Resources

Australian aid is funding an innovative approach to tackling gender-based violence in the Solomon Islands. In a country that is 97% Christian, a new project is working with churches to challenge traditional understandings and incorrect Bible teachings about gender roles and domestic violence.

Channels of Hope equip faith leaders to reduce HIV-related stigma in their communities and promote compassionate care for people and families affected by HIV. This video presents the experience of two Christian leaders from vastly different context – an Ugandan pastor and an Armenian Orthodox priest.

World Vision’s HIV and AIDS response strategy focuses on building the capacity of communities to prevent the spread of HIV and on providing care and advocacy for people living with HIV and for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The Channels of Hope (CoH) methodology, one of World Vision’s three core HIV and AIDS response models, is used to mobilise the infrastructure, organisational capacity, pool of current and potential volunteers, and unmatched moral authority of local churches and faith communities towards positive action on HIV and AIDS. Once they have been mobilised, World Vision works with churches and faith-based organisations to co-ordinate and equip sustainable, community-based HIV and AIDS programmes with an emphasis on reaching OVCs in need of care and support.

Channels of Hope for Maternal Newborn and Child Health (CoH MNCH) is a programme methodology that catalyses faith communities and individuals to act on their God-given responsibility to honour, uphold and restore the dignity and value of every human being, to help ensure that even the most vulnerable experience fullness of life. Once catalysed, congregations work with World Vision to meaningfully engage with sustainable, community-based MNCH interventions and advocacy.

Recognising the gaps in healthcare for children is the first step to resolving them. It becomes particularly important in communities or geographic regions facing inequity of services, where the poorest or most marginalised children are missing out on health opportunities that policies aim to provide. Fostering responsibility and knowledge for improvements to maternal and child health within affected communities is part of the Child Health Now advocacy approach.

There is an urgent need to improve access for HIV-positive pregnant women to services that can dramatically reduce the transmission of HIV to their babies. Globally, approximately 45 per cent of women in resource-poor settings have access to prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services.1 There is growing recognition of the need to create greater awareness amongst HIV-positive women and others about the value of PMTCT in order to create demand for services at the community level and to support adherence and follow-up after delivery. In recent years, community-based mother support groups have played a key role in creating this awareness and building confidence among HIV-positive women to have access to these services. Mother support groups provide safe environments in which women can learn how to help themselves in making difficult decisions.

Many have observed that children are neglected in the HIV response. Within this there are sub groups of the most neglected who are very difficult to reach and may be overlooked, resulting in even greater levels of suffering. In a scenario of great need, and donor focus on results based payments, there may be a tendency to reach for the “low hanging fruit”. This research explores the challenges of reaching those most marginalised and hardest to reach children.

The research focuses on orphans and vulnerable children in four of the worst-affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on surveys and focus group discussions with children, parents, caregivers and officials in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia, it provides a useful review of the UNGASS commitments and how much difference a decade of action has made.

Every year, millions of people around the world are affected by humanitarian crises, both natural and man-made. A significant proportion of people living with HIV (PLHIV) are also affected by conflict, disasters or displacement. HIV can spread quickly in conditions of poverty, powerlessness and social instability, conditions that are often at their most extreme during emergencies.

World Vision HIV & AIDS Fact Sheet