Força à Comunidade e Crianças (FCC) (Community and Child Strengthening)

We worked in collaboration with the Government of Mozambique to implement the Força à Comunidade e Crianças (FCC) Project, which was funded by USAID. Through FCC, we aimed to reduce the socioeconomic impact of HIV and AIDS on orphans and vulnerable children and their caregivers.

Funder

USAID/PEPFAR

Location

GAZA,MANICA, SOFALA, AND ZAMBEZIA PROVINCES, MOZAMBIQUE

Dates

2015 - 2020

As a result of Mozambique’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, an estimated 920,000 children are orphaned by AIDS and 2.2 million people are living with HIV. Testing, care, and treatment programs have been widely scaled up over the past decade, but the fight against the epidemic is not over. In particular, affected populations need timely linkages to HIV care and treatment to achieve ART retention and viral suppression and lasting health outcomes.

From 2015 through 2020, WEI/Bantwana’s implementation of the PEPFAR-funded Força à Comunidade e Crianças (FCC) significantly improved the delivery of health, education, and social protection services for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their caregivers in Mozambique. We worked hand-in-hand with local implementing and technical partners, and collaborated closely with clinical service providers and government entities to enhance community-based HIV prevention and response mechanisms across four provinces (Sofala, Manica, Zambezia, Gaza) and 16 districts.

Under FCC, WEI/Bantwana also led DREAMS programming for Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) to reduce their risk of HIV infection. We used schools and communities as platforms and reached many thousands of OVC and AGYW annually with integrated services to help them thrive and grow into productive and healthy adults.

Key Achievements

Scaled up OVC program innovations that contributed to 95-95-95 goals and improved the HIV Continuum of Care for OVC in Mozambique.
Refined a comprehensive, HIV-sensitive case management approach, upskilling and deploying a robust network of over 1,900 trained community cadres.
Developed an inclusive, community-led Early Childhood Education Initiative that significantly increased demand and uptake of education services.
Strengthened locally driven referral systems to ensure that OVC, AGYW, and their households accessed a range of services.

Results with Lasting Impact

The FCC project supported more than 250,000 vulnerable children, adolescents, and caregivers to access a range of core services, as shown below: