CHILD PROTECTION AND SURVIVAL IN COMMERCIAL FARMS [CHIPS-CF]
BUILDING BLOCKS :
CHIPS-CF BRIEFING NOTES ON ECONOMIC STRENGTHENING
Resources for communities working with orphans and vulnerable children
BACKGROUND:
These briefing notes are part of a set of six, comprising five topics and an overview:
>Education
>Health and nutrition
>Psychological support
>Social inclusion
>Economic strength

These briefing notes have been developed through a highly participatory proccess, guided by ENVAYA advisory board and International HIV/AIDS Alliance. One part of the review took place at a meeting at Grand Park View Hotel in Tanzania, attended by 40 people from Dar Es Salaam and Kibaha. The people who attended this meeting then took the papers back to their colleaques in their home and offices, who undertook a further process of review.An overview explain why programs need to strengthen the skills and resources of families and communities to cope with economic threats. Guidelines for programs aims at strengthening the ability of children, families and communities to cope with economic impact of HIV/AIDS.

STRATEGIES:
Possible ways of taking action to strengthening support for orphans and vulnerable children.There is a growing evidence base for strategies that are effective in supporting orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). Strategies in the brief notes including both those that have been implemented together with suggestion for strategies based on experience of people working with OVC.

ISSUES;
CHIPS CF found the severest econominic stress in households headed by a grand parent, adolescent or a single, ill parent. children in those households lacked food, clothes, shoes, bedding and medicine. Orphans and children from affected families are more likely to be poor because of:
>Reduced household income while parents are too sick to earn money, and after their death. This leads in turn to reduced acces to health care, food and education and even in some cases the loss of their home and property.Usually, sick parents can not remain as produtive, so less income or food is produced for the family.
>Increased expenditure on health care.Households with a family member who has AIDS-related illnesses use a high proportion of their income for medical expenses.
>Funeral costs in some areas where death rates due to AIDS are high,community may no longer contribute towards funeral costs, leaving bereaved households to meet all the expenses themselves.Funeral costs are usuallly high, there is a long period of mourning, and many families have to deal with several funerals in close succession.
>Debts.sometimes parents die leaving unsettled debts.
>Depleted resources.common coping strategies used by households in times of economic difficulty deplete the family's resources and compromise the children's futures.They include:
-Spending savings
-Seeking wage labour
-Switching to lower maintenance subsistence crops
-Selling possessions, livestock and land
-Borrowing food and money
-Reducing consumption and expenditure on food
-Resorting to cheaper medication
-Withdrawing children from school
-Children resorting to paid labour.

>Life chances. children in affected housholds or who have lost their parents may have to earn money to contributed to household income. Such children start work earlier than their contemporaries and often either leave or miss school,affecting their chances of achieving functional literacy.In extreme cases,girl children may sell sex to support themselves and young siblings.Sometimes girls may get married for economic security.
>Orphans,vulnerable children and affected household often can not improve their economic situation because they have lost their inheritance and lack access to education,training,income generating opportunities and credit.

Strategies: Potential strategies for action are programmes which support the right of vulnerable children if they:
-Protect the inheritance of women and children.
-Promote community awareness and accontability regading the rights of widows and children.
-Encourage community leaders to take responsibility for protecting the rights of widows and orphaned children and to develop strategies to protect them from unscrupulous relatives .
-Help parents plan for their children's future, including making a Will and other arrangements such as passing on birth certificates and title deeds to land.
-Encourage birth registration to ensure that children have birth certificates, especially in places where this is required to inherit land and property or to access social welfare support.
-Encourage hospitals to record next of kin, including widows and children, on birth certificates.
-Design savings and credit schemes so that children receive parental shares.
-Provide legal support and services for children and care givers to advise them of their rights and help them claim their legal entitlements.
-Advocate with the government to review and enforce labour laws, and help widows and children claim their employment rights and benefits.

Strategies for strengthening household economic resources are pratical measures that allow people time for income generation and productive activities. Different approaches could include;
-Organising cooperative childcare so that caregivers can work.
-Improving water supply and introducing fuel-efficient stoves so that caregivers spend less time collecting water and fire wood.
-Help establish caregiver groups for mutual practical support.
-Providing training in credit and marketable vocational skiils for affected households, especially those managing income generation for the first time.
-Create a community welfare fund to provide short-term relief.

Supporting initiatives that help orphans and vulnerable children develop pratical skills. Children should be trained in entrepreneurial skills alongside their caregivers, so that they can take over when their caregivers are no longer able to continue.

CHALLENGES
Child protection and survival in commercial farms (CHIPS-CF) says,
We have built our bridge across the river and have reached out to children and families in need of help. Our children face many challenges in life. How to get help when they need it and how to make decisions when the parents are absent or have died. Some challenges are the same, some are different from the once s that we faced growing up. If we make sure that our children have the life skills they need to grow up, then our children can respond to the challenges of life, perhaps even better than we did.
Grace, Anna,Shakira and James is a child-headed family. The parents have died leaving the children a few family assets. One of the relatives, an uncle, is demanding their house as it used to belong to his brother who died.
The oldest child is a girl aged 17. The other three children are 14,8 and 2 years-old. The children do not want to give their house away. This relative,the uncle, continue to bother them about giving away their house to him.

Advocacy remains in all CHIPS-CF programmes a prominent task. Despite recent impressive mobilization of politicians, government and opinion leaders in Tanzania, issues and concerns of orphans and vulnerable children in commercial farms in Tanzania still have to be promoted in the general public as well as decision makers. This includes leadership, partcipation, involvement and resources. Continous strong advocacy can promote greater involvement of public and their networks.
While encouraging experiences exist in a limited number of districts and communities, scaling up these experiences to all districts faces severe constraints with regards to resources and capacities.

(Not translated)