Easing Burdens for Orphan Caregivers

Goats Provide Nutrition and Income

Ethiopia has one of the largest populations of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world and, as the number of children losing parents to HIV/AIDS increases, an enormous burden is placed on extended families to meet the needs of these children.

Lack of food is often a major obstacle to improved health and nutrition, as well as recovery from tuberculosis and other debilitating infections for adults living with HIV/AIDS. For children, the lack of food leads to greater health problems due to weakened immune systems, poor school performance, and diminished quality of life.

With funding from Alternative Gifts International, PCI is providing HIV/AIDS-affected and vulnerable families in Ethiopia with goats and sheep to ease their burdens, help avert their deteriorating nutritional status, and generate income.

Goats are considered optimal for families affected by HIV/AIDS because they are small and can be easily handled by the sick, young, and elderly. The milk from goats is improving the quality of children’s diet and can also be sold for $0.44 US per liter to generate vital income for families. As of June 30, 2008, PCI expected to distribute over 2,500 goats and sheep to 1,700 caretakers of orphaned and vulnerable children.

Sexual Violence and HIV/AIDS

By John Berman, PCI's Senior Director for HIV/AIDS Policy & Program Development

When we think about HIV/AIDS, does rape come to mind? If it doesn’t it should.

Getting infected with HIV is closely linked with sexual violence. It’s inseparable. And in places like South Africa, where up to a third of women first have sex as the result of rape or other forms of coercion, it’s driving the epidemic.

In several ways.

First, every act of forced sex is an additional, unplanned risk of infection.

Second, a recent study from South Africa showed that men who commit violent acts are 50% more likely to be HIV positive than those who are not violent.

Third, you can be sure when a woman is raped, a condom is rarely involved. She’s exposed.
Fourth, pervasive level of sexual violence lead to situations where women do not feel safe, let alone empowered, to say no to a man’s advances.

So if there are all these linkages between sexual violence and HIV infection, why don’t we hear more about it? Why don’t we do more about it? Part of the answer is that sexual violence is often seen more as a social issue, or perhaps a criminal issue, than the health issue. As a result, “health” programs draw an artificial line about what can and cannot be done.

That has to change.

Health programs need to address underlying social factors that drive the HIV epidemic. Sexual violence, and gender inequity should be right up there at the top. We could do this by helping to mobilize communities to change destructive social norms such as pervasive sexual violence. We’ve got to work with people everywhere – men and women - to bring an end to the violence. It’s the only way we’ll ever really stop the epidemic.

PCI and the Three Bears….

by Janine Schooley, PCI Staff

When people ask me about PCI’s annual budget, or whether we are a small or large organization, two thoughts come to mind: 1) It’s all relative; and 2) Goldilocks and the Three Bears. By “relative”, I mean that, in comparison to many grassroots or local non-profit organizations, we would be considered large, with a $22 million dollar a year cash budget and over 600 employees worldwide. On the other hand, if you compare us with our major competitors, organizations like Save the Children, CARE, or World Vision, with whom we compete for funding in the areas of child survival, HIV/AIDS or food security, we are definitely the “little guys,” working with organizational resources that are a fraction of what the “big guys” are able to muster.

Sometimes we are told “you’re too big,” when we apply for grant resources designed for smaller or local/indigenous non-profits. And yet we have also been told “you’re too small” by funders who are looking for a major, multi-country contractors with the obvious ability to manage multi-million dollar awards. This is where Goldilocks and the Three Bears comes in. We aren’t too small or too big; we are juuuuust right. Well first let me say that we aren’t exactly quite “just right,” yet. We would like to be bigger and better and stronger and more able to bring our programs to more people. But rather than try to be a larger organization, we strive to be the best medium-sized organization we can be.

Why, might you ask? Why not become as large as possible? Well because our particular size allows us to be responsive, nimble, innovative and yes, scrappy. We aren’t burdened by a large bureaucracy. We have systems, structures, and capacity that enable us to effectively compete and manage programs with the best of them, but we haven’t let them get unwieldy or cumbersome. While we can effectively compete for multimillion dollar awards through PEPFAR, for example, we are able to be more integrated and cohesive in our technical/programmatic work than otherwise. In some organizations, the HIV staff and the food & nutrition security staff, for example, are so large and so departmentalized that they don’t even talk to each other, let alone collaborate on integrated programming. Our technical officers interact with each other and actually seek out opportunities to collaborate. Because we aren’t attempting to spend large pots of funding in a relatively short period of time, we tend to seek out opportunities to meet the needs of smaller pockets of people who are particularly isolated and vulnerable. This “off the asphalt road” approach means that we can reach people in great need who otherwise might be overlooked. Our “just right” size also contributes to our ability to stay grounded and grassroots, working with and through local community-based organizations and networks because we don’t have our own large organization to draw upon. Our mid-size helps ensure our “in the middle” position whereby we effectively link the field/communities on the ground with global policy, research, technical resources, etc.

Of course, we must grow in order to stay viable and to expand our impact, and grow we will. But just like Goldilocks, we have been able to appreciate our mid-size and middle position in the meantime. This will help ensure that we retain what is best about our current size while expanding its impact as far and wide as possible.