Brief Information on the Problem and My Program

A serious issue facing sub-Saharan Africa is how to adequately care for children orphaned by AIDS. Neglecting the rights and needs of orphaned children is heartless, and ignoring the grandparents who are taxed with the burden of raising children again is callous. The Ark Foundation of Africa is committed to providing support for orphans and impoverished youth as well as the grandparents who support them. The Ark Foundation focuses on providing education for children and involving the community in sustainability projects that enable programs started by the Ark to remain in villages without outside support. In order to address the problem of orphans, more support needs to be given to promoting and funding youth education and creating sustainable projects within villages that enable them to become self-sufficient and economically stable.

The Problem
As the AIDS epidemic ravages Africa, affecting primarily the working force between the ages of 15 and 49, orphans and grandparents are left with little support. In 2001 there were 28.5 million people infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, 2.3 million of which died that same year, often leaving behind their children and parents. In 1999 there were an estimated 13.2 million orphans worldwide, 12.1 million of which were located in sub-Saharan Africa (Ghosh: 2004, 304). Orphans are defined as children under the age of 15 who have lost one or both parents. Orphans are vulnerable to malnutrition, lack of education and adult guidance and often are forced to enter into the informal sector for work. Grandparents are frequently left with the burden of caring for the young of their children with few resources and little energy to take care of their new family. While much attention is paid to those infected with HIV, orphans and grandparents receive little attention or care when they both so desperately need it.
As the number of orphans rises in sub-Saharan Africa there are few support nets to help them safely to adulthood. The effect of being orphaned on the household is a lowered access to basic necessities, which can drive children to contribute income, often by begging, stealing or engaging in sexual acts for food. Older children frequently take on the role of parent caring for the other children or their ill parents (Guest: 2004, 322). Many orphans are unable to attend school due to cost and miss out on socialization. Emotionally, orphans face the grief caused by the loss of their parent as well as the pain of social exclusion and stigmatization because there is no one there to care for them. A paternal orphan loses the financial security provided by his father and often loses his mother because she becomes infected with HIV by her husband. The best way to provide support for orphans is to give support to caretakers, keep children in school, meet their emotional needs and provide them with legal and human rights protection. Orphaned children deserve love, attention, and support, and it is essential that community, programs and organizations assist them with living to their full potential.
As parents pass away as a result of AIDS, valuable skills passed from generation to generation are lost. In Africa, women are responsible for caring for the household, maintaining crops and producing food on distant plots, collecting firewood and water and preparing meals for the family. Women produce 80% of the subsistence food in Africa using the labor-intensive agricultural method of horticulture, which involves planting on small plots of land, with little to no irrigation, low productivity and no draft animals (Goody: 1989, 121). Women are responsible for passing these skills on to their children. AIDS is having a devastating effect on households by “undermining rural household production, contributing to declining agricultural output and affecting the very integrity of families and their sustainability as viable units” (Baylies: 2002, 612). Without parents around to teach their children agricultural practices, youth are without the means to provide for themselves.
Grandparents invest heavily in their young so when they grow old their children will be able to care for them. The intergenerational burden is a human contract that enables African societies to survive without social welfare because adults become caretakers of their elderly parents (Lecture Notes: 18 April 2007). The HIV/AIDS crisis has eroded these social security nets and has left grandparents who have already provided for their own children caring for their grandchildren. Grandmothers are most affected because they provide almost sole care for the grandchildren. Grandmothers are often unable to give adequate care to their grandchildren because they do not have the funds to do so. Studies show that grandmothers who receive Old Age Pension in South Africa are able to give better care, shown by improvement of nutrition and health, to their grandchildren (Duflo: 2000, 398). Providing aid to grandmothers to assist with school fees and food, as well as money generating donations (like a cow), gives grandmothers the chance to sufficiently care for their family. Support for grandparents is vital to providing orphaned children with a bright future.

The Organization: The Ark Foundation of Africa
Rhoi Wangila, a Ugandan refugee, first thought of the Ark Foundation of Africa when she was 16 and saw the suffering caused by the violence in Uganda. She said to her brother that she wished she could harbor all the Ugandan children in an ark and keep them from harm. Rhoi knew that she could not hide the children from harm, but she could help to create safer, more economically thriving communities. Rhoi realized that educating communities to become self-sustaining was the best way to help villages remove their dependence on others. The Ark Foundation of Africa (AFA) operates in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to promote the rights of children and assist communities affected by high HIV/AIDS prevalence, conflict, poverty, and lack of education (Scher, 2007). The Ark Foundations stresses the importance of self-sufficiency to enable communities to learn a trade/skill and education to teach those skills to others. All programs are run and crated by Africans whose extensive knowledge of the opportunities and challenges within their community enables them to design programs that work. The Ark Foundation believes that Africa’s way to freedom out of debt, poverty, war and disease lies with their people: “rather than continuing aid or charitable projects – the Ark Foundation invests in Africa’s young people, committing resources to a child or community only when it is clear that support can be maintained until such a time as it is no longer needed” (Ark Foundation website). The Ark’s work is committed to educating young people.
The Ark Africa Foundation focuses on strengthening community. Ark operates on five principles: investing in people, not just projects, helping create self-reliant communities, implementing holistic care models that address the range of challenges within a community, fostering ties with other like-minded organizations and providing training to local and international organizations to implement models similar to AFA. The Ark Foundation believes that investing in youth education is the path to stop the cycle of HIV and poverty. AFA education programs focus on getting all children and teenagers into the education system and assisting with school fees and guidance. The Ark Africa Foundation builds and maintains education centers that include income-generating activities to assist with the burden of school fees that enable the centers to become self-sustainable within 5-7 years. AFA also builds and staffs free preschools and secondary school programs, assists with school fees and gives scholarships to enable poor youth to complete secondary school and often college. All education facilities include mentorship programs, guidance, and academic assistance. Programs are also in place to assist with school re-entry for teen mothers, who are often denied education due to cost and social stigma. Education is vital to giving these children a chance at a better life. (Ark Foundation website, Our Work).
The Ark Foundation built and staffs the One Stop Center for Youth in Boko Village, Kinondoni District, Tanzania providing free secondary education for youth ages 13-20. The Center provides education for over 250 teenagers affected by extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS in Dar es Salaam. At the heart of the One Stop Center is a holistic program that gives youth a second chance by providing a safe place where students feel at home, make friends and receive guidance from volunteers and teachers. Some students live at the center while others live at home with their caretakers, parent(s) or grandparents. AIDS has orphaned 67% of youth at the One Stop Center. Moses Victor Mbaga, 13 years old, is a student at the Center who lost his mother at a very young age. He loves studying English and “hopes to be a pilot on day so that he could see more of the world and fly through the clouds” (Student Profiles: 2007, 3). Mary Elisafi, 15 years old, is also a student at the Center who works selling vegetables with her cousin, who cares for her, in order to pay the fare to ride the dalla dalla to school every day (Student Profile, 2007: 2). The Center’s goal is to alleviate poverty, reduce the incidence of HIV among children and young adults and fight the high prevalence of child labor. The Center funds itself through several income generating projects and spends an average of $32 a month of youth to cover education expenses, healthcare, meals, management and staff. The children who benefit from education at the One Stop Center are dedicated to creating a better life for themselves and for their families and are determined to be educated despite the many challenges facing them (Ark Foundation website, Our Work).
The One Stop Center also support a group of five teenagers in their Peer Education Program (PEP) in Tanzania. The PEP 2007 officers include Yassin, Kazito, Mariam, Beatrice and Lusajo who meet weekly and discuss their outreach and peer training responsibilities. Their 2007 goals are to educate youth about the changes and growth in their bodies and minds, maturity and educating others about the importance of education. Yassin got involved with the PEP program “to educate himself and then advise others is a gift. The disease is killing our people so we must learn how to protect our citizens” (Student Profiles: 2007, 5). The PEP youth are typically asked questions about AIDS, prevention, condom use and how to help those around them who are HIV positive. Lusajo became a PEP officer because “PEP works specifically with teens and as a teen himself he was attracted to this work. He feels that is it so important to educate youth and help to challenge and educate them” (Student Profiles: 2007, 5). The teenagers work throughout Tanzania with villagers and students enrolled in primary and secondary education. This program gives teens a voice and enables them to be part of the education process, encouraging other youth to get involved and get educated.
As the AIDS epidemic ravages Africa, the problem of AIDS orphans has come to the forefront and is putting strains on the family structure. The Ark Foundation is committed to strengthening families and communities with programs that support grandparents and train foster parents to care for AIDS orphans. AFA helps HIV positive children and teaches the children’s caregivers to provide adequate care and protect themselves from transmission. Because grandparents often care for young children who have lost their parents to AIDS, the Ark Foundation supports grandparents in a variety of ways. Single grandmothers are given monthly cash transfers to help them care for their new family. The Adopt a Grandparent Program is supported by international individuals or groups to support grandparent headed households and ensure secure and adequate housing for grandparents. By supporting grandparents the Ark Foundation is able to ensure that orphaned children have access to education and proper nutrition (Ark Foundation website, Grandparents as Primary Caretakers of AIDS Orphans).
The Adopt a Grandparent program costs $25 a month and gives donors the option of connecting with their sponsored family by sending and receiving letters from the family. Ms. Grooms is a 94-year-old retired schoolteacher who lives in Washington, DC. She adopted a Kenyan grandmother, Kezia, and her nine grandchildren, ranging in age from preschool to 18, in November of 2004. Kezia uses the $25 a month from Ms. Grooms to buy essentials such as paraffin, medicine, sugar, salt and school supplies for her grandchildren. Ms. Groom and Kezia have become friends although they live miles away from one another by exchanging letters and sharing their ideas and support with each other. During the holidays Ms. Groom send extra money and cards. Kezia writes frequently to Ms. Groom keeping her informed about her grandchildren, sending pictures and letters from her grandchildren. The Ark supports Kezia by paying for her grandchildren’s school fees. Through partnership with donors the Ark Foundation is able to provide complete support to grandparents and their grandchildren (Ark Foundation website, Success Story).

Looking Towards the Future
The Ark Foundation of Africa is run by Africans for Africans, taking into account the special needs of each country they work in. The Foundation designs its programs based on the needs of the village it is working with and works with the community to create sustainable programs that will last long after Ark volunteers and workers leave. A problem associated with many organizations working in Africa is that they design programs without the input of the African community and make assumptions about the needs of the particular group. In order for the Ark Foundation to become more effective, it needs more funding to enable it to send the many children who desire education to school. In Uganda it costs $1000 to keep a child in school a year and $500 to keep a child in school in Kenya. This means that many children who desire to go to school are unable to pay the school fees. The Ark Foundation has had to turn down over 4000 qualified applicants because there is not enough funding to support them (Scher, 2007). In order to move forward with its goals, AFA needs to collect more funds to help students and also campaign to have school fees absolved in African countries to allow all children to become educated.
The orphan problem continues to grow in Africa. A 1994 study showed that there could be “as many as one orphan for every two healthy economically active women by year 30 of an unchecked epidemic” (Gregson et al.: 1994, 455). It has been projected that by the year 2015 there will be 15 million orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of almost 3 million in 15 years. As the number of orphans grows there are little social security nets to protect them and enable them to go to school and have a healthy diet. Organizations like the Ark Foundation works in countries burdened with extreme poverty and Structural Adjustments Programs that have dissolved the social sector funding. In order to African countries to begin to thrive both socially and economically the debt and weight of SAPs needs to be removed and spending needs to flow into social programs like free education and greater access to healthcare. Lobbyists, activists and some politicians are working diligently to bring greater focus on Africa and the importance of spending in the social sector. Hope for Africa lies in the removal of foreign debt and increase spending on social welfare and education.

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