Nurture Families
Recognising that family and community are big influences in a child’s life, we extend our programming to not just the child but to their caregivers and the community at large as well.
By working with both children as well as their families through a two-generation model approach, we ensure knowledge continuity which maximizes learning across all areas of child’s life – this is how real change occurs and sustains over the long-term.
Psychosocial Support
Our PSS team provides caregiver support for all our participants’ families. SSI social workers conduct home visits a minimum of once a month to offer support, identify any issues within the home and develop and implement a family care plan to support the care and well-being of the child. Additionally, the social worker reviews the child’s progress in the program with the family, provides feedback, and completes referrals to additional community organizations or sectors as appropriate, including the Social Welfare Community Development Department, the ARV program, and BOFWA (Botswana Family Welfare Association).
Through our Nurture Families initiatives, we also offer a Young Mothers’ Support group to in-school participants. Students learn about Gender-Based Violence in their sessions, which prepares them to look for signs of abuse in their families and provide information on where to go for help should they experience such incidents.
Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
The OVC program aims to strengthen community agency to seek, support and provide HIV/AIDS related services to Orphaned & Vulnerable Children [OVC] and their parents/caregivers.
Our Community Service Providers [CSP] deliver comprehensive outreach services through home visits where they administer HIV Risk Assessments, educate clients on the importance of knowing their status through testing, and make referrals to HIV testing services based on assessment results. For HIV positive clients, our CSPs provide adherence support which includes treatment literacy, age-appropriate counselling and HIV disclosure support.
Our CSPs also regularly engage community members in income generating activities such as Perma-Garden training, where members of the community learn how to grow vegetables in their own backyards for both consumption and selling.
In addition, our Young Mothers support group offers targeted services to mothers up to 24 years old, including the opportunity to learn positive parenting skills, family planning & contraceptive methods, and career skills to help them provide for their little ones.
Dreams
In partnership with PEPFAR and PCI with support from USAID, SSI launched the DREAMS Botswana initiative to reduce HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women aged 9–24 years old. A component of DREAMS includes the Pinagare Family Program, which empowers the caregivers and parents of adolescent girls enrolled in the DREAMS program to take a knowledgeable and active role in their child’s sexual and reproductive health education.
Parents/caregivers are made aware of the risks their children face at an early age, they develop and enhance their positive parenting skills and are taught how to communicate effectively with their children about sensitive issues such as sex.
Breaking Barriers to an HIV-Free Generation
Through generous support from USAID, SSI implemented the Breaking Barriers to an HIV-Free Generation program across both the Kgatleng and Good Hope districts. The project aims to prevent new HIV infections and reduce vulnerability among OVCs and Adolescent Girls and Young Women [AGYW] through four primary domains: Healthy, Safe, Schooled and Stable.
Using the Comprehensive Family Care (CFC) model, SSI assesses the needs of the family and provides services through the following interventions:
- Health Services
- Life Skills and Sex Education
- Youth Financial Literacy through Aflateen Curriculum
- Caregiver Financial Literacy through the Women Empowerment (WE) program
- Parent-Child Communication Interventions to improve positive parenting and reduce child abuse, exploitation or neglect through parent conferencing
