Child Aid Programme

Zambia is one of the developing countries in the sub-region with high child and infant mortality rates. Malnutrition, disease, poor health service delivery, complications during birth, and high illiteracy levels among mothers, are some of the factors that send infants and children to their early graves. Presently, 45% of children under the age of five are stunted with 21% severely stunted, while 15 % are underweight. By 2007, under-five deaths were at 119 per 1,000 live births, while infant mortality was at 70 per 1,000 live births (2007 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey).  

Development Aid from People to People implements the Child Aid programme, an integrated community development programme involving all people in the community who wish to work for the development of themselves, their families and the community with the child in focus.

The programme uses a holistic approach to mobilise and empower individuals, households and communities to increase the use of their own resources to bring development. People work within the complex reality of life to find solutions to problems that torment them. We believe that this as fundamental in achieving our goals.

By involving children, parents, farmers, women groups, youth clubs, teachers, neighbours, local leaders and the national governments as well as international partners, the programme creates many different frontiers for attacking community problems in order to create capacity and ability of the communities and families to improve living conditions for children and to secure their sound upbringing. 

Through the Child Aid projects, community, household and school latrines and water points are been constructed leading to increased access to clean portable water and improved hygiene and health in schools and communities.

Village Action Groups (VAGs) – the programme’s structure through which activities are coordinated in the communities – are being sensitised on disease prevention, childcare and the need to give children the best start in life by sending them to school. With the support of the communities, the projects establish pre-schools in the operation areas and further work with other community and government schools.

The projects strengthen the economies for the families by mobilising communities to engage in income generating activities and by providing families with pass on loans of livestock, crop packages and micro finance to boost their financial base. Furthermore, families are trained in sustainable agriculture production and environmental management in order to increase their crop yields and to protect the environment which is presently at the brink of destruction due to human activities.

Through its 10 lines of development, Child Aid programme contributes towards most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) including the following:

• Reducing extreme poverty and improving food security (MDG 1);

• Increasing access to basic education (MDG 2);

• Promoting gender equality and empowering women (MDG 3);

• Improving maternal and child health (MDG 4 and 5);

• Fighting HIV/AIDS and other major diseases (MDG 6) and;

• Promoting environmental sustainability (MDG 7). 

Reach and operational areas

Child Aid projects are being implemented in 24 districts of Zambia and reach approximately 140,000 households and 800,000 people in the following provinces and districts:

Southern Province: Monze, Kalomo and Choma
Central Province: Chibombo, Kapiri-Mposhi, Mkushi, Serenje and Mumbwa
Luapula Province: Samfya, Chienge and Nchelenge
Northern Province: Kasama, Chinsali, Mungwi, Luwingu, Mpika, Mporokoso, Isoka, Nakonde, Mpulungu, Mbala, Kaputa and Chilubi
Copperbelt: Chingola

Key structures in most Child Aid projects

The Village Action Group (VAG)
The first step when starting a new area is for the community to meet and identify their resources and constraints. During the meeting, it is discussed how the Child Aid programme can bring development in the area and the role of the various key players.
A Village Action Group is formed consisting of one representative from each household. The group chooses two group leaders (gender balanced) who receive training. The group meets weekly for lessons, discussions and actions. Each member represents a family and disseminates information learned to the entire family. The group is given a manual with monthly headline and leads the group through the “Start up programme”. After completion of the start up programme, the VAG members make action plans according to their needs.

The School programme
Education for children is a key element in the Child Aid projects. As such, all the projects run a school programme and all the schools in the operational areas are members of the programme. The programme trains two peer educators from grade 5, 6 or 7, who assist the coordinating teacher to lead the programme. The trained peer educators teach fellow pupils practical issues such as cleaning of latrines, filling water in the hand washing tanks and growing of trees. Children also learn to be responsible, to lead, to be proactive, etc. It is a good example to everybody at the school that the participation of everybody is necessary to create development.
The programme is also improving quality of education by constructing and rehabilitating sanitation facilities in schools. This provides a hygienic and good learning and teaching environment for pupils and teachers, respectively, while improving pupils’ academic performance and retention of teachers especially in rural schools.

The Pre-schools
Children are provided with the best start in life by offering them education during the first stages of their life. This is done through the establishment of pre-schools in communities. Parents organise themselves in parents’ committees. They elect a local person to become a teacher. They find a place to run the pre-school and construct a simple classroom. The community pays all running expenses including the teacher’s salary. The projects train teachers and monitor the pre-schools to secure good quality education. The children learn through using their brain, their hands, their imagination and their body each day.

Out-of-school youth clubs
Out of school youths are bound to engage in many anti-social activities including risky sexual behaviour if they are not offered livelihood options in the face of unemployment and/or economic quagmire. Thus Child Aid projects empower the youth by providing them knowledge and skills that can help them survive in the face of every life challenges.
The youths are organised in clubs and club members meet weekly and carry out a programme involving training in life skills such as how to stay healthy, with emphasis on HIV/ AIDS prevention; family life; economy and production. The club members also embark on sport and culture. They carry out small income generating activities to meet expenses for the club.

Evaluation results of one Child Aid Project
The project was implemented in Mkushi, Kapiri Mposhi, Serenje, Chibombo, Kalomo and Choma in Central and Southern Provinces. The project carried out activities within health, poverty alleviation, environmental conservation, and education and achieved a good number of results. 42,548 households from 1,273 villages participated in the projects. The activities were coordinated with stakeholders in the district including line ministries and traditional leaders. The following are key results achieved during a 4-year implementation period which ended in 2010:

• The project targeted very vulnerable households and the percentage of people living below the poverty line was 99% when the project started and was reduced to 84.5  at the end of the project;

• The targeted households have increased their assets with 57%  (from US$ 1,454 to US$ 2,277). The assets include small livestock, farm equipment and tools, bicycles, to mention a few;

• The percentage of families having gardens rose from 33% to 68%;

• The project recorded an increase in sharing decision-making between men and women in the home from 28% to 50% by the end of the project. 

• 9,989 households received pass on loans of grains, 14,182 received pass on loans of small livestock (goats and chickens) and 956 households received micro finance loans.

Click here to also see the results of the School WASH and Quality Education Project which is also under Child Aid.