Our Impact
We reach over 600,000 children and their caregivers annually across six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We work with more than 90 local organizations, clinics, and local and national governments in Eswatini, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
Who We Are
We work to improve the lives of children and caregivers made vulnerable by HIV and poverty.
Our Approach
We work with governments and local organizations to provide the critical services that children need to grow and thrive.
Better Outcomes for Children and Youth in Eastern and Northern Uganda
The Better Outcomes for Children and Youth in Eastern and Northern Uganda project provides critical HIV and social protection services to 15,000 families and 90,000 children across 20 districts in eastern and northern Uganda.
DREAMS Initiative: Zimbabwe
DREAMS Initiative provides economic resilience and opportunities for girls, layered with HIV prevention, sexual reproductive health, gender-based violence, and life skills.
HIV Prevention Life Skills Education in Secondary Schools (LSE)
The Eswatini LSE Program delivers a national, HIV-focused Life Skills Education (LSE) Curriculum in all secondary schools throughout the country, reaching over 100,000 students annually with critical HIV and life skills education.
SPOTLIGHT ON: Celebrating the Achievements of Vana Bantwana
Launched in 2013, the $35 million USAID-funded Vana Bantwana program supported comprehensive, quality education, health, and child protection services for HIV-infected and affected children and families. The program provided educational scholarships for over 50,000 children, including 2,300 children with disabilities. More than 30,000 families participated in training to improve economic resilience. Half a million children received critical health services, including 11,000 children who were initiated on HIV treatment. The program empowered 300,000 children to identify and prevent gender-based violence and provided gender-based violence response services, including medical, legal, and counseling support.
Achieving DREAMS: Bantwana’s documentation series
Bantwana implemented DREAMS core and DREAMS Innovation Challenge programming in five countries: Eswatini, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Programming reached over 60,000 adolescent girls and young women with comprehensive programming to build resilience to and mitigate the impact of HIV across the region. Each month, we will feature stories that tell the impacts of our program on our DREAMS girls.
Bantwana wins innovation grant to provide protective assets and retain girls in school through mobile technology
Bantwana is excited to announce a new award from OSISA’s Transformative and Innovative Education portfolio. Go Girls Connect! is a groundbreaking program leveraging mobile-based technology to build digital competency and empower girls with critical life skills, protective assets and resources, and enable them to advocate for their human rights and navigate challenging gender norms. The program will create an evidence base for a unique model that can be easily scaled. It is poised to innovatively address the digital gender divide while empowering girls’ to navigate entrenched gender norms, advocate for their rights, stay in school, and access needed GBV services. Bantwana is pleased to partner with Cell-Ed to develop and deliver this promising program.