Meet Christine Kapira Chingondole. She's one of 10 finalists for the 2016 Waislitz Global Citizen Award, which gives a total of $100,000 to three individuals who excel in their work to end extreme poverty. And she needs you to vote to make her one of the three winners! After Global Citizens around the world pick their three favorites, an expert panel of judges will rank them in first, second, and third place. Christine could win up to $50,000 with your help! Vote here.
Name of Applicant: Christine Kapira Chingondole
Organization: Community Care Project Trust (CCP)
Title / Position: Project Director
Issue Area(s): Girls & Women, Health, Education, Food & Hunger
Region of Work: Africa –– Malawi
About Community Care Project
The Pakachere project offers a range of services to help manage and address the various challenges posed by HIV and AIDS. We facilitate age-appropriate HIV prevention curriculum in schools and youth clubs, including behavior-change and the importance of voluntary HIV disclosure. We teach family planning, and work to reduce the effects of stigma and discrimination. We offer capacity-building for teachers, clinicians, and caregivers, and motivate and mobilize communities to allow HIV testing and counseling for orphans and vulnerable children in families. We refer of HIV-positive children and their families to their nearest health facilities for further management, providing age-appropriate counselling, and appointment reminders and follow-ups by community care workers Through income-generating gardens in homes and churches, we help strengthen the financial security of households of orphans and vulnerable children. ,We offer structured group bereavement therapy for orphans, supervised by social workers.
CCP has more than three years of experience working in adolescent HIV prevention programming in Malawi and 13 years in South Africa, and has vast experience in community-based program and project management targeting HIV prevention education, care, and support services.
Mission Statement
Community Care Project Trust provides families with the tools they need to be empowered to manage HIV and AIDS in their communities through church, school, home, and community-based interventions and holistic care that create hope for the future.
Why Christine Should Win This Award
The Pakachere Girl-Centred Education is a youth-friendly initiative with an innovative, evidence-based, life-skills curriculum to address Malawi’s HIV epidemic, as well as build girls’ skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy to prevent HIV throughout Malawi.
This initiative addresses the reproductive health needs and problems adolescent girls and young women face. Due to large populations, poverty, and inadequate access to health care, some adolescent and young women in Malawi engage in risky behaviours that expose them to social, economic, and health risks, such as drug addiction, dropping out of school, unemployment, unintended pregnancies, and life threatening STIs, including HIV. Additionally, gender-based violence has accelerated the spread of HIV by limiting one’s ability to negotiate safe sexual practices, disclose HIV status, and access services due to fear of being punished.
Local organization CCP’s main focus is to provide quality, comprehensive, and compassionate care and age-appropriate HIV prevention education to youth, orphaned and vulnerable children, and the community at large. The project’s main goal is to engage girls and young women to identify issues, build their sense of control and self-confidence to cope with difficult situations, and to prevent HIV infection.
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