Orphan-Widow-Volunteer based program

3,100,000 Tanzanian children have lost one or more parents while 410,000 children have lost both parents. Of this number 1,300,000 children have lost at least one parent to AIDS, and 290,000 have lost both parents to AIDS. Because of the social structure, single parent families led by women and especially widows are particularly vulnerable. One quarter of Tanzanian households are headed by females and these are typically poorer than male households. 

Initially the focus in Dar es Salaam has been and will be the approximately 200,000 people in the poor Buguruni and Vingunguti neighborhoods of Dar es Salaam’s Ilala District. This district in 2012 had 177,531 people and is among the poorest of Dar es Salaam’s neighborhoods. Extrapolating from national data, this included: 7,500 births per year, 26,000 children under 5, 44,000 women and girls between 15 and 45. 2,728 women and 1,464 men were HIV positive. There were 12,349 children who have lost one parent, 5,326 who had lost one parent to AIDS, 1,598 children who had lost both parents, and 1,065 children who had lost both parents to AIDS. It is expected that there are at least 3,000 widows. By request of partners, the program will also expand to the 20,000 people living around the KSIAJ Dispensary in Temeke District. 

Initially the program aims to 1) Train at least 80 community health volunteers in the target communities and the mosques and churches serving them. 2) Identify at least one quarter of the widows and orphans living in the three target communities and assessed their current health status.3) Through the partnership linkages perform the screening, treatment, and other services needed to begin to improve and maintain the health of the widows and orphans. Grants are out to fund initiation of the program.