Survivors Fund (SURF) is publishing here the independent evaluation report of the two-year HIV+ Survivors Integration Project (SIP) funded by Comic Relief.

The evaluation assessed the impact of the project, which sought to extend holistic support through our two partner organisations AVEGA Agahozo and Solace Ministries to ensure the successful integration into the public health system of 1,375 HIV+ women survivors, as well as extending access to income-generating activities to 1,626 HIV+ women survivors, and sustain educational support to over 3,000 of their dependents.

The evaluation report concluded:

SIP has ably demonstrated the way in which judicious interventions in a complex policy and political context can mobilise potential within a disadvantaged population that is otherwise easily written off. SIP is important, not so much as a demonstration of what still remains to be done 18 years after the Genocide, but rather as a demonstration of just how much still can be done.

The pioneering approach to livelihood development established through SIP is now being extended through SURF through the Widowed Survivors Empowerment Project (WSEP) and the Genocide Widows Empowerment Project (GWEP). The effectiveness of this approach is commented on further in the evaluation report:

The development of more carefully structured approaches to Income Generating Activities in collaboration with an independent micro-finance institution, appears on early indications to have been an extraordinary success, resulting in 100% repayments of loans, significant increases in member’s daily consumption and monthly savings. Enhanced economic resilience has had significant positive impacts on women’s self-confidence and self-esteem, with corresponding benefits in social dynamics.

As such, we plan to prioritise the scaling up of this work over the years ahead.