What We Do

OVC Core Service Delivery

We have an exemplary track record delivering integrated, comprehensive services that incorporate graduation models to move households with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) along a continuum towards reduced vulnerability, enhanced stability, and improved outcomes. Using strengths-based and family-centered approaches tailored to the local context, we build the capacity of NGOs, faith-based organizations, host governments, and community volunteer networks. We work closely with partners to optimize program entry points and improve coordination between community-based and facility-based partners. Our evidence-based tools enable purposeful targeting and segmentation to ensure we reach the most vulnerable with tailored interventions to increase resilience and health, and mitigate the impacts of HIV. Bantwana’s integrated service delivery models link beneficiaries to both health and social welfare services, responding to the comprehensive needs of OVC while increasing HIV diagnoses; improved HIV treatment adherence, retention, and viral suppression; and reduce the risk of new infection across multiple age cohorts.

Health and HIV

HIV Prevention, Reproductive and Sexual Health Education: We are committed to developing and scaling-up solutions that address the multidimensional health needs of vulnerable children and their families, leveraging multiple entry points for health education and catalyzing access to services. We reach well over 100,000 adolescents annually with HIV prevention and SRH education. We leverage multiple platforms to engage beneficiaries through nationally delivered in-school curricula, out-of-school clubs, and groundbreaking social media and mobile education. Programming reaches in-and out-of-school students, including teen mothers, and is provided to caregivers through parenting interventions.

Access to Health and HIV Services: We deliver innovative mobile, multi-sectoral health initiatives in schools and communities, and strengthens partners’ and inter-ministerial coordination for increased access to care. We address the complex nature of the HIV epidemic across age bands and build local capacity for an integrated response. Bantwana has a proven track record delivering impactful, nationally-adopted models, engaging the most vulnerable communities in high HIV-burden countries. We train community volunteers and work alongside government health service providers to expand access to a range of health and HIV prevention, care and treatment services, with a focus on reaching vulnerable children, women and girls, boys and men, and strengthening linkages between community-based and clinic-based services. Through community-based models and system strengthening, we increase demand for and linkages to HIV testing services (HTS), retention on antiretroviral therapy (ART), enrollment in PMTCT groups, voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC), and mental health services. Our integrated national case management systems ensure coordination between health and social welfare sectors.

Systems Strengthening and Capacity Development

We partner closely with government and civil society counterparts from community to national levels to build national case management systems and improve coordination across social welfare/child protection, health, education ministries and stakeholders to improve service delivery to vulnerable children – working to strengthen the systems and coordinating networks that support vulnerable children.

Capacity Development: A cornerstone of our work is collaborative technical and organizational capacity development with local civil society organizations and government authorities. Through an emphasis on trust, partnership, and partner-identified priorities, we approach capacity development holistically and build relationships and systems that promote accountability, transparency, and local ownership. Interventions include a combination of technical training and support, organizational tools and strategy development, and the application of a range of service delivery and monitoring and learning tools, assessments, and training.

National Case Management Systems, Social Welfare and Child Protection Strengthening: We collaborate with departments of social welfare to develop and operationalize national case management systems that effectively and promptly link abused and neglected children to critically needed health and social protection and welfare services. Our partnership includes capacity development of the social welfare workforce, including government and civil society actors, in delivery of national frameworks, standard operating protocols and referral pathways, and train actors to use data for planning, delivering and tracking services to children. These systems reflect existing national policy priorities and infrastructure for long-term impact.

We have supported governments to adapt their national case management systems to electronic MIS.

Education Systems: We support ministries of education to deliver part-time and continuing/non-formal education to out-of-school children, including teen mothers, who are part of the millions of young people in Africa who have left the formal school system. With these same ministries and their teaching staff at the school level, we have designed and integrated Early Warning Systems, tools, and practices that help retain children in school and reduce dropout, by providing appropriate and timely support. A niche focus in the education sector is supporting ministries to introduce and integrate age-appropriate and engaging HIV-prevention education into national curricula; we are currently reaching over 100,000 students with HIV prevention and life skills education annually.

Systems Strengthening of Health, HIV Care and Treatment: We work with ministries of health at national, district, and sub-district levels to strengthen and integrate health and social welfare systems for coordinated HIV care.

Adolescent Girls and Youth

DREAMS: We reach thousands of in-school and out-of-school girls and teen mothers with mentor programs and access to education, protective assets and life skills, vocational training and job readiness, financial literacy, and linkages to HTC and post GBV services in six countries in east and southern Africa. Our Early Warning Systems prevent drop out and retain youth in school, with the model scaled nationally in Zimbabwe. We reach well over 100,000 adolescents annually with protective assets, HIV prevention and life skills education, and are developing innovative applications for reaching adolescent girls through mobile technology. Our programming links adolescents to services for sexual and reproductive health, HIV, ART, and GBV/post-abuse. We deliver age-appropriate parenting programs to enhance parent-child relationships and communication.

Work Readiness: A key feature of our DREAMS programming, we equip young people with basic financial skills training, and offer a suite of pathways to increased economic resilience through access to continuing education, internships, apprenticeships, vocational training, entrepreneurial opportunities, income generating activities (IGAs), youth VSLAs, and more.

Social Protection

Case Management

National Case Management Systems: We are a recognized leader in case management with expertise supporting emerging, established, and mature case management systems in low resource and high HIV-prevalence settings. We partner with host governments to develop robust national case management systems aligned to national policy.

Social Workforce Strengthening: We build the capacity of social welfare cadres and community volunteer networks in case management as a pillar of integrated OVC service delivery using methods that build on existing structures and systems. We conduct capacity assessments for social welfare departments; strengthen the social welfare workforce; and develop national case management guidelines, frameworks and standard protocols. We develop effective case conferencing mechanisms to improve multi-sectoral coordination between the community-based social welfare workforce and health facility-based staff, and link protection services to schools through early warning systems.

Case Management Information Systems: We partner with governments to develop and deliver national case management information systems to track case closure rates, referral completion rates, and other targeted OVC case management metrics.

Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

Protective Assets and Norms Change: We equip women and adolescent girls with social and protective assets and life skills related to GBV, HIV, and sexual and reproductive health to reduce their risk to violence, empower them to navigate harmful gender norms, and promote health-seeking behaviors. We simultaneously engage men as partners in violence prevention and social norms change. We work at the community level to foster dialogue around GBV and social norms change, expand women’s support networks and knowledge of their rights, and strengthen reporting mechanisms. We help teachers, school officials, parents, and community members to recognize and address harmful social norms and school practices that perpetuate GBV.

GBV Post-Abuse Response: Our GBV response interventions connect survivors to post-exposure services and medical, legal, and counseling support through a range of platforms, including post-abuse case management to ensure access to services, drop-in centers, emergency shelters, and a transport voucher system. An innovative one-stop mobile service delivery approach brings most of these services to the doorstep of communities while serving as an entry point for referrals.

Economic Strengthening

Savings Groups and Economic Resilience: Our economic strengthening interventions embed village savings and loan models as a core intervention to strengthen the ability of caregivers to meet their children’s needs, including school costs, transport fees to health clinics, and nutritious food. We leverage these savings and loans clubs not only as a means to provide financial literacy and promote a culture of saving and entrepreneurship, but also as a platform to provide additional services, such as parenting skills, GBV and HIV prevention, and support for girls’ education. All savings and loan interventions are highly contextualized to the needs of the target population and empower participants to increase their economic independence and strengthen their social support networks. We also support village savings and loan groups for vulnerable adolescents.

Work Readiness: Our work readiness programs are designed to prepare out of school youth for employment opportunities by developing the necessary skills and networks and linking them to companies for internships and apprenticeships. Our programs equip youth with an integrated package of career guidance, goal setting, life skills, protection, financial and entrepreneurial literacy, and communication skills to prepare them to find decent work in sub-Saharan Africa’s emerging economies.

Education

In-School and Out-of-School Pathways

In collaboration with ministries and departments of education as well as school administrators and teachers, we help design, build, and implement actionable systems and strategies in the following areas:

Part-time and Continuing Education: Offering accessible, practical education alternatives is essential to addressing the human economic, health, and social vulnerabilities of millions of out-of-school children and youth in Africa, who have left the formal school system. Through both DREAMS and Education Sector programming, we deliver evidence-based and mentored interventions that provide critical supports needed by out-of-school youth to get them back on a formal schooling track or help them embark on continuing education pathways. Trained adult and peer mentors and structured group activities in safe spaces lend support to youth and teen mothers, and liaise and advocate with caregivers and teachers, and support the re-matriculation of youth into the formal school system where possible.

Early Warning Systems: Across East and Southern Africa, we have piloted and rolled out Early Warning Systems to help retain children in school and reduce school drop-out. Based on the core ABC metrics (Attendance, Behavior, Coursework), our EWS model identifies students at risk of dropping out and provides robust case management and response protocols at school, caregiver, and community levels to retain children in school. Our Zimbabwe EWS has been adopted and scaled nationally by the Ministry of Education. In Tanzania, our EWS has been integrated into the government’s national online School Information System. We are currently developing an innovative mobile-based EWS in Tanzania to identify and support at-risk secondary school students, and supporting the government of Zambia to pilot and scale their own EWS.

HIV Education: In several countries, our work with education authorities and NGOs has focused on developing syllabi and curricula to deliver national, HIV prevention education in secondary schools, reaching 100,000 students annually. We support National Curriculum Centers and in-service teacher training, as well as education management information systems (EMIS) to monitor quality delivery.

Early Childhood Development and Stimulation

Our early childhood development (ECD) programming is fully aligned with the Nurturing Care Framework launched at the 71st World Health Assembly in 2018. We deliver learner-centered, responsive, and emotionally supportive programming to the hardest to reach group — MVC or most vulnerable children. With a special focus on families and communities as platforms, we educate and empower local volunteers and caregivers to provide nurturing care. Our ECD model further aligns with emerging best practices relative to place-based education, and connects ECD learning to communities through key partnerships.

Brain development is crucial during the first 1,000 days of life, and babies born in extreme poverty are at risk of disrupted development due to poor nutrition and under-stimulation. We offer an evidence-based community-rooted, and integrated package to HIV-impacted mothers and babies, as well as teen mothers, who are among the most vulnerable populations in Africa. Skills and knowledge on early childhood stimulation (ECS) and nutrition enhance parenting capacities, while economic strengthening initiatives (which incorporate drought-resistant permaculture gardens and access to nutritional supplementation for babies through savings and loan associations) empower these mothers economically. Mobile platforms reinforce ECS trainings and information, through a menu of interactive voice response (IVR) messages to mothers