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HOUSING PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE:- HIV AND AIDS INTERVENTION IN HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES

HOUSING PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE:- HIV AND AIDS INTERVENTION IN HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES. Housing People of Zimbabwe (HPZ) is a Zimbabwean non-governmental set up in 1992 .

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HOUSING PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE:- HIV AND AIDS INTERVENTION IN HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES

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  1. HOUSING PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE:-HIV AND AIDS INTERVENTION IN HOUSING CO-OPERATIVES • Housing People of Zimbabwe (HPZ) is a Zimbabwean non-governmental set up in 1992 . • HPZ works in partnership with like-minded organisations towards improving human settlements conditions for Zimbabweans of limited means. • HPZ and Rooftops Canada’s partnership dates back to 1992.

  2. Advocacy: to create a favorable legislative environment for people of limited means through policy analysis, lobbying and advocacy and advancing rights based and people centered approaches to housing development. Sustainable livelihood promotion: through provision of capacity building programs focused at building economic, social and self help skills, including HIV and AIDS Provision of cooperative development education and training, project management and construction related expertise. Provision of financial advisory services. Organisational development and support to the co-operative housing movement Mainstreaming gender in housing, whilst at the same time equipping women with skills to cope with economic, social and political environment. To highlight the impact of HIV and AIDS on housing co-operative attempts to access housing. Promote a holistic approach to co-operative housing development. To facilitate action and mitigation around HIV and AIDS, in order to assist the infected and affected cooperative members. To raise awareness on the impact of HIV and AIDS, highlighting the impact on women and children in cooperatives. To provide psycho social support for People Living with HIV and AIDS at cooperative level. De-stigmatize of the HIV and AIDS issues through education, awareness raising, talking about HIV and AIDS, and creating a facilitative environment by which People Living with AIDS could access shelter through housing cooperative means. KEY OBJECTIVES : Organisational and specific to HIV and AIDS

  3. Zimbabwe’s prevalence rate is estimated at 24.6 and has recently been noted to be on the decline, it would follow that one in four members would be infected An impact assessment was conducted on 10 housing cooperatives in 2002, and it revealed that housing cooperatives were failing to cope with the impact of AIDS. They did not realise the link between shelter provision, and AIDS issues. There were no support structures to help orphans, women, and People infected by AIDS. There were no coping mechanisms at cooperative level to respond to the demands on the co-operatives to deal with legal, social and economic impacts which include:- Whether or not to disclose status to other members How to provide home based care without a home Access to water and sanitation, access to treatment and proper nutrition, space and support to deal with stigma and critical illness. Drop out rates due to death and illness and as members fail to pay dues, failure to cope with competing demands on meagre resources thus impacting on sustainability of the co-op. Legal and social complications relating to inheritance and ownership, increase in orphans and status of minors as members of co-ops Absence of a coherent, holistic approach to access housing and other related social and economic elements that limits access to resources for HIV and AIDS mitigation by housing co-operatives . Lack of information and awareness Critical Issues in housing co-operatives

  4. HIV and AIDS Trends in 16 housing coops

  5. The HIV and AIDS intervention has reached a total of 20 housing cooperatives since inception, and has reached a total of 441 men and 134 women, and their individual families. Creation of desks staffed by volunteers peer educators to spearhead and coordinate the HIV and AIDS interventions at co-op level. A National AIDS workshop for Housing Co-operative desks was held in November 2003 resulting in great demand for mainstreaming HIV / AIDS issues in the housing cooperative movement. General level awareness to alert housing cooperative membership on the impact of HIV / AIDS on housing, the spread , mitigation and prevention Creation of an HIV / AIDS policy within HPZ, which is forming the basis for the current activities, and interventions with staff Building the capacity of staff and housing cooperative desks to be able to incorporate a comprehensive HIV / AIDS program, with focus on Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV / AIDS. ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT SINCE 2002

  6. Established networks and partnerships with Aids Service Organisations for provision of specialised support and information Creation of co-op based support groups since it was realised that the cooperative itself is a useful support group, and is a good platform for mobilising resources on behalf of members. Skills’ training and livelihood support training for mostly unemployed female co-operators. Provision of Nutrition Education to cooperative membership. Referral systems at coop level. This means that coops now have capacity to refer members to appropriate organisations for assistance. Collected information for dissemination to co-operatives including a specific radio program. ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT SINCE 2002

  7. A crumbling health system which is failing to cope with the high demand for quality medical treatment. Currently, ARV’s and drugs needed in the treatment of opportunistic infections are available to only 24 000 people from the public health sector. This limits the referral system of the intervention. The HPZ intervention program has plans to increase its scope and focus to reach 51 housing cooperatives with a membership of 2 077, 508 women and 1569 men but is severely limited by lack of resources. The high levels of unemployment within the membership , a crippling economic environment limits the level to which members can volunteer as motivators, educators, counselors and care givers. Women members are at the forefront of actively participating even though we have trained more men than women. Youth and men need to be engaged and brought on board Sustainability of both HPZ and the co-operatives is a challenge in the provision of very practical interventions at co-op and family level e.g. Low income groups keep getting poorer and poorer. A family of six needs USD$512 (ZW$51,2mil) to survive yet current minimum wages for the lowest paid sector are (ZW$2 , 5 mil) USD$25, annual inflation is at 1 193.5%. A lot of members are struggling to rebuild their lives and resuscitate their livelihood activities following the clean up operation Achieving a balance between the HIV and AIDS interventions and the core business of both HPZ and the co-ops Capacity to influence policy and practices on HIV and AIDS and housing is limited due to the lack of a holistic/integrated perception by stakeholders. CHALLENGES

  8. As a learning organisation Housing People of Zimbabwe will continue to strive to address the human settlement concerns, through a multi faceted intervention program, as well as addressing HIV and AIDS issues as they relate to housing at different levels and by whatever means possible.………………… CONCLUSION

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