Mozambique Program Assessment: Community Care for Vulnerable Children in an Integrated Vulnerable Children and Home-Based Care Program


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Author(s): Cannon M, do Nascimento N, Chariyeva Z, Foreit K

Year: 2014

Mozambique Program Assessment: Community Care for Vulnerable Children in an Integrated Vulnerable Children and Home-Based Care Program Abstract:

In Mozambique, the Community Care Program (Programa de Cuidados Comunitários, or PCC in Portuguese) is a five-year project (2010-2015) that seeks to strengthen the response to HIV and AIDS, specifically support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and home-based care (HBC) service provision for people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV), in seven focus provinces through a network of community-based organizations (CBOs). Prior to PCC, OVC support and HBC had usually been provided by different activistas (community workers) and/or different CBOs, even when the same household had both HBC clients and OVC.

PCC integrated OVC support with HBC service provision: a single activista would provide integrated support to all people living with HIV (PLHIV), OVC, and pre/post-partum women living in the household through HBC, as well as supporting households that may have only one beneficiary type (e.g., households with vulnerable children and no HBC client). Integration of services and service providers involved devising a schedule of visits based on those needing more frequent care and those needing less frequent care (“intensive” versus “maintenance” stages of care).

Stakeholders expected that this integrated approach would offer a more efficient model of service provision. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mozambique asked MEASURE Evaluation to assess the integrated model to better understand what integration of HBC and OVC services means for OVC beneficiaries.The assessment outlined in this report found consensus regarding the value of having one activista provide services to all clients in one household for the efficiencies it offers, including offering holistic support to households, the potential for cost savings, and the integrated activista’s ability to reach OVC that may not have been previously reached.

This publication is also available in the following language:
Portuguese