Skip the primary navigation if you do not want to read it as the next section.
Skip the main content if you do not want to read it as the next section.
| ORGANISATION: | SAVE THE CHILDREN |
| AREA: | 7 PROVINCES OF CAMBODIA INCL. PHNOM PENH, SIEM REAP & PREY VENG |
| GRANT PERIOD: | 2004 - 2010 |
| BENEFICIARIES: | 3,500 CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES PER YEAR |
Although the rate of new HIV infections in Cambodia is now dropping, it still has the highest prevalence in Asia and the number of children orphaned as a result of the disease stands at 70,000 and growing. Children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS face many hardships, including increased poverty, risk of exploitation, malnutrition, loss of family and identity, loss of healthcare, vagrancy, and fewer opportunities for education.
EJAF worked with Save the Children to develop a community driven programme helping children affected by AIDS by providing food parcels, transport for medical care, access to education and individual counselling and advice. The best community infrastructure to deliver these services was via Buddhist pagodas, whose monks were highly respected in society and well placed to provide support and break down stigma. The community pagoda has now become a rallying point around which support services are planned and delivered.
The programme has grown rapidly from reaching 420 children, to 3,500 children and their families. It has developed a referral network of clinics, schools, and village chiefs to ensure that no child within the programme goes hungry, lacks medical treatment or is denied access to school.
Attendance rates for secondary school children within the programme are 87% compared with a national average of 24%
The government of Cambodia has adopted the programme as a model of best practice and successfully secured over $1 million from the Global Fund for TB, AIDS & Malaria to replicate this work tenfold over the next five years. Over the next three years, EJAF will consolidate and document the success of this approach, so that identification, assessment and support of vulnerable children can be handed over entirely to community groups and local government. The next phase will also embed the programme’s best practice into all national, and many regional policies.