Adopsjonsforum ETI 04 - Project HIV
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Adopsjonsforum ETI 04
HIV+ prosjekt Etiopia
Dear donor and friend,
the second year of our project is soon over, and it is time to send a report on our project and to look
the future.
There are currently 6 children in our forster families. These children are all HIV+ and were assigned originally to adoption to Denmark or Norway. So far the number of HIV+ children assigned to adoption has been much smaller than extpected based on past experience. In the past, at Amba, our former transit home in Addis, between 5 and 10 HIV+ children were assigned every year. We are unsure about the reason of this reduced number. Also AC has experienced a much smaller number of cases as expected. It is of course good news, that there are less HIV+ children assigned to adoption to Norway and Denmark, but we cannot really yet believe that this is a stable situation. There are international studies that indicate that in whole Africa, the HIV pandemics is not growing anymore, though there are not explicit number for Ethiopia. Also, peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a war that involved a major outposting of soldiers in the north of Ethiopia, can have contributed to the reduction of the spread of the disease.
The implication of the current situation is quite serious for our project. The whole project was based on an estimate of about 5-10 new HIV+ children entering the project every year. Was this the case, then we would have at this point at least 10 children in our project, possibly 20. Our project is sized to such an amount of children, while now it is somehow overdimensioned. We are following the situation and Louise Okon Willie, who is the experienced project manajer from AC, and Elisabeth Sandt from AF beleive that the project will grow, but at a slower speed.
Thank you for your support, that is very much needed.
Hilsen Arnoldo Frigessi.
IMPORTANT: In order to organise your tax reduction, I need the personnummer and the skattekomune of all donors. Could you email me this information as soon as possible at frigessi@medisin.uio.no
From the report of VOFAD and the visit of AC and AF to the programme:
Vofad has now employed Gkidan Amare as director of the project at full time, an accountant and a casher at 50% time and a project officer at 50% of time.
30 foster families were identified. Out of these 15 were selected based education, age, income and housing condition. The selected families were trained from the 19th to 23rd of August 2005. The training was planned and executed in cooperation with specialised medical staff from Black Line hospital and Zewditu hospital as well as the local health clinics.
The typical foster family is attached to the Evangelical church in kirkos kifle ketema and Nfas Silk Lafto Sub. The motivation to accept a foster child is indeed religious. There is no income from joining the programme as foster family. The foster families are either a married couple with own children, or a widow/divorced mother with an own child. The average age of the foster mother is 33 years, the average monthly salary in their job is about 600 birr. They are teachers, having a small trade, domestic servants, nurses and house wives.
The first 6 children are now assigned to foster families. The two first children enrolled in the porgramme have 3 months and 3 years each. Their entrance into forster family has been successfull, and they are growing well. But both children have been ill several times. Both children do take anti-HIV drugs, and this is excellent news. There is continous monitoring of the two families. I have not yet precise information about the other children. VOFAD sends a report every six months, which is indeed very detailed and good. It is clear that they are learning very much from these first cases. In particular the cooperation with the doctors at the local hospital seems very impornt, since they have given very important advices. Forexample, now all foster homes are cleaned in a particualar way regularly, to try to reduce infections in the children. Also, better clothes and beds have been bought, and heating has been assured, agian in order to reduce infections.
10 volunteer counsellors were identified out of which 5 were selected based on age (similar age to the foster families), education, sex (female preferred), income, HIV/ADIS orientation and previous training and counselling experience.They got 5 days training from 5th to 9th of August 2005. The training was planned in cooperation with specialised medical staff from Black Line hospital and Zewditu hospital as well as the local health clinics. These five volunteers have the task to sensibilise the community about the project, and also to identify future foster families. They have received a support of 500 birr each after training.
Budget
Because the number of children has been much less than expected, we have reduced the budget and expenses. However, we cannot avoid supporing VOFAD, who is doing a very good work, and would be aready to host a much larger number of children.
In Norway we have the collected donations for 90000 kr in 2005 and for 40000 kr in 2006, so far. The payments to the project have been 77000 kr in 2005 and the same in 2006. We will do the 2007 budget soon, but I expect to pay around 70000 to the project in Addis.
The number of donors is not large, about ten families. In addition Etiopiaklubben and AF’s local groups support the project. I am waiting to get a more significant number of children, before really starting to find more permanent donors actively. The support of Etiopiaklubben to the project has been and is absolutely necessary. I am very thankfull for any donation from Etiopiaklubben, which will be necessary to mantain our efforts towards these children.
Further plans for 2007
The church VOFAD is collabroating with has an own foster family programme, for abandoned children in their community. We wish to include the training of the church foster families in the training given by our project.
AC is considering to open the project to a HIV+ children which are currently left at birth at a governmental hospital, the Zewditu Hospital for HIV/AIDS patients,. These children will never go into the adoption process because their status is known. These children are more needing and closer to our objective than HIV+ children from the community.
HIV+ prosjekt Etiopia
Dear donor and friend,
the second year of our project is soon over, and it is time to send a report on our project and to look
the future.
There are currently 6 children in our forster families. These children are all HIV+ and were assigned originally to adoption to Denmark or Norway. So far the number of HIV+ children assigned to adoption has been much smaller than extpected based on past experience. In the past, at Amba, our former transit home in Addis, between 5 and 10 HIV+ children were assigned every year. We are unsure about the reason of this reduced number. Also AC has experienced a much smaller number of cases as expected. It is of course good news, that there are less HIV+ children assigned to adoption to Norway and Denmark, but we cannot really yet believe that this is a stable situation. There are international studies that indicate that in whole Africa, the HIV pandemics is not growing anymore, though there are not explicit number for Ethiopia. Also, peace between Ethiopia and Eritrea, a war that involved a major outposting of soldiers in the north of Ethiopia, can have contributed to the reduction of the spread of the disease.
The implication of the current situation is quite serious for our project. The whole project was based on an estimate of about 5-10 new HIV+ children entering the project every year. Was this the case, then we would have at this point at least 10 children in our project, possibly 20. Our project is sized to such an amount of children, while now it is somehow overdimensioned. We are following the situation and Louise Okon Willie, who is the experienced project manajer from AC, and Elisabeth Sandt from AF beleive that the project will grow, but at a slower speed.
Thank you for your support, that is very much needed.
Hilsen Arnoldo Frigessi.
IMPORTANT: In order to organise your tax reduction, I need the personnummer and the skattekomune of all donors. Could you email me this information as soon as possible at frigessi@medisin.uio.no
From the report of VOFAD and the visit of AC and AF to the programme:
Vofad has now employed Gkidan Amare as director of the project at full time, an accountant and a casher at 50% time and a project officer at 50% of time.
30 foster families were identified. Out of these 15 were selected based education, age, income and housing condition. The selected families were trained from the 19th to 23rd of August 2005. The training was planned and executed in cooperation with specialised medical staff from Black Line hospital and Zewditu hospital as well as the local health clinics.
The typical foster family is attached to the Evangelical church in kirkos kifle ketema and Nfas Silk Lafto Sub. The motivation to accept a foster child is indeed religious. There is no income from joining the programme as foster family. The foster families are either a married couple with own children, or a widow/divorced mother with an own child. The average age of the foster mother is 33 years, the average monthly salary in their job is about 600 birr. They are teachers, having a small trade, domestic servants, nurses and house wives.
The first 6 children are now assigned to foster families. The two first children enrolled in the porgramme have 3 months and 3 years each. Their entrance into forster family has been successfull, and they are growing well. But both children have been ill several times. Both children do take anti-HIV drugs, and this is excellent news. There is continous monitoring of the two families. I have not yet precise information about the other children. VOFAD sends a report every six months, which is indeed very detailed and good. It is clear that they are learning very much from these first cases. In particular the cooperation with the doctors at the local hospital seems very impornt, since they have given very important advices. Forexample, now all foster homes are cleaned in a particualar way regularly, to try to reduce infections in the children. Also, better clothes and beds have been bought, and heating has been assured, agian in order to reduce infections.
10 volunteer counsellors were identified out of which 5 were selected based on age (similar age to the foster families), education, sex (female preferred), income, HIV/ADIS orientation and previous training and counselling experience.They got 5 days training from 5th to 9th of August 2005. The training was planned in cooperation with specialised medical staff from Black Line hospital and Zewditu hospital as well as the local health clinics. These five volunteers have the task to sensibilise the community about the project, and also to identify future foster families. They have received a support of 500 birr each after training.
Budget
Because the number of children has been much less than expected, we have reduced the budget and expenses. However, we cannot avoid supporing VOFAD, who is doing a very good work, and would be aready to host a much larger number of children.
In Norway we have the collected donations for 90000 kr in 2005 and for 40000 kr in 2006, so far. The payments to the project have been 77000 kr in 2005 and the same in 2006. We will do the 2007 budget soon, but I expect to pay around 70000 to the project in Addis.
The number of donors is not large, about ten families. In addition Etiopiaklubben and AF’s local groups support the project. I am waiting to get a more significant number of children, before really starting to find more permanent donors actively. The support of Etiopiaklubben to the project has been and is absolutely necessary. I am very thankfull for any donation from Etiopiaklubben, which will be necessary to mantain our efforts towards these children.
Further plans for 2007
The church VOFAD is collabroating with has an own foster family programme, for abandoned children in their community. We wish to include the training of the church foster families in the training given by our project.
AC is considering to open the project to a HIV+ children which are currently left at birth at a governmental hospital, the Zewditu Hospital for HIV/AIDS patients,. These children will never go into the adoption process because their status is known. These children are more needing and closer to our objective than HIV+ children from the community.
2009