Bantwana Zimbabwe — Local Affiliate

As a local NGO, governed and managed by Zimbabwean nationals, Bantwana Zimbabwe (BZ) leads and partners with local, regional and international organizations to implement donor-funded programs to advance health, education, economic, and social protection outcomes for vulnerable children, adolescents, and their caregivers. These initiatives strengthen government systems and build the capacity of NGOs or community-based partners in holistic child protection approaches that go beyond safeguarding and prevention with interventions that are HIV- and gender-sensitive.

The core of BZ’s work is ensuring that case management systems and providers are able to address the specific needs of key populations, including children at risk of or living with HIV, children living with disabilities, children of sex workers, children on the move, and child survivors of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

Partnering with Bantwana Zimbabwe

Bantwana Zimbabwe partners with local and international NGOs, community organizations, government ministries and departments, US and multilateral funding agencies, and the private sector. With its demonstrated capacity for project and financial management, BZ currently manages an annual $5 million+ portfolio of programs and regional technical assistance contracts funded by PEPFAR/CDC, USAID, bilateral development cooperation agencies, the World Bank, and UNICEF.

From top management to field staff, the BZ team is hands-on. We continuously engage with community and government partners to build capacity to deliver quality services, and actively seek client input and feedback to ensure responsive and inclusive programming.

Through national and regional partnerships, Bantwana Zimbabwe…..

• Implements the PEPFAR/CDC Zimbabwe DREAMS program in four districts, as part of a consortium led by I-TECH, reaching nearly 20,000 vulnerable adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) each year.  
• Leads the rollout of Bantwana’s Siyakha Girls market-oriented economic empowerment model with CDC and USAID DREAMS partners in Zimbabwe, and supports DREAMS partners in six countries to adapt and apply the model in their context.
• Strengthens Zimbabwe’s case management system to respond to child protection issues in humanitarian crises in 20 districts, as a key partner of UNICEF.
• Builds the capacity of the social welfare workforce through a national upskilling of a new generation of social workers and community case workers trained to handle child protection in emergencies (CPiE) and cases from key child populations.
• Provides technical guidance to Zambia’s Ministry of Education in developing and piloting a school-based case management system for the World Bank-funded Keeping Girls in School program.
• During 2020 and 2021, working with UNICEF’s global Spotlight Initiative, BZ piloted a school- and community-based early warning system for violence against children (EWS4VAC) in 14 districts during COVID-19, triggering a rapid coordinated response by community case workers, teachers, district social workers, and police victim friendly units.

Bantwana Zimbabwe also cultivates partnerships with the country’s private and philanthropic sectors, such as Toyota and First Mutual Foundation, to facilitate children’s access to education and test out new ideas. These partnerships have enabled BZ to be creative in responding to emerging issues. For example, the program team introduced the EWS4VAC alongside an alternative learning platform (ALP) for children confined to home and without access to digital learning materials under COVID-19. With support from the Ministry of Education, this program has been picked up by schools operating on hybrid schedules.

BZ welcomes collaboration with new partners on major proposals or projects that draw on our key areas of technical expertise:

Integrated, child-centered health, education, and social protection systems

HIV prevention including biomedical prevention and linkage to HIV testing, biomedical prevention, and treatment

MIS and detailed operating procedures for national child case management systems,

Coordinated, community-based case management for vulnerable children and adolescents

Psycho-social support and counselling for children and adolescents living with HIV, survivors of sexual violence, children of key populations, and children in emergencies

Skills training and capacity building for social workers and para-social workers

Youth empowerment and economic resilience

Protective assets, HIV/GBV prevention, and empowerment programming for out-of-school adolescent girls and young women, including for DREAMS.

Market-oriented livelihoods, workforce development, and economic strengthening

Comprehensive GBV and VAC prevention and response

Facilitating community- and school-based dialogues and norms change, with intentional inclusion of men and boys

Establishing systems for reporting and bi-directional referrals that connect community cadres and teachers to clinics

Child rights education and participation in governance

Community norms change

For more information on partnering with Bantwana Zimbabwe, please contact: Mbonisi Tshuma, Executive Director, mtshuma@bantwana.org