HIV/AIDS Impact Mitigation through Community-Based Agricultural Development

Click on the image to the left to read a review of a stakeholder workshop held in December 2007 in Machakos, Kenya. 

The review includes information on what has been achieved, including personal testimonies of the difference that the project has made to those involved.

It also documents the lessons learned through the project and how people affected by HIV/AIDS can be supported through agricultural interventions.

For a basic overview of this project, please see below.

 

The goal of this project is to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS on the most vulnerable households in poor agricultural communities in Machakos District, Eastern Province, Kenya.

Approximately one in ten of the adult population in this area is HIV positive. This has had a serious impact on food security as many families have lost the most agriculturally productive family members to the disease. Responsibility for the family welfare has fallen to orphans, widows or grandparents, who often lack the skills and resources needed.

VETAID is supporting families affected by HIV/AIDS to increase their food security and income. The methods used are all low-input and low-management, based on the recognition that the worst affected families in the community are unable to manage more demanding activities.

Activities include:

· Promotion of kitchen gardens with nutritional low management crops to improve family nutrition.

· Distribution of livestock (three goats for milk production and breeding and small flock of breeding chickens to each household).

· Training in small livestock-keeping, crop management and nutrition.

To ensure sustainability and build up local capacity, VETAID is working with Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) in Machakos who are already providing assistance to vulnerable families. These CBOs are also being encouraged to develop income-generating schemes (such as bee-keeping, horticulture and fruit tree nurseries), which will enable them to continue and expand activities in the future. The CBOs will also receive a pair of oxen and a plough to enable them to assist disadvantaged families in cultivating their land effectively and ensure that the orphans retain the right to keep their land.