Profile
Building capacities of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS for positive living
History of Batanai
It all started in 1992 when 12 people living with HIV from different parts of Zimbabwe came together in Harare to discuss their plight as people living with HIV&AIDS. They decided to go back home and start HIV&AIDS support groups. Auxillia Chimusoro, the first woman in Zimbabwe to publicly disclose her HIV positive status came back home to Rujeko T/ship in Masvingo and in the face of stigma, discrimination, ridicule, poverty and sickness, started the first HIV&AIDS support group in the country and called it Batanai.
Auxillia and other members of Batanai went on to work very hard facilitating the formation, training and coordination of support groups in various Districts of Masvingo Province forming the strongest provincial network of support groups in the country that she coordinated under what is now the Zimbabwe National Network of People living with HIV&AIDS (ZNNP+), an organisation that she co-founded with several other people living with HIV.
In 1996 Batanai was registered as a Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO Number 16/96). That same year Batanai members bought a two roomed core house in Rujeko T/ship using profits from their own small income generating projects and later added 4 more rooms in 1998 with assistance from the German Development Services and the Fund for Development and Participation in Africa (FEPA), a Swiss funding organisation. Friends of Auxillia Chimusoro in Sheffield, UK and in Germany chipped in with valuable financial, material and moral support that kept Batanai afloat in the absence of major programme funders. Another Batanai friend assisted with computers.
On 19 June 1998 Auxillia passed away.
Things went quiet at Batanai when in 2000 the Masvingo Provincial Network of Support Groups which had been named the Auxillia Chimusoro Masvingo Provincial Network of People living with HIV&AIDS in honour of Auxillia, was weaned from Batanai to stand on its own as more support was expected to come from ZNNP+, the mother body. All along friends of Auxillia in Sheffield and Germany supported Batanai with small financial and material donations and kept it afloat.
In 2003 efforts were made to revive Batanai as an organisation. It was then that Farai Mahaso, Auxillia’s first born son and Peter Marimi teamed up to revive it with serious programming funded by PSI and FEPA starting in 2007. Batanai was able to expand its activities as more funding became available.
An external evaluation carried out in 2009 recommended that the name Batanai HIV&AIDS Support Group should be changed to Batanai HIV&AIDS Service Organisation (BHASO) in order to give the correct picture of the current status of Batanai as an organisation and separate it from Batanai support group which continuous to meet at Batanai House in Rujeko while BHASO operates from offices in the Masvingo CBD and in 4 Districts of Masvingo Province.
Our Vision: Total empowerment for positive living
Our Mission: To empower people infected by HIV and AIDS by providing services that will enable them to improve the quality of their lives
BHASO’s Values: As an organisation BHASO values accountability, confidentiality, gender sensitivity, respect for human rights, meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and cooperation.
BHASO’s Main Objective: To build the capacities of people infected by HIV&AIDS for positive living.
Target groups: BHASO works with the infected and affected being mostly HIV support groups, youths, small holder farmers, orphans and other vulnerable children.
“Batanai” is a Shona word that means “unite”. To win the battle against HIV and AIDS we all need to unite, males and females, young and old.
Area of operation
BHASO is currently operating in Gutu, Chivi, Bikita, Zaka, Mwenezi, Chiredzi, Masvingo Rural and Masvingo Urban Districts, thus covering the whole of Masvingo Province. Operations are being decentralized for a greater presence in the Districts and District Offices have already been opened in Gutu, Zaka, Bikita and Chivi Districts with Mwenezi following in due course. Batanai hopes to extend its activities to other Provinces in Zimbabwe and even abroad as more resources become available.
Current programmes: What is Batanai doing?
BHASO has four main thematic areas, namely New Life Post Test Support, Positive Development, Gender and Advocacy and Food Security & Livelihoods. All the programmes are integrated and all the Officers work closely together.
BHASO interventions by District
Gutu: Food Security & Livelihoods, Positive Development, Community Home Based Care, OVC, HIV AIDS and Human Rights for PLWH
Bikita and Zaka: Positive Development, (SMART 3), OVC HIV Advocacy and Human Rights for PLWH, Food For Assets
Masvingo Rural and Urban: Food Security and Livelihoods, WASH, Positive Development, OVC, HIV Advocacy and Human Rights for PLWH
Chivi: Positive Development, HIV Advocacy and Human Rights for PLWH
Chiredzi and Mwenezi: HIV Advocacy and Human Rights for PLWH
1. New Life Post Test Support
After Batanai recognized the need for post test support in Masvingo it partnered with The Centre in 2006 and provided free counselling services to people living with HIV. Later PSI joined supporting the New Life Post Test Support Programme with BHASO as the implementer. The New Life Post Test Support Programme offers free professional counseling to people living with HIV&AIDS including those on the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) Programme, workers at their workplaces, prisoners and those who come to Opportunistic Infections (OI) Clinics for ART. Nutrition counselling is also offered. HIV&AIDS support groups are strengthened through visits while members receive deeper information on HIV&AIDS through weekly talks given by different specialists. Efforts are also made to reach clients in rural areas, farms, prisons and mines who cannot come to the site for counselling. Plans are underway to offer ARVs and provide family planning services to clients who come for post test counseling.
Funding partner: PSI (Population Services International)
BHASO’s programmes are integrated and Officers from different programmes plan and execute their activities in a well coordinated way.
2. Positive Development
The Positive Development Programme is dived into several components:
Support to Support Groups: HIV Support groups have been a strong force in the fight against HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe. In its quest to empower people living with HIV for positive living BHASO facilitates the formation, training and coordination of support groups who are empowered with skills in leadership, basic counseling, basic home based care, project planning and management, nutrition, survival skills, treatment literacy and herbs. Support group members BHASO believes in teaching the hungry person to fish rather than just give him/her fish all the time. To this end BHASO empowers support group members to do things for themselves and lead positive and meaningful lives. Behaviour change activities are carried out by support groups themselves through campaigns and peer education.
BHASO is taking part in the SMART 3 (SolidarMed Antiretroviral Therapy) Project that is being run by SolidarMed in the Districts of Bikita and Zaka. The project’s outcomes include meaningful and holistic participation of PLWHIV in the fight against the pandemic and increased community awareness in TB, HIV and AIDS issues. In this health centre-based project BHASO trains selected HIV positive support group members on ART as Community HIV & AIDS Support Agents (CHASA) who go on to volunteer to work 2 days per week at their local health centres where they counsel clients who come to collect their medication and assist health staff with some administrative chores. CHASAs also do follow ups to ensure adherence.
Funding partners: FEPA/Swiss Development Cooperation and Solidarmed
Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children [OVC]; The Project seeks to facilitate the formation and training of child HIV support groups in leadership and positive living, support innovative leadership income food and asset generation for OVC households while touching on climate change issues. The project also seeks to create dialogue and sensitise community leaders, traditional leaders, heads of government departments and religious leaders on children’s rights.. This way communities are empowered to once more take up their traditional role of looking after their own children.
Funding partner: The Egmont Trust
Youth Empowerment for Behaviour Change: The Youth Project empowers youths with leadership skills while creating an environment where they can take charge of their HIV&AIDS awareness and prevention activities towards behaviour change. They are given a chance to learn more about their rights and how to advocate for whatever is rightfully due to them in a responsible way. Youths are also involved in community projects, care of orphans and other vulnerable children and home based care. BHASO is building the capacity of Real Agenda for Youth Transformation (RAFYT), a youth led organisation that seeks to highlight and address issues that affect young people in their communities.
The Young4Real Project is a movement for and by young people working to promote access to sexual and reproductive health rights and information services
Funding partner: FEPA/SDC, EU through SAfAIDS
Community Home Based Care: This is an ongoing Project that seeks to offer care to the terminally ill through primary and secondary care givers in Gutu District. 120 secondary care givers that included males and youths were trained in home based care and continue to assist in the care of the terminally ill. Here the community itself is seen being actively involved in the care of its own ill members.
Initially funded by Oxfam GB and later by ESP
Children’s ART Literacy: BHASO participated in the on ‘Scaling up Children’s ART Literacy in Zimbabwean Communities’ that was being implemented by SAfAIDS with the support of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). This project seeks to rollout the Children’s Treatment Literacy Toolkit for Communities which was developed by SAfAIDS in 2009. In this project BHASO is empowering, teaching and equipping children on ART Literacy, HIV/AIDS and TB. Skills in paedriatic ART literacy are imparted to care givers and children on ARV in order to enable children to take their medication properly and consistently.
BHASO took part in a related SAfAIDS project that sought to produce a storybook of catching and moving stories of children on ART regarding their experiences on treatment, care and support services. Selected children were trained in story telling and their real life experiences were documented and will be distributed in book and DVD form for purposes of sharing, learning and highlighting issues affecting children on ART.
Funding partner: AJWS through SAfAIDS
3. Gender and Advocacy
Under the “People living with HIV Stand for Your Rights” Project people living with HIV&AIDS are trained in human rights and advocacy in order to equip them with skills that will enable them to advocate for their rights and for services that are due to them. Support group members form Area, District and Provincial Advocacy Teams and are already successfully advocating for issues that affect people living with HIV while communities and stakeholders are being sensitised on gender issues. Gender is mainstreamed in all programme activities. Male involvement is also encouraged with support groups for men already being formed under the Zivapaumire Men’s Forum.
Funding partner: Trocaire/Comic Relief
4. Food Security and Livelihoods
The Food Security and Livelihoods Programme being implemented in Wards 12, 13, 15 and 16 of Gutu District is aimed at contributing to the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger in Masvingo Province. The programme enhances food security and livelihoods for poor and vulnerable households. This is achieved through conservation farming, distribution of summer inputs, small livestock support and market linkages. In other areas a good number of support groups are already involved in small activities like poultry, farming and gardening.
Funding partner: Oxfam GB and EC
A new one year Protracted Relief Programme (PRP) has just been introduced in Wards 23, 28 and 29 of Masvingo Rural District. The programme is meant to enhance food and income security and improve access to portable water, sanitation and hygiene for poor households in Masvingo District. Targeted households are being assisted to increase and diversify their food production and income through agriculture-based activities and market access. Activities include summer inputs distribution, livestock fairs, community gardens, market research, training in business management, rehabilitation of boreholes, construction of blair toilets at institutions and homestaeds and training of pump munders, latrine builders and health and hygiene facilitators. HIV and AIDS and gender advocacy will be integrated into all activities. HIV/AIDS affected households will be among the primary participants in community based planning and will be included in community gardens, small livestock, water point committees, Community Health Clubs activities due to recognition of the fact that they are labour poor and make up a large proportion of the chronically poor group. All implementation will be guided by the PRP Gender and Social Inclusion Strategy.
Funding partner: Oxfam GB and PRP
Food For Assets is another new project that is being funded by the World Food Programme. The project is being carried out in Bikita District and seeks to provides food to poor households but only after they have contributed by working on community projects that are aimed at repairing and maintaining community assets like roads, dams and dip tanks.
Funding Partner: World Food Programme
Training and Information
BHASO is increasingly being invited by other organisations and institutions to facilitate at their workshops. At the same time there is now an urgent need for training materials that can be used by both facilitators and volunteers in the community as Batanai itself is conducts numerous training workshops for its clients. There is also need for different types of IEC materials that can be handed out to clients and the general public. Batanai has therefore has just set up a Training and Information Department that will focus on producing training manuals and other IEC materials that include pamphlets, posters, banners, handouts, videos, etc. BHASO also sponsors a column in the most popular provincial weekly newspaper, The Mirror, where HIV related issues are discussed.
Monitoring and Evaluation
The Monitoring and Evaluation Department monitors all programme activities together with Field Officers. Evaluation of carried out activities is carried out with the involvement of beneficiaries and other stakeholders. Regular stakeholder feedback meetings help to keep activities on track while enabling BHASO to get constructive criticism and recommendations.