Plans - The Dignity Project

Current Project Plans

The target area:Gudelle, Juba, South Sudan, The Dignity Project will support household and communities to support their orphans and vulnerable children.

Traditionally African communities have taken the responsibility of looking after their orphans and vulnerable children as part of their extended families but due to wars, the HIV / AIDS pandemic,  and poverty their ability to do this has been reduced.

African people are traditionally very opposed to orphanages as this isolates children and subjects them to prejudice, discrimination , stigma, and loss of tribal identity, which impedes their ability to thrive and survive.

To help communities  support their OVC’s Dignity is setting up an ECDL Training Centre  as funding permits to train students in various disciplines especially child-development. This will impact all caregivers who are involved with children to improve educational child development. This will be achieved within  a child’s right’s policy framework.

The direct result of the caregivers training  is an improvement of psychosocial care for OVC’s  and the setting up of a 2 class Community Based Childcare centres within the village managed by the local elected committee.  This will also give access to referral mechanisms , such as health education, monitoring and evaluation prolonging life and easing suffering especially the girl child and child soldiers.

IMPACT: The training of eighty caregivers in psychosocial care will directly benefit a minimum of 8,000 children (0-8years). Other beneficiaries are the students of the literacy classes etc. that do not have access to education for various reasons this includes the girl-child headed households, and the child soldiers (8-18years)
It is envisaged that newly qualified caregivers will set up CBCC's and their associated committees in each village. The impact will be that thousands of children thrive and survive and have access to education. The impact of human rights based policy aids communities, to design and implement strategies for taking care of vulnerable members of their community, which Dignity helps and supports through its staff and volunteers.

The Dignity Project was successfully involved with the programme in Northern Malawi where over 12,000 children directly benefited from this programme.