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Save the Children’s Tisamalirane (Care for Each Other) project in Malawi is an innovative approach to community mobilization to promote HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and support.  Working directly with district and village leaders to develop and manage programs that help hundreds of communities and thousands of families, Tisamalirane addresses the nutritional, emotional, education, and livelihood needs of children affected by the epidemic.  Save the Children works directly with local government authorities to strengthen their capacity to lead and sustain community-based efforts.

One of the greatest areas of need identified by the Tisamalirane communities is care and support for vulnerable young children whose families have been weakened by the effects of HIV/AIDS.  Communities responded by establishing community-based child care centers to provide a structured, welcoming environment for young orphans and vulnerable children while also giving their caregivers respite from child care duties so they can pursue livelihood and farming activities.  The centers are managed by community groups and staffed by volunteer facilitators from the local area who receive training in the basics of promoting child development and well-being.  Young children gather daily at the centers to play, learn, and interact with other children their age. To improve the quality of the early childhood development services provided at the centers, as well as to influence national policies and practice in early childhood development, Save the Children is teaming up with UNICEF on promoting “model” child care centers and ensuring high-quality training for CBCC facilitators.

Tisamalirane is a $7-million, four-year project funded by the National AIDS Commission of Malawi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.  One of Save the Children’s flagship approaches to combating the epidemic, the project has been in existence for more than a decade under different titles and with other diverse sources of funding.

At the 2007 World Forum, as part of the Action Tank on HIV/AIDS and the Young Child, promising practices of projects such as Tisamalirane, will be presented for discussion among practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and funders.

The organizers of the action tank are looking for additional examples of other promising practices in supporting families and communities of children affected by HIV/AIDS.  Please forward your ideas and contacts to [email protected]

Contributed by Yasmina Vinci

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