adminThe province, which has 93 920 OVCs, has child protection committees which are not receiving adequate funding to effectively reach out to the affected children.
Speaking to journalists during a media tour organised by Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Hwange last week, the Department of Social Services provincial coordinator, Mr Macnon Chirinzepi, said it was important for the OVCs to receive direct funding as they were not benefiting from some of the interventions meant for them.
He said the province had a number of organisations which were involved in child protection and education but did not have enough funding to financially assist vulnerable children.
“We have a number of organisations that are providing services in the province to improve the livelihoods of OVCs but their activities depend on their funding, which makes it difficult for OVCs to benefit.
“We have orphans who did not do well at school and they need financial assistance to supplement their subjects but it is unfortunate the Basic Education Assisistance Module (Beam), which is offered by the Government, does not cater for repeats.
We are therefore appealing to the Government and non-governmental organisations to avail funding that would directly benefit such OVCs to improve their lives.”
Mr Chirinzepi said most OVCs were facing serious challenges in overcoming their plights due to inconsistent support from different organisations.
“Although we have organisations such as the Girl Child Network, Christian Care, World Vision, National Aids Council, Hwange Aids Project and Save Children among several others, the plight of OVCs is yet to be overcome because the support from these organisations depends on what they have at that particular time and their activities are limited.
“We identify these children through our child protection committees and we refer them to the organisations but it is not all the orphans who benefit from the organisations, which becomes a burden for the community,” said Mr Chirinzepi.
He appealed to the Global Fund to come up with programmes that would see the lives OVCs changing.
“We are receiving assistance from Global Fund but the funding is limited to the coordination of the child protection committees that we have in the province. I would like to appeal to the Global fund to extend its funding to the provision of direct funding to the OVCs so that they could continue with their education or start their own income generating projects to survive and be independent,” said Mr Chirinzepi.
Ms Catherine Mathe, who is a care giver at the Hwange Aids Project, said OVCs in the province were facing many challenges that were exposing them to abuse from relatives and neighbours.
“We identify vulnerable children through visits in all the wards and we refer them to different organisations for assistance ranging from finance, education and identity documents.
“However, the OVCs still remain vulnerable due to lack of adequate support from the organisations. We also have deserving children who are not benefiting from BEAM because it is limited. Such problems have fuelled the number of early marriages, which expose children, especially girls to sexual and physical abuse,” said Ms Mathe.
She said it was important for the Government to come up with new strategies where children, especially orphans could have easy access to education, protection, birth registration, water and sanitation.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter