HIV/AIDS Orphan Care
Sarah Community-driven Extended Home: The Home was established in February 2008 realizing that the immediate extended family members may not be able to provide adequate care without a structured extended family home. We started this under the Save-A-Child (SAC) initiative to save the most vulnerable children. Sarah Home daily activities are managed by a woman well known and trusted in the community. Thus, the children are still within the community but under the care of a woman in the community known by the child’s family. DAHP provides well organized societal protection (food, clothing, shelter and educational assistance) and psychological assistance. The goal is to ensure healthier developmental, emotional psychological outcomes for the children and overall societal protection and success of the national programs.
Stories that led to formation of Sarah Home:
In 2006, Sarah Home was only providing bi-monthly donation of some food items to children. One of the children in the program, a 15-month old AIDS orphan died of non-HIV related infection. The boy was under the care of his 75-year old grandmother who due to her poverty and illiteracy could not provide necessary health care for the little boy. The baby died between DAHP’s visitations during a farm trip. It was as a result of treatment of an ailment with local herbs prepared most probably with infected water.
Another 5-month-old baby died in 2006 because the mother couldn’t provide a 500 Naira ($3) drug prescribed by a doctor for an upper respiratory infection. The mother did not inform DAHP’s woman coordinator.
Another child, (a 5-year old boy) who was in DAHP’s home-based care once came to pick up his bi-monthly food supply from the Ogbomoso office of DAHP but refused to go back home, expressing the desire to stay permanently with the woman coordinator. Because there was no structure in place at this point to place the child in a community-driven home, the centre-coordinator convinced him to return to his caregiver’s home. The caregiver is a poor carpenter and a widower with 3 other children of his own who couldn’t provide adequately for the boy. This child is now part of Sarah’s Home
Services Provided
Shelter and Loving Environment
Education:DAHP recognizes that education is very critical to children’s future potential and sense of self-esteem, and to the generational transmission of knowledge and values within societies. Therefore, providing quality primary, secondary and tertiary education to the orphans is of utmost importance. DAHP’s existing Save–A-Child program has made education one of its primary service or mission to orphans. Our oldest live-in orphan, 1 19-year old is in a freshman (Part I) student in the university. Our youngest is 9 years old. DAHP also provides after-school lessons in order to further enhance learning outcomes.
Nutritional Care: Lack of access to adequate and nutritious food is critical to mental, emotional and physical growth of a child. It can determine school performance outcomes and truancy. It is particularly challenging for HIV-positive children because poor nutrition accelerates HIV disease progression and increases the risk of death in the early years of life. DAHP provides essential nutrients to our children.
Palliative Care: We provide palliative care as an integral component of national responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and children affected by AIDS. The care for our children is given as needed through the Baptist Medical Centre, home care for normal ailments such as headache, cold and scrapes and wounds. The children receive psychosocial support to address the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions of coping with loss of parent, HIV and related conditions. This is through counseling by the trained Home mother, the pediatrician and the after-school teacher.
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Spiritual Support: DAHP is a faith-based organization and believes that a child needs faith to cope with daily living. We offer Christian home education through bible reading, praying and attending church, where mid-week and Sunday youth activities are provided for the children. This is part of the palliative care that could contribute positively to the psychosocial development of the child.