Your stories from the field: Kate Jongbloed’s experience working with CAPAIDS in Ethiopia

 

  

Kate Jongbloed (Canada): 
Working with CAPAIDS in Ethiopia 
(September 2006-July 2007)

The Organization: 
Canada-Africa Partnership on AIDS (CAPAIDS) provides resources to grassroots community-based organizations that  are on the front lines in the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa

The Project: 
Microeconomic empowerment for HIV-affected orphans

 

Slipping between two corrugated iron walls, down a narrow pathway, I entered the two-room house of Makeda Girma*. I met with Makeda as part of my internship with a non-profit organization in Ethiopia working to combat HIV/AIDS. At 18, Makeda had been responsible for her 4 year-old daughter and her younger brother and sister since her mother died of AIDS three years ago.

The project provided vocational training and start-up capital to 340 adolescent orphans who were guardians to their younger siblings since the death of their parents due to AIDS-related illnesses. Implemented by four local HIV/AIDS service organizations in Ethiopia and Uganda, the two-year project was supported by CAPAIDS, a small Canadian NGO.

As an undergraduate International Development Studies student, I joined the project to fulfill the work-experience component of my degree and conduct field research for my thesis. Coming from an academic program that was very critical of development, my expectation was that I’d have very little to contribute and that the experience would be one for learning rather than doing. I was very conscious of not trying to “fix” or “help”.

When I arrived, the project was already under way. I took some time to get familiar with both organizations and learn about their projects beyond the one CAPAIDS was supporting. It became clear that I wasn’t just going to be a passive bystander and that there was a specific role that I could fill. As the only CAPAIDS representative in Ethiopia, I became the connection between Head Office in Canada and the two local organizations making the project happen. Sometimes this meant that I was the “donor police,” helping the two organizations stick to the project agreement, and sometimes it meant that I could help relay messages from the Ethiopian organizations’ for future support from CAPAIDS. Because I was familiar with the demands of the donor organization, I was put to work doing all the required paper work, freeing up the project officers to spend more time on project activities.

Because of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)’s policy, it is very difficult for non-Canadian NGOs to access funding unless they partner with a Canadian NGO. CAPAIDS works to identify grassroots HIV/AIDS organizations in Africa and help them access Canadian funding. I found this approach really positive as the organizations were very responsive to the communities where they worked, tackling AIDS through home-based care, psychosocial support, orphan care, scholarships, nutrition projects and microfinance. The difficulty came when the organizations wanted to modify project activities: CAPAIDS was responsible to CIDA, which limited its flexibility.

Part of my responsibility included conducting research for my thesis, looking at how microeconomic empowerment affects adolescent orphan guardians’ risk of contracting HIV, which is how I met Makeda.After receiving training in hairdressing, Makeda was preparing to establish a salon business with other project participants. She also told me that after each day of training, she would teach her younger sister the skills that she had learned, hoping to include her in the business one day.

I was really impressed with how the project affected the lives of those involved not only economically, but also their self-esteem, social networks, physical safety, and reduce stigma.  If you’d like to read more about the impact of the project, you can link to my article Preventing HIV/AIDS through Microeconomic Development here: http://unpackingdevelopment.com/?page_id=48

*Name has been changed.