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Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter
THE United States of America Chargé d’ Affaires’, Ms Elane French says improving the welfare of children, girls and young women is crucial for Zimbabwe to achieve its goals of becoming an upper-middle income country by 2030.
Speaking during FACT Zimbabwe’s launch of Determined, Resilient Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe-Support, Maintain, Advocate, reduce Risk and Transform Girls (DREAMS-SMART Girls) and Sustain Prevention and increasing Access to Care and Empowerment for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (SPACE for OVC) this morning, Ms French said as a long standing development partner, the US Government stands committed in helping Zimbabwe to achieve the Vision 2030 goal of an upper-middle income economy.
“The great work of SMART Girls is already underway. Many adolescent girls and young women lack a full range of opportunities because they face gender-based bias and violence. However, these projects will change all that because the model ensures that recipients become determined, resilient, empowered, AIDS-free, mentored and safe,” she said.
The initiatives are benefiting four districts in Manicaland which are Makoni, Mutare, Chipinge and Buhera and five districts in Masvingo Province with a budget of more than US$54 million having been funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
FACT Zimbabwe board chairperson, Dr Geoff Foster said shortly before launching the two new programmes, FACT Zimbabwe successfully completed two other projects.
“As we launch these two projects, we want to take this opportunity to share our accomplishments on the just-ended Children Tariro and DREAMS projects. All these efforts are made to sustain the HIV epidemic control as we get to the 95-95-95 UNAIDS targets by complementing Government’s efforts,” he said.
FACT Zimbabwe Executive Director, Mrs Getrude Shumba said her organisation is implementing models that are evidence-based to end HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe by 2030 and contribute towards the United Nations AIDS targets of 95-95-95 as well as the National Development Strategy 1 which is aimed at realizing the Government of Zimbabwe’s vision 2030 towards an upper-middle class economy.
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