The past week has been a busy one, and presents a good insight into some of the opportunities of, and challenges for, that work.

My visit here coincided with the visit of Foundation Rwanda, which we are working with to now scale up a programme of education support to children born of women survivors raped during the genocide, as well as a programme of psychosocial and economic support to the women survivors themselves.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Through a remarkable fundraising effort, Foundation Rwanda is already supporting 200 of the children through school, and we hope that this number will increase to 350 children by the end of the year. SURF is monitoring and evaluating the programme, with the support to the children and their mothers delivered by our partners, including AVEGA Agahozo, Solace Ministries and IBUKA.

Many of the women, as well as the children, are HIV+ and thus are also beneficiaries on the Care and Treatment Project, funding for which comes to an end this month. In meetings with The Global Fund, DFID and MINISANTE (Rwandan Ministry of Health) we have been assessing what further support is required to sustain the success of that project. SURF has developed with Solace Ministries and AVEGA Agahozo a proposal we submitted this week to Comic Relief for funding to ensure the successful integration of HIV+ women survivors into the public health system.

We are now working with the partners on a proposal to DFID to request a final grant to continue to extend the income-generating activities started through CTP. Which is an activity that Foundation Rwanda hopes to support too for women survivors with children born of rape.

Though it has been a busy week, it has been a productive one. However, how successful it will have been, will be determined by the success of the proposals, of which I will be certain to keep you posted!

IRIN this week reported on the importance of the organisation in empowering genocide widows, as well as chronicling the challenges that they continue to face in Rwanda today.

SURF has supported the work of AVEGA since its founding, through a number of our major donors. Comic Relief has supported most recently an extensive shelter project for homeless widows, and continues to support core funding for AVEGA West (in Cyangugu). The Sigrid Rausing Trust supports gender-based violence work, and income-generating activities are supported through Good Gifts. Critical funding has been provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), which supports health clinics based at AVEGA Central (in Kigali) and AVEGA East (in Rwamagana) through a Care and Treatment Project for HIV+ women survivors.

One of the beneficiaries receiving support through this project is Marceline. Marceline is a member of AVEGA, and through homebased care delivered through an AVEGA community development worker, Rose, she has been able to rebuild her life. As she testifies in the short film below: “If it hadn’t been for AVEGA, I don’t think I would be alive today.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Currently SURF is advocating for DFID to sustain their funding to this project through to December 2010, which is at risk of being wound down prematurely next month. As I prepare for a visit to Rwanda next week, this will be at the top of our agenda, to discuss how we can sustain the remarkable work that AVEGA has undertaken to date.

With your continued support, we hope that this will be possible.

For five years, DFID have funded a Care and Treatment of Rwandan Genocide Survivors Infected by HIV/AIDS Project – referred to as CTP – which has supported health clinics run by AVEGA Central, AVEGA East and Solace Ministries to deliver holistic antiretroviral treatment to 2,500 HIV+ survivors of the genocide, and their dependents, in Rwanda. The project has been a remarkable success, as reported by DFID itself.

Funding for that project is due to end on March 31st, which will have a potentially cataclysmic effect for survivors.

Already, the three partners have had to give notice to their staff of impending termination of employment. The three clinics will be compelled to scale back their delivery of frontline services: medical services, social services, trauma counselling and income generating activities.

This will result in much reduced, and lower quality, care for survivors, and will be a significant setback to helping them and their dependents out of poverty.

A grant proposal  has been submitted to DFID requesting an additional one year of funding, to give the partners time to source additional funding to ensure that survivors can receive the care and treatment vital for their continued well-being.

To learn more about the project, and to give your support, please watch the short film on the DFID website and post a comment there.

Thank you.

SURF on BBC Radio 4 Appeal

The broadcast refers to SURF’s housebuilding programme. This has been made possible due to the generosity of a number of donors, in particular Comic Relief. A short film about the programme is available on youtube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also referenced is SURF’s antiretroviral treatment programme to support 2,500 women survivors raped and infected with HIV during the genocide. It is funded by the Department for International Development – more information about which was featured in our earlier blog post: DFID’s Support for Survivors.

As Lindsey mentions, “any sum can help SURF gather testimonies and build memorials, to ensure the victims will never be forgotten.” The recording of testimonies has been particularly important to our work, to raise awareness of the situation of survivors today. We are staging a Reading of the Testimonies at the Whitechapel Gallery on 12th July 2009, more information about which we have just released online – so we hope that you are able to join us then.

In 2005, through a £4.25 million Care and Treatment Programme, funded by the UK Department for International Development, 2,500 HIV+ women survivors were given access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment through clinics managed by SURF’s partners AVEGA and Solace Ministries. 

The programme has been remarkable, transforming the lives of not only the women but their dependents as well – many of whom are orphans of the genocide – through a holistic programme of support, which includes psychosocial counselling, education, nutrition and microfinance. On a new microsite to mark the 15th Anniversary of the genocide, DFID features a short film on one of the beneficiaries on the programme, Marceline, and her son, Clement. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

DFID’s funding has been vital to the survivors. There are many sensitivities for survivors in accessing treatment through public health clinics, which Martin Leach, Head of DFID Rwanda & Burundi, comments on in his blog about a visit to an AVEGA clinic. SURF is continuing to campaign to secure greater funding to provide access to treatment for more HIV+ survivors in need.