HOPE Centres

... a Partial Continuation of the Previous Project
The Foundation received an application from Humana People to People in December 1999, and an additional application in May 2000. These two are treated as one in this chapter. The applications were for a total of 8,769,000 Dkr.

Humana People to People applied for economic support for the operation and further development of five HOPE Centers in Southern Africa; Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Angola, and Malawi. The Foundation had already supported the establishment of three of these Centers - namely the Centers in Mozambique, Zambia, and Angola. Humana People to People had tried to, and expected to, be able to get financing for the further operation of all four HOPE Centers which had been established through the first grant. It had succeeded with the HOPE Center in Zimbabwe, but not with the others. Even though there is a growing support to the fight against AIDS, and money is being granted for the purpose, it takes time before it reaches the many people who right NOW are facing the problems.

Therefore Humana People to People applied the Foundation for a grant for the continued operation of five established HOPE Centers, with the expectation to continue these with the economic support from other sources in the future.

The Foundation's board of directors granted the money promptly. Since the first grant had been made, the necessity to act massively and broadly on all fronts had increased.

Theses are the five HOPE Centers:

1. HOPE Ndola, Zambia started in 1996 2,310,000 Dkr
2. HOPE Benguela, Angola started in 1997 2,184,000 Dkr
3. HOPE Beira, Mozambique started in 1998 1,148,000 Dkr
4. HOPE Blantyre, Malawi started in 1998 2,184,000 Dkr
5. HOPE Oshakati, Namibia started in 1998 942,890 Dkr

They are all based on the model described in the previous chapter.

The Results Achieved
The following results for the five HOPE Centers are taken from the concluding year report of 2000.

As a main reason for why the achieved results basically all the way through exceed the planned (apart from the number of people tested) Humana People to People explains:

• There is a good model of the HOPE Center
• The HOPE Centers were already well established when this grant was effectuated. This has meant that they have been able to put their main efforts into carrying out the program and to focus on the outreach work, thereby reaching more people.
• The Centers are well staffed. They are competent people who burn for the cause and possess a big portion of compassion for their fellow beings.
• Very many people participate in the program.
• There is a well established cooperation with organizations, governments, businesses, churches, schools, etc., who work for the same cause in areas surrounding the Centers.

Reasons for why the number of people tested is low is that people have to pay for the test, and that it is troublesome to get tested since it requires two visits to the clinic - one visit where the actual blood test is taken, and another after 1-2 weeks, when the result can be collected. Humana People to People is constantly working with partly getting the price down or get the tests for free, and partly being able to use new and quicker testing methods - the so-called 'rapid tests' - which are both cheaper and faster, but not yet approved in the relevant countries.

Another reason lies in the complex nature of making the actual decision to be tested, where it is difficult for the individual to embrace the consequences of the result - whether it is positive or negative - since both answers demand an altered and more stringent behavior.

• 1997 The HOPE Center is officially inaugurated on December 1^st, the World AIDS Day.
• 1998 The staff is employed, and the activities start in cooperation with other institutions and enterprises in the area. There are now eleven people employed and ten volunteers who work permanently at the Center.
• 1999 The Center activities are consolidated and expanded.
• 2000 The Health Services open a smaller laboratory and a unit for voluntary counseling and testing.

Among the many activities can be mentioned:

• Eleven schools in the School program have participated in a twelve week course of HIV/AIDS education twice a week.
• The personnel at twelve police stations in Benguela, Catumbela, and Lobito have participated in a ten-hour training course on AIDS.
• Thirty six working places with a total of 1,348 employees have completed AIDS courses.
• Seventeen actions have been carried out in the area, with direct contact and information to more than 27,000 people.

• 1996 The HOPE Center is opened
• 1997 The HOPE Center is officially inaugurated by Zambia's deputy Minister of Health
• 1999 The Better Life Clinic is approved by the Medicine Board of Zambia.
• 2000 There is now a permanent staff of seventeen and six volunteers at the Center.

Among the many activities can be mentioned:

• HIV/AIDS programs have been carried out in forty five schools and at sixteen work places.
• Forty HIV positive people participate in the Better Living Courses. They have established vegetable productions and planted fruit trees at the Center.
• 1,340 people have been tested for HIV.
• 12,703 people participate in the wide specter of activities at the center.
• 13,894 people have been directly informed about HIV/AIDS through actions in the area, carried out by volunteers in the action groups.
• The Center participated in the Ndola Demonstration Project, where 700 pregnant women were advised about HIV, and about how they can prevent the transmission of the virus to their children.

• 1998 The HOPE Center is opened on October 1st.
• 2000 There are now twenty people employed and twenty one volunteers working at the Center.

Among the many activities can be mentioned:

• HIV/AIDS programs have been carried out in forty two schools and at twenty seven work places.
• 224 people have been trained in home based care and are now visiting people who are sick in the local community - and help them with food, with washing themselves, talk to them, etc.
• More than 1,000 pregnant women have had courses in subjects like how to avoid transmitting the HIV virus to their children, breast feeding, nutrition, and family planning, and they have had their blood tested.
• Brochures, posters and other information materials have been produced both in English and in the local languages.
• An emphasis has been placed on educating the local population and establishing Community AIDS Coordinating Committees. These are groups of people who take it as their task to run campaigns and activities in their local areas. These groups have for example started 34 herbal gardens.

• 1998 The HOPE Center is inaugurated on December 1^st, the World AIDS Day.

Among the many activities can be mentioned:

• The Center has developed and created a net for the distribution of condoms - 497 "condom points" have been established, which are under the leadership of seven volunteers who each have their area. More than half a million condoms have been delivered, and more than 2,500 public demonstrations of how to use them have been made.
• A monthly newsletters has been produced, which has become popular literature among the youth in the area. It is printed in 5,000 copies every month - and has been financed by the insurance company Old Mutual.
• Thirty six clubs have been started for education within the South African AIDS program 'Stepping Stones' in the local area around the Center.

• 1998 The HOPE Center is opened in April.
• 2000 There is a permanent staff of fifteen people, and 308 volunteers are connected to the various activities.

Among the many activities can be mentioned:

• The Center has carried out HIV/AIDS programs at thirty five schools and four work places.
• Two youth counseling centers have been established - one in Munhava, and one in Manga.
• More than 30,000 people have been informed about HIV/AIDS through a number of radio programs.

Investigations
During the year a number of investigations have been carried out in the areas around the HOPE Centers. They are typically carried out by Development Instructors (from the Traveling Folk High School) in cooperation with local groups and authorities. Close to 2,000 people have been interviewed on the background of preprinted questionnaires, where the answers have been collected, treated, and used to develop the work in the area.

Examples of titles for such investigations are:

• HIV Transmission from Mother to Child - Zambia
• Young People in Munhava - Mozambique
• The Need for Testing in Beira - Mozambique
• Child Prostitution in Beira - Mozambique
• Knowledge of, Attitudes to, and Practical Approaches to AIDS in Benguela - Angola

The Use of the Money
One can roughly say that it costs app. 2,4 million Dkr per year to run a fully established HOPE Center, with its staff, a wide variety of education and training programs, and a far-reaching outreach program.

For all the HOPE Centers, the fact is that the Foundation has constituted one of many donors. The two main expenses in the overall budgets are the salaries and the program activities. They constitute about 1/3 each. The last third comprises the rest of the budget expenses: administration, transport, operational costs at the Center, and house rent.

The Final Report
Humana People to People writes in its final report from March 2001, that the two grants from the Foundation have made it possible to develop a good model for AIDS projects, to establish six HOPE Centers in hard hit countries in southern Africa, and to consolidate these Centers' programs in such a way that there now is secured funding from a long line of other donors for the operation and expansion in 2001.

As future partners in the development of the HOPE program are mentioned, among others:

• USAID, in establishment of ten HOPE Satellite Stations in Zambia.
• UNICEF, in program expansion and establishment of a volunteer counseling and testing unit (VCT) (The Mozambican Ministry of Health has at the request of ADPP developed the necessary protocol for such centers in Mozambique in early 2001).
• Linkages, in development of "The prevention of mother to child transmission" programs in Zambia.
• HORIZON, in research and investigations in Zambia.
• FESA (The President José Eduardo Dos Santos' Foundation) in establishment of a voluntary counseling and testing unit in Benguela, Angola.
• Umoyo (USAID) in establishment of HOPE Satellite Stations in Blantyre and Chiradzulu in Malawi.

The experiences from this work, in addition to the growing need to do even more in the fight against AIDS, have at the start of 2000 led to that Humana People to People developed an even more radical concept, called TCE - Total Control of the Epidemic.

The Foundation has, as will become apparent later on in this book, also granted money to TCE.

Beenzu Nampindi, 21 years
Volunteer in the Outreach Program.

"I met one of the Outreach Development Instructors in Ndola and was invited to a meeting of the Outreach Program at the HOPE Center. I have always been interested in the fight against AIDS. My mom is a midwife and counselor and involved in family planning. She is a stimulating factor for my motivation in the work to fight the deadly disease and we often discuss about it at home. I have seen many people dying because of AIDS. There is so much ignorance among people. It matters a lot that we mobilize everyone to take an active stand in the fight against AIDS."

Olive Ngweshe, 33 years
Nutrionist and trainer of the Positive Living Advocacy Course

"It started with my employer lending me out to HOPE Humana, to learn and to help in the teaching of the Positive Living Course, a course that teaches people with HIV/AIDS how to live longer and healthier. After 6 months I decided that this was the place I should be. I consider it a great privilege to be able to teach and give something to may fellow being. We do not only teach people how they can live longer with HIV, they also learn how to be active advocates for living positively - they have to teach others, mobilize and organize ... We meet once a month and bring up new points in the program, for example a course in how to care a for a sick person, or how to start an income generating activity."

Poso Ngalande, 41 years
Health Services Program Leader

"I graduated with a diploma in Clinical Medical Sciences in Lusaka in 1985, with a specialty in pediatrics, and got a job at the hospital in Ndola. In 1990, the government partnered with the WHO in an HIV/AIDS program, and I had the opportunity to be in the first counseling training, in both basic and advanced skills. Until 1996 I worked as a counselor and manager at the hospital, with responsibility for the standard of counseling at all the clinics in the province. At the very end of 1996 I was offered a job at HOPE Humana as the leader of the Health Services, and I accepted.

We started from scratch by establishing a clinic and a laboratory, and build up the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing). We are now one of the few VCT clinics outside hospitals with a license from the General Health Clinic with a specialty in HIV/AIDS and STD’s."

Remmy Pongolati, 41 years
Program Officer

"I am married to Grace and we have three children – two boys and one girl. I have been working for the Zambian Army since 1975. During the early 90’s I decided to take an early retirement from the Army. I continued to be sick. We moved to Ndola.

Here I decided to go for an HIV test at the HOPE Center's Better Life Clinic. I was counseled and tested and was found to be HIV positive. I was offered a course in positive living at the HOPE Center for six months, which I took. During the course I started to mobilize community members in Mushili Compound to go for voluntary counseling and testing. I really learnt a lot through this course, and now I am part of a support group for the people who have tested HIV positive.

In May 2000 HOPE sponsored me for a six month scholarship to Frontline Institute in Zimbabwe. Whilst I was there I worked hand in hand with HOPE Zimbabwe in Bindura. I spoke openly about my status and encouraged many people to take an HIV test and live a positive life.

Now I will be going to Chipata in eastern Zambia and start up a HOPE Satellite Station. This is a good challenge and I will work very hard and contribute to the fight to stop the spread of this epidemic."

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