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Kenya

Organisation: KENYA AIDS NGOs CONSORTIUM (KANCO)
Address: PO Box 69866, Nairobi
Telephone: 254 020 2717664/254 or 254 020 2715008
Fax: 254 020 2174837
E-Mail: kenaids@iconnect.co.ke
Web Site: www.kanco.org

Organisation of Child-to-Child activities:

KANCO is a national membership network of NGOs/CBOs and religious organisations involved in or having an interest in HIV/AIDS and STI activities in Kenya. It was established in 1990 by a group of major NGOs that were implementing projects related to HIV/AIDS. As years went by, more organisations realised the same need and were seeking more information. They joined the founder members of KANCO. Currently membership stands at 669 organisations.

KANCO's vision is an HIV/AIDS-free Kenyan society. KANCO exists to provide and promote leadership, solidarity and collaboration among members for collective action towards effective responses to HIV/AIDS. KANCO is playing a leading role as an umbrella organisation in facilitating good links between concerned government ministries, the UN, NGOs and CBOs. Its activities include:

1. Networking and information exchange.
2. Needs assessment.
3. Skills sharing.
4. Capacity Building.
5. Policy Advocacy & Development.

Child-to-Child Activities

Child-to-Child activities began in October, 2000 through the Child Centred Approaches to HIV/AIDS (CCATH) project and the Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) in August 2003. The aims of the CCATH programme are :

1. To contribute to the development of community coping strategies for children and young people in families affected by HIV/AIDS, especially in towns and Urban centres.
2. To work with CBOs in Kenya and Uganda to identify, develop and disseminate effective and practical strategies to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on children and young people and respond to their needs within a rights based approach.

Child-to-Child activities are introduced through trainings, sporting activities, CtC clubs in and out of schools and through CSOs that work with children. Methods used to encourage children to think and make their own decisions about health action include needs assessments, surveys, peer-to-peer counselling, mind mapping, stories, and experience sharing. Over 100 schools are involved with CtC activities and numbers are growing. The focus of Child-to-Child activities is HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Child-to-Child Activities

Project staff and external evaluators conduct follow-up visits, mid-term and end-of-project reviews, documentation of lessons learnt and best practices. These evaluation activities involve parents and children through interviews, Focus Group Discussions and the use of questionnaires. The main changes brought about by Child-to-Child activities are:

1. Building of children's resilience.
2. Change and development of policies on children's issues.
3. More awareness on issues involving children.
4. Increased community support for orphans and vulnerable children.

Training

Trained KANCO staff and trained staff of partner organisations provide training to caregivers, programme managers for CBOs and primary and secondary school teachers. The key content areas that trainings cover include children's participation, reproductive health, children's rights and life skills (psychosocial support and peer counselling).

Use, Adaptation, Translation and Production of Child-to-Child Materials

Materials published by the Child-to-Child Trust that are used include the Child-to-Child Resource Books Parts 1 & 2, Children for Health and the Child-to-Child readers.

KANCO has also developed the following materials:
1. Information guides for children and young people aged 4-8 years, 9-13 years and 14-18 years.
2. CCATH lessons learnt booklet.
3. CCATH needs assessment video.
4. CCATH community video tape.
5. Partner Newsletter on Children and HIV/AIDS.

All the materials are available at the KANCO resource centres in Nairobi, Nakuru, Mombasa and Kakamega.