lack of modern faming methods has also resulted in very low harvests that have made the rural people not to earn the best they shuold have.
Iii) Illiteracy
Uneducated community will suffer the problem of backwardness, ignorance about the impact of HIV/AIDS, poverty; and such communities have difficulty to access development. Education makes one's mind to open for 'Need to Change!'
3. Our Programs.
a) Orphans/Widows Care & Counseling Program.
600 Orphans and Vulnerable children from over who have lost their parents as a result of HIV/AIDS, wars, poverty, from over 200 families, have been registered and a few have been supported previously. So far, our main support to the orphans is to provide scholastic or educational materials to enable them attain formal or vocational education. These orphans do not have school fees, their families need Income Generating Support, (IGS) as a means to improve on their welfare thruogh Christian love in order to fit in society.
Scholarstic Material and Home Based Care Support to Orphans & Valurable children has reduced the burden on their caretakers and made the children to continue with thier formal education.
Through our medical care unit, we offer medical care through provision of drugs to treat the opportunistic infections to people suffering from AIDS and their children, and healthy care support to the affected and infected families. During our home based care and counseling, we render prayer sessions and practical love to the needy people.
b) HIV/AIDS Awareness & Prevention Program
We conduct HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns in communities and educational institutions/schools. During our campaigns, we stress strongly the need to abstain from sex (in case of non married youths); Be faithful to one another (for the married partners) or to wait until the right time comes (for those not married).
As proof for faithfulness, youths in schools have signed the 'True Love awaits abstinence Cards? as a life time commitment!
School sensitisation about HIV/AIDS is going on as the organisation's requirement for need to change, abstanance, and wait until the Right time foe these young ones!
c) Income Generating Support Program.
We also offer credit schemes through JICACOD micro finance department to HIV/AIDS affected families. 240 people are benefiting from this scheme as an income generating support. JICAOCOD volunteers are trained and willingly involved in HIV/AIDS support activities including: information, education and communication, awareness building, home based care and counseling; and orphans/widows support to the communities in our catchment areas.
These widows and grand mothers are being trained in Income generating Support Activities. They take care of orphans whose parents died of HIV/AIDS
d)
Through this program, we raise awareness and increase knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other health related issues among the community leaders (religious leaders, opinion leaders, clan leaders etc..) through workshops and seminars to be able to intervene in the fight against HIV/AIDS, human rights violation/ related issues as to work in their communities.
These trainers are trained so as to be able to train community based workers to work as Jireh Support Action Workers, JISAW. The JISAW work at the grass root for the real action!
e) Putting up Single Houses for the Elderly
In this program, we have identified the most needy elderly grandies and widows who take care of the grand children who are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. These elderly, almost sleep in 'just about to fall houses' that need urgent attention and support put up these houses!
These are one of the houses in 'critical conditions' that the grand mothers live in with thier orphaned children. House2 is widow Rehema with her grand children in bacground. Your support towards these grandies will bring a great change in their lives. A better house will cost USD $4,000.
4. Our Activities.
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Supporting orphans and vulnerable children with scholastic materials and school fees to ensure their formal education
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Offering psychosocial support to orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS,
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Home based care and IGAs support to families affected by HIV/AIDS
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Giving medical support to people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS,
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Counseling in and out of school youths and the infected and affected people about HIV/AIDS.
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Sensitization about HIV/AIDS in communities and schools,
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To support parents to be able to plan the best possible future for their children i.e. how to write wills, selecting a proper guardian for his/her children
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To train youths in the affected families in youth life skills
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Raise awareness and increase knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other health related issues among the community leaders (religious leaders, opinion leaders, clan leaders etc..) through workshops and seminars to be able to intervene in the fight against HIV/AIDS related human rights violation and infection rate in their communities.
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To enable communities identify and select Community Based Social Workers who undergo a series of trainings in issues related to HIV/AIDS/STDs and other health issues.
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To raise awareness and increase knowledge about HIV/AIDS/STDs and other health related issues in communities and schools.
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To enable communities form Community Support Action Groups, which carry out social concern activities in families affected and/or infected by HIV/AIDS.
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To increase knowledge about HIV/AIDS among the selected Community Support Action Groups through trainings.
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To design, produce and distribute Informational Educational and Communication materials in both English and local languages about HIV/AIDS in villages and schools.
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Train and equip Home Based Care-givers (HBCs) with knowledge and skills on how to care and support People Living with AIDS (PLWAs).
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To form youths clubs in the communities ie schools, institutions, churches etc to share information and increase knowledge among the fellow youths in schools and communities.
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To offer advocacy services to the affected families facing human rights violation and injustices i.e. especially Orphans, Vulnerable Children (OVC), Widows and People Living with AIDS.
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Construction and provision of shelters, water reservoirs and latrines to widows and elderly guardians.
5. Our Resources.
JICAOCOD has 5 employed staff who have made our programs to succeed. We have trained community based trainers; TOTs who have in turn trained community based workers to work as Jireh Support Action Workers (JISAW). The Jireh Support Action Workers, JISAW, have trained over 120 volunteers who are doing a great work to support the communities in our programs. 20 bicycles have been donated to the trainers of trainers and 1motor cycle for our field coordination work.
6. Our Bankers.
Bank of Africa, Jinja Branch are our bankers.
Spiritual Reluctance in Believing in God the Creator
7. Why Our services are important for the community.
The proposed services are important for the community because of the following reasons:
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We have got an integrated approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This approach addresses both the causes and effects of the epidemic.
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This holistic approach has a big impact in causing a spiritual, social, economic and physical transformation of the beneficaries.
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These proposed are designed to mainly benefit the direct benefiaries and are being implemented by an organization deeply located at the grassroots.
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Our methodology is cost effective because the designated services can support a big number of the beneficiaries, and therefore covering a larger catchment area.
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The services are also sustainable as we build the capacity of the communities and target families when are empowered economically through IGAs, and self-sustaining as regards to food security.
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Lastly, the Christian element of this project, makes it unique in the areas we serve; the love, the compassion, and voluntary spirit of the leadership team and volunteers on the ground makes this project really worthy of all support and funding because it serves the community regardless of their backgroung.
8. Our Objectives
Objective 1
To offer on-going Educational support to families affected and/or infected by Poverty, Sicknesses & Diseases eg,HIV/AIDS, mulnutrition etc. Focusing mainly on Vulnerable Families in Communities.
Objective 2
To Enhance the Socio-economic status of Valunarable Families affected by Poverty/HIV/AIDS through Support and Training in Sustainable Income Generating Projects (IGPs)
Objective 3
To build the capacity of Communities and other Community based Structures or Groups to be able to intervene in the fight against HIV/AIDS infection and issues related to human rights violation towards people affected and/or infected by HIV/AIDS.
Objective 4
To promote HIV/AIDS Prevention and Sensitisation activities that address root causes of vulnerability in the communities.
Objective 5
Enhancing Good lively shelter Support thrugh construction and provision of shelters, water reservoirs and latrines to widows and elderly guardians
9. Technical Approach
a) strategies and techniques we use to successfully to implement our Programs.
Methodology:
- Mobilize communities using home visits, community meetings and posters, local authorities and opinion leaders involved.
- We conduct HIV/AIDS debates, discussion, sports, music and drama in schools and communities.
- Training through seminars, in IGAs, collaboration with professionals in the various fields e.g. agriculture, veterinary among others.field demonstrations and written handouts.
- Counsel the interest groups, individuals by home visits.
10. Monitoring and Evaluation
Jireh Christian AIDS Organization & Community Development through our programs, evaluate the activities through and/or by;
i) Beneficiary contacts, communities
ii) Views as presented by the community based workers
iii) Evaluation by the donors, Geneva Global
iv) Local leaders in the area of program implementation,
v) Implementers (in this case JICAOCOD),
vi) Surveys are carried out by use of questionnaires and commitment cards to get the right information on the ground.
Office Address:
Plot 19 Lubandi Road, Nakanyonyi Bugembe
Jinja
Uganda.