True Vision Ghana: Care and Aid Program for AIDS Orphans

Project Description:

Children living with HIV/AIDS and orphans of AIDS deserve to be treated with equality, dignity, and respect. Unfortunately, these children are often the victims of marginalization and stigmatization in their communities. The Care and Aid program is one part of a multi-pronged approach working to reduce the stigma as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS in Northern Ghana. For this project, we hope to provide opportunities for these marginalized children to integrate into the wider community by supporting their basic needs, education, and strengthening their ability to build relationships through other recreational activities. Northern Ghana has higher rates of poverty than southern Ghana and the Upper West Region in particular is one of the most impoverished regions in the country. In Northern Ghana, approximately 65% of the population lives in the poorest quintile, reporting annual expenditures of less than 40 cents per day in 1999 (Mazzucato et al. 2008).

Although all 40 orphans supported by the project are currently living with extended relatives or other caretakers, they are not receiving sufficient support to meet basic needs such as food, medicine, and access to education.

Update from the field: June 2010

One McMaster student is currently in the field with our Ghanaian team completing her Embedded Learning Experience. The student has been participating in regular meetings with the orphans and their caregivers enrolled in True Vision Ghana’s Care and Aid Program. Two TVG beneficiaries have been transitioned out of our care as one is now over the age of 18 and the other is moving away from our catchment area.  TVG helped introduce the beneficiary that is over 18 to another NGO in the Wa area that focuses on vocational training in the community. In June TVG enrolled one new beneficiary in our Care and Aid Program who has two parents that are both HIV+. 

Update from the field: May 2010

6 McMaster students completed their Embedded Learning Experience (ELE) term with True Vision Ghana.  The students participated in 2 of the program areas of TVG – the Care and Aid Program for AIDS orphans and Education and Training.  In the first program, Care and Aid, the McMaster students did site visits with the 40 orphans to check on their physical and emotional health.  They conducted interviews with the orphans to ensure that their needs were being met through TVG’s Care and Aid program.  The McMaster students also implemented two special projects for the orphans – a PhotoVoice project and a computer skills training project.  In the PhotoVoice project the students used cameras collected in Calgary through a Fig Tree Foundation and Vistek partnership to teach the orphans basic photography skills.  The orphans got to learn a new skill but more importantly got to spend with children that are experiencing similar hardships in life.  Ultimately, we hoped that the orphans would begin to open up about their experiences in a non-judgmental and supportive environment.  In the computer skills training project, the orphans learned basic computer and word processing skills such as how to find their photos and label their own folders.

Update from the field: November 2009

From October to November 2009, TVG activities in the field have focused on refining the Monitoring and Evaluation method for the 40AIDS orphans that are registered in the Care and Aid Program. With the added capacity of the six students from McMaster University’s Global Health Specialization we have been able to do more individual monitoring with the orphans to see how they are coping with daily life as an AIDS orphan. To accomplish this objective the McMaster students have worked in conjunction with our Ghanaian field volunteers to begin one-on-one interviews with the orphans individually to check on their nutritional status, whether they are taking their medicines (if HIV+) and their overall health both physically and psychologically. In addition, the McMaster students have been visiting the orphans at school to assess their performance and attendance and to identify those orphans having particular trouble at school.

This month it was noted that several students were having trouble because of lack of adequate nutrition at home which affected their concentration and performance at school. Some orphans are lagging behind their classmates in terms of their understanding of English. As the schools do not have the capacity to deal with learning difficulties in any standardized way, the McMaster students have started tutoring the orphans to hopefully address their learning difficulties.

Update from the field:

Diana’s Story

I am Diana Boyiri who is ten years of age. I come from Tizza in the Jirapa-Lambusie district of the Upper West Region. I am the second born of five children. I attend school at Fongo E/A primary school in the Wa municipality and I live in Dokpong with my aunt Prospera. 

I was seven years when my dad died and a year after that I lost my mum too rendering me an orphan. I was told my parents died of strange illnesses which was suspected to be AIDS. After their death, my siblings and I were left alone with nobody to care for us. By then my elder sister was in junior high school and she used to skip school in order to work as a labourer for people to get some income for us to survive on whilst attending school.

This is how we survived until the intervention of our only concerned relative (an older aunt who had a better job). Unfortunately she fell ill of breast cancer and died. After her burial in Accra, Aunt Prospera , our younger aunt who was taking care of our sick aunt came to Wa to take care of us.

Aunt Prospera, though not a high-income earner, has been catering for us all this while. She works as a domestic cleaner in a hotel/restaurant in Wa. She has been doing her best but we sometimes have to cope with what she can afford and we are left alone sometimes without guidance because our aunt has to work long hours to earn income. Aunt Prospera could afford to put only myself and two of my siblings in school. The other two were not in school and TVG helped put them in school this academic year.

Editor’s Note:

Questioning Diana on what she aspires to become in future and also her thoughts aboutTVG, this is what she said: “I want to pursue nursing as my future career and so I aspire to be a nurse in order to help people get cured of their illnesses and don’t die like my parents did. TVG is very beneficial to me and my siblings because it is helping us realize our future dreams.”

Bernard’s Story

My name is Bernard Annuor. I was born in the Jirapa district of the Upper West Region of Ghana. I am fourteen years of age and currently reside in Kpaguri in the Wa municipality. I attend Saint Andrew’s primary school and am in Class 5.

I have not experienced any parental love and care as I was the fifth and last child of my parents who both died when I was young. At the tender age of two I lost my mum. My dad had a menial job and struggled to care for me and my older siblings. My dad also passed away shortly afterwards when I was three years old. The cause of their death is not known to me except that I was told that each of them fell seriously sick before death. 

After all this, my paternal aunt Madam Susana took care of me until I came into contact with True Vision Ghana. 

I met TVG in 2007, when I was sick and being treated at the Wa regional hospital. I was referred to the STI Unit of the hospital where I was confirmed to be HIV+ and I am currently on drug therapy. Since my encounter with TVG, they have given me hope to live through the provision of my drugs (ART/ARVs) and also helping to pay for my schooling, school materials and equipments, and some food aid, respectively. 

I dream of becoming a doctor in future which will allow me to help my friends and less fortunate children who are in the same situation as me.