Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans and Vulnerable Children - Uganda

Introduction

Phoebe Education Fund for Orphans & Vulnerable Children (PEFO) is a legally registered local NGO founded in 2003 whose overall purpose is to facilitate care and support for older persons and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) households to promote sustainable development.

Formation

In 2003, three brothers started Phoebe Education Fund for AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (PEFO) to help orphans and vulnerable children in their community realize their potential and gain confidence. The brothers who had lost their own parents to AIDS , had been able to attend school through the generosity of a local missionary. The brothers graduated secondary school and then won scholarships to European universities. They could have stayed in Europe, but they came back to Uganda to work with impoverished rural women and children. In 2003, the brothers founded the Phoebe Educational Fund for AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (PEFO), in their mother’s name. “In serving others, we are remembering her,” Justine said.

Mutual Reinforcement between Grandmothers & Vulnerable Children

The organization started with only 10 children and is now supporting vulnerable children in 4 districts in Uganda - Jinja, Lira, Buikwe and Busia. PEFO believes that education is the key to empowering children. The child is supported by the caregiver (4 in every 5 are grandmothers). The grandmother households are empowered through PEFOSs “care for caregivers’ programme” (livelihood & micro-credit, health, housing & human rights). This approach emphasizes mutual reinforcement between the two categories of beneficiaries. Grandmothers are supported as caregivers and their improved life puts them in a better position to ably support the children under their care. And, the children that have been given a chance at education, are getting into position to support the grandmother households in which they live. This approach emphasizes mutual reinforcement & synergy between granny and child

Vision:

A society where older persons, orphans and vulnerable children and their caregivers are resourceful and have high self-esteem.

Mission:

Facilitate Care and Support for these vulnerable households to promote sustainable development.

Values:

• Passion-to serve the poor and vulnerable members of society to improve their lives.

• Respect for Rights of every human being; Belief in the intrinsic dignity of every person and their rights regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation.

• Accountable to our stakeholders, and strive to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to PEFO

Projects

PEFO programs are community driven self-help in nature involving contribution from the community as the primary stakeholders.

These programs and projects are tailor-made to meet immediate needs of the grannies and the children, the two main categories of beneficiaries using sustainable approaches. Both the vulnerable children and grandmother are targeted at household level as opposed to individual level -the grannies are the immediate caregivers and the children are potential future support for the granny. PEFO emphasizes synergy between Granny projects and projects for vulnerable children, the link between the two being the greatest force.

PEFO’s 5-structured program includes; Education, Housing, Livelihood & Micro-Credit, Health, Human Rights and Economic Justice.

Education

PEFO provides school fees bursaries to HIV/AIDS affected orphans; most of whom live under the care of their grandmothers. The focus is on improving access to quality education through sustainable approaches by creating conducive learning environments at household, community and school levels through working with existing community structures..

PEFO, with the assistance of local teachers run after- school clubs for students. They learn about HIV prevention and life skills through drama, music, drawing, debate, games and discussion groups. At the clubs, children receive much-needed attention and have the opportunity to share experience with their peers. The Window of Hope Clubs supported by SLF operate in local schools and PEFO is working to expand the clubs.

Support from SLF is also funding school fees, uniforms and education supplies for secondary and primary-school aged children.

Housing

PEFO has an environmentally friendly housing department and responds to the urgent need for decent shelter and house repairs among the elderly. Run down shelters are partly responsible for poor health.

Livelihood Program and Micro Credit

Livelihood Program

PEFO has started a number of initiatives to help grandmothers and other caregivers to earn a livelihood. Their thriving community vegetable garden is tended by local volunteers, and the food is distributed in the community and sold at local markets. Through their piggery project, PEFO distributes grown pigs to needy families, who use them as a source of income and give a piglet back to the organization in return.

The focus is ensuring food and income security in caregiver households using community driven and sustainable approaches. The program draws a great deal of support for grannies from community based farm schools in promoting agricultural livelihoods in both crop and animal husbandry.

Micro-Credit

Based on the negative experiences granny households have faced in accessing loans from finance institutions, PEFO provides micro-credit loans and credit management training for grandmothers and HIV positive women to start their own small businesses such as coffee bean buying, drying and selling, vegetable gardening and raising livestock. Many of the women have been able to start thriving farms or businesses and have found that they experience less stigma and discrimination because they are active and earning a stable income

SLF funding is also supporting PEFO’S efforts to provide food, bedding, medical supplies, shelter and home repairs for 50 local grandmothers and the children in their care.

Health

PEFO promotes both prevention and cure measures in granny households to ensure good health. Public health hygiene among grandmothers is maintained through regular health promotion exercises in the community and with the community.

Direct medication and referrals, medical camps and mobile clinics are some of the approaches that PEFO uses to make health care accessible and affordable by grannies. One of the major projects is the Granny Health pool where grannies save money on a monthly basis. PEFO tops up this fund and uses it to bring health services closer to grannies.

Human Rights and Economic Justice

PEFO has been implementing activities geared towards the promotion and protection of human rights. Most of the supported grannies have fallen victims to injustice due to ignorance of their rights and justice mechanisms within their communities. This has led to: loss of property like land, inability to access and take part in profitable markets, inability to access public health services and inability to protect vulnerable children under their care from abuse especially girls and inability to handle and report cases of abuse.

PEFO is working to raise awareness about rights and justice mechanisms and to initiate interventions in granny communities focusing on clarifying what they are entitled to as citizens. PEFO is also creating more platforms on which grannies can express their issues to the public.

Partners

Stephen Lewis Foundation - Supported Projects

• Education – Secondary, Vocational & Tertiary.

• Trees for Education -Primary level vulnerable children are given trees to plant and sell to raise funds for meeting other education needs but also to empower these children to protect their environment.

• Window of Hope program - for building and enhancing esteem and life skills among OVC

• IGA for Sustainable Education (IGASE Project)

• Livelihood projects.

• Housing projects.

Geographical Coverage of SLF Projects in Uganda are in: Jinja, Busia & Buikwe districts.

Click Below to Watch Justine talk about PEFO Partnership and Support from the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Partnership and Support from SLF

Success Story

PEFO began with the need to help impoverished rural women and children. The Fund started by setting up self-esteem clubs for the children, then to pay for school fees, uniforms and food. PEFO is now supporting more than 300 orphans and vulnerable children and 200 grannies who care for them. Justine one of the boys who started the fund happily reports “They have turned their lives around.” The SLF has been a large part of that turn-around.