Youth and Parents Crisis Counseling Center (YOPAC)

The YOPAC programme works in partnership with vulnerable families, helping caregivers and families facing adversity make better use of their own resources and expand their access to family and community resources so that a young person can stay in school. Once potential resources are identified, YOPAC works to forge and formalise the commitments of the individuals who form the youth's support network, monitoring agreements over time and intervening when necessary to avoid gaps in support. The community-enforced agreement, much like a memorandum of understanding (MOU), binds all of those involved - the young person, the family, community members, and a local government representative - to the agreed terms.

YOPAC uses its referral network to find children and youth who need help. Some youth are referred through the schools (teachers know who is most vulnerable), and others come to YOPAC through peer educators who work on HIV awareness and education programming. Some are referred by local municipal administrators, while others come to YOPAC on their own initiative. In all cases, YOPAC investigates the situation of the youth and his or her family, interviewing family members, teachers, and neighbours to determine that they are indeed vulnerable and in need of the programme's support.

The Five-Step Process YOPAC pursues includes:

1. Identify Needs: "We go and sit down with the entire family. The aim is to identify all of the unmet needs of the vulnerable young person and of the family....This helps us (and them) to see the big picture."
2. Identify Existing Resources, Gaps, and Potential Providers: "We spend a lot of time with the family on this part of Step Two. Ideally, families will receive reliable support from a diverse range of sources so that if one or more sources fail to materialize, they are not left completely stranded."
3. Plan How to Approach Potential Providers: "Families are ashamed to go to neighbors with their problems. We go together. We remind everyone that it is their responsibility to help those in need. We ask them to think, 'What if it were you?'" A lesson learned: "Where possible, getting families to approach resource providers directly can be greatly empowering. Family members feel like they are actively solving their own problems, and in the process they are improving their networking and self-advocacy skills. Similarly, the process works best when support is delivered directly to the youth and family, rather than through YOPAC."
4. Sign Agreement and Implement: "This process is completed jointly with the vulnerable youth, his or her family, the local municipal representative and YOPAC. Once everything is agreed, there is a signing ceremony with all parties. Copies of the agreement are held by YOPAC, the family, and the municipal representative."
5. Monitoring and Follow-up: "Periodic visits should be made to each youth and family engaged in this process to assess the status and progress of clients, and to compare the agreed contributions (per the MOU) to the actual receipt of support over the current period. In cases where obligations are not being met, YOPAC's peer educators may make a visit to the person (or family) to investigate. In some cases, pressure may be applied by the municipal government representative, who is a signatory on the MOU; at other times a church leader is more effective....But these days, due to funding issues, we no longer have the staff or the cadre of volunteers. So follow-up is often lacking."

HIV/AIDS, Youth.

The HIV prevalence rate in Dar-es-Salaam is estimated at 9.3%, and the national prevalence is 5.7% (Tanzania Commission for AIDS et al. 2008). In Tanzania, as in many countries affected by the HIV pandemic, one of the most common household coping strategies for dealing with the effects of food insecurity, illness, and household poverty is to remove children and youth from school. Families cannot afford costs related to school, and they also need their children to earn income, or be at home to care for those who are sick or too young to care for themselves. Currently, 75 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) receive an education through the YOPAC programme: 34 in public primary and second school and 41 in vocational training.

Community members report that stigma associated with HIV has declined as a result of this programme, and that community sensitivity and involvement in caring for people living with HIV and OVC have increased. By promoting positive interactions between the families and resource providers, the latter (and the community-at-large) gain a better understanding of and greater empathy for families facing adversity. Organisers stress that "informal, community-based safety nets are no replacement for formal, government-sponsored social protection on a national scale. Social protection is absolutely necessary to protect vulnerable members of society from destitution and to enable them to participate in economically viable livelihoods. Similarly, community-based safety nets are not a substitute for poverty-reduction strategies that aim to cultivate and expand community- and household-level assets. Ultimately, a combination of these strategies should be sought."

For more information, contact:

Youth and Parents Crisis Counseling Center (YOPAC)

P.O. Box 3799

Dar-Es-Salaam

Tanzania

Tel: 255 22 2 182 066

yopac@africaonline.co.tz

cyw_tanzania@yahoo.co.uk