The Maanisha programme aims to reduce the spread of HIV and improve the quality of life of those infected and affected. It covers Nyanza, Western, Eastern provinces and parts of Rift Valley. According to a recent survey Nyanza has the highest HIV prevalence in Kenya and Rift Valley recently experienced a surge; gender inequalities abound with 7 out of 10 persons infected with HIV in Eastern province being women or girls.
AMREF believes that to reduce the spread of HIV and improve the quality of life of people, communities should play an active role in interventions targeting them. The name Maanisha, derived from the Swahili phrase ‘to give meaning to,’ here refers to the programme’s aim to add value to the communities’ own efforts in the fight against HIV.
Maanisha’s activities are managed by community members who have come together to form civil society organisations. We give grants to the organisations and build their capacity to undertake activities that include educating young people to prevent HIV infection, encouraging people to be tested, providing home and community-based care for people living with HIV, and supporting orphans and widows; some support people to abandon harmful social and cultural practices such as sexual cleansing that fuel the spread of HIV. Others protect the rights of orphans and widows including property rights.
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) funded Maanisha from 2004 to 2007 in Nyanza and Western provinces. The current programme is a scale-up. Jointly funded by Sida and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), it will last five years from 2007 to 2012. AMREF implements it together with civil society organisations and government structures including National AIDS Control Council.
Programme Objectives
- To build the capacity of civil society organisations (CSOs) and private sector organisations to design and implement quality HIV and AIDS interventions.
- To promote safer sexual behaviour and practices among “at risk” people.
- To strengthen facilitation and coordination mechanisms between civil society organisations and Government of Kenya structures.
- To support civil society organisations to increase access to and improve quality of health care and referral services for persons living with HIV.
- To strengthen knowledge base for influencing policy and adoption of best practices
Achievements
By end of February 2011 Maanisha had:
- Funded 730 CSOs with a total of Ksh 367,903,135 to undertake prevention, care and support activities
- Conducted 2403 mentoring and supervision visits and out of the 730 CSOs that were funded, 92% revealed an increased organisational and technical capacity
- Funded 121 groups targeting Most at risk populations (MARPs) and 310 groups targeting special vulnerable populations and in effect, reached 110,481 MARPs and 1,072,637 special vulnerable populations with HIV prevention interventions
- A total of 16,567 MARPs and 192,886 special vulnerable populations were reached with HIV testing and counselling resulting in increased knowledge and skills about HIV and AIDS including uptake of prevention, care, treatment and support services
- The project supported 271 CSOs/PSOs to promote and/or conduct counselling and testing services resulting into 226,179 people tested for HIV and knowing their status including 6,181 pregnant women also provided with PMTCT services
- A total of 1,527 cases of human rights violations successfully concluded as a result of supporting 106 CSOs to address human rights issues resulting in increased community voice.
- Trained 2,808 community health workers (CHWs) in HCBC cascading into 11,597 caregivers trained in HCBC by the CHWs and as a result 64,694 PLHIV provided with quality HCBC services
- Facilitated 456 CSOs to refer clients to health facilities resulting in 44,218 client referrals for various HIV related services
- Facilitated 225 CSOs/PSOs to offer sustainable nutritional support to PLHIV and the outcome was 36,957 PLHIV provided with sustainable nutritional support
- Conducted two trainings on care and support for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and facilitated 309 CSOs/PSOs to offer OVC care and support resulting in 70,870 OVC receiving primary support ; 34,296 OVC accessing HIV Counselling and Testing, with 2,587 of the OVCs started on ARVs and 5,310 OVCs supported to adhere to ART
- Enhanced capacity of government structures to mentor civil society organisations
- Documented the Maanisha programme as best practice in capacity building and grant making which resulted in the adoption of the model by the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) in the roll out TOWA funded initiative at the national level
