Welfare Development Network

In the Namuwongo area of Kampala, Uganda, where 38% of the population lives in abject poverty, caregivers struggle to give the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in their care the special attention they require. To help attend to the children's needs, a local nongovernmental organization—the Welfare Development Network (WEDNET)— partnered with Bantwana in 2006 on a new project: The WEDNET Orphans Care Initiative.

The goal of the Orphans Care Initiative is in sync with Bantwana's overall mission: to improve the welfare of OVC through access to comprehensive services. Many children supported by WEDNET are refugees from the war in the north. The grant from Bantwana provides WEDNET with the financial and technical resources necessary to extend psychosocial support to such children and their caregivers all of whom face immense challenges as a result of their high exposure to loss, devastation, and disease. To date, PSS activities using a child-to-child approach have been most successful; children have enjoyed story telling and drawing pictures to depict their feelings. WEDNET is also working with Bantwana to bolster its education and child development training activities at a day care center by offering recreational activities and weekend classes. WEDNET also conducts home-visits and school-visits to follow up with OVC and their caregivers and provides health education and counseling.

With Bantwana's assistance, WEDNET launched the Women's Empowerment Project, which integrates with the Orphans Care Initiative. This livelihood project is designed to strengthen the income-generating activity of caregivers in the community, and allows them to provide additional support to the OVC in their households. In this initiative, thirty low-income women received training and ongoing technical assistance in business skills to develop their own small business units. By attending to both the OVC's needs as well as those of their caregivers, the WEDNET-Bantwana partnership has demonstrated a commitment to providing well-rounded care for households affected by HIV and AIDS.

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