The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
MORE than 250 000 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) living with and affected by HIV/AIDS have benefitted from empowerment programmes implemented by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in partnership with various Government ministries under the Pathways project.
Pathways is a project funded under the PEPFAR programme through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project has been running for the past five years, spearheaded by CRS in partnership with different Government ministries and other implementing partners across Zimbabwe.
The main thrust is to revitalise communities and facilitate linkages so that people living and affected by HIV become healthy, stable, safe and schooled.
In its implementation, Pathways also supported OVC caregivers.
The programme further ensures that pregnant and lactating mothers living with HIV do not transmit the virus to their children.
Speaking at a symposium for orphans and vulnerable children in Harare recently, acting Permanent Secretary for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Mr Clifford Matorera said Government appreciates its long-standing relationship with PEPFAR.
“We appreciate the help extended to a total of 250 000 orphans and vulnerable children living with HIV or are under the care of HIV-positive parents,” he said.
“The cordial relationship we have is a formidable partnership of reaching out to vulnerable children and families, and it will continue.
“Government expresses its sincere gratitude . . . in particular for the care and protection of children since the inception of the National Action Plan for Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.”
CRS Pathways project representative Dr Farai Charasika said: “We recognise that it is our collective responsibility to protect and safeguard them. Our first project, the Pathways project funded by PEPFAR through USAID, was implemented from 2018 to 2022, reaching out to more than 70 000 families in 10 districts of Zimbabwe.
“The Government, together with the Pathways project, introduced interventions like positive parenting, gender-based violence prevention and response, as well as mental accounts interventions to ensure that children and other vulnerable people live in a safe and secure environment.”
A beneficiary of the programme, Mrs Virginia Tshuma (36), from Bulawayo, said: “We now know our HIV status as a family and we were economically empowered. Now we are living a better life with a stable source of income.”
Mr Pascal Mudzingwa of Gweru said the father-to-child parental lessons that he received under the programme helped him bridge the gap that used to exist between him and his son.
“I used to think that taking care of children was the sole role of women. From the lessons I got, my relationship with my son has developed for the better, for he can now confide in me and I can pass on all my survival life skills to him,” he said.
