Start Date: 2008-08-02

Completion Date: 2009-03-01

Technology Used:

AOSCI has a school and a farm that service 1200 orphans. The technologies that will be introduced will address water access, storage and treatment. All technologies are appropriate in that they are simple use local materials, and are replicable. Because these technologies can be replicated, it creates an income generating opportunity for the Center to offer water services in their community.
Water Access - Roof Catchment for rainwater harvesting and water collection for alternative source of water.
Water Storage - Ferro Cement Tanks for rainwater storage for dry season as well as supplying an alternative (and possibly safer) source of water. Ferro cement tanks can be made with simple molds made out of wire mesh and secured by chicken wire mesh, tie wire and gunny sacks.
Water Filtration – BioSand Filter is a modified slow sand water filter that uses sand and gravel as the mechanism to remove pathogens from water. It differs from a normal slow sand filter in that it is smaller (1’sq and 3’tall), can be used intermittently and the sand never needs to be replaced, so once installed it requires very little maintenance as well as nearly no ongoing costs. It is proven worldwide to remove 95-98% bacteria, 100% helminthes and parasites, 90-96% iron and manganese and up to 90% viruses. These are household point-of-use devices and can be replicated and sold to the community.
Water Pasteurization and Energy Conservation– Solar Ovens are used to harness the energy of the sun to cook food and pasteurize water. Select students will learn to make and use Solar CooKits out of cardboard and reflective paper. These are simple solar ovens that can be made locally and sold to the community.
Water Testing - Introducing a revolutionary Portable Microbiology Lab that can be used to test water. There's no need for expensive equipment and anyone can use it, removing the mysticism of water testing.
Action 1: Build a roof catchment system and ferro cement storage tank at the school with the assistance of AOSCI volunteers as well as select students. This will serve as an intro to rainwater harvesting techniques as well as the skills to build the systems for those select students. In the following months ASD will return to assist those students to replicate the Rainwater system at their farm.
Action 2: Offer a BioSand Filter Training and assist the organization to build and install 20 filters throughout the city in strategic market locations to be maintained by select girls as part of AOSCI’s Rural Girls Clubs. Because the BSF will be a relatively new technology to introduce to the community, ASD will assist AOSCI to come up with a marketing strategy integrating WASH Education to create demand for the water treatment options in the community.
Action 3: Transfer CooKit Solar Oven Construction Technology to introduce energy and money saving techniques for cooking as well as efficient water treatment.
Action 4: ASD will be offering WASH Education throughout the training to encourage a holistic perspective on how water, sanitation and hygiene are interdependent and how to create local strategies to address them all as a whole as opposed to compartmentalizing them.
Action 5: Introduction of Portable Microbiology Lab for field water testing. These new groundbreaking water tests require no expensive equipment and can be easily introduced and used by anyone.

Phases:

Phase 1: WASH Education and Technology Transfer from ASD: 1 month
Phase 2: AOSCI Implements
Phase 3: Follow up and Mentoring to assess structure and revisit strategy for continued growth

Community Organization:

AOSCI has created a number of rural girls clubs, besides its safety school preschoolers. The local community supports the AOSCI programs as they see their children graduating as “scouts” within the community – now able to teach about proper road safety, water safety, fire safety, etc. Well safety has been a focus in the past at TIOS in respect to how children should be protected around wells and the importance of keeping the well covered, not only to protect the children, but to keep the water clean as well for everyone’s use. AOSCI works hands- on with the local regulos (or tribal chiefs) as well as the governmental chiefs (Secretary’s of the Bairros). With their assistance, children and participants are gathered who are in the most need for training assistance from our center. In the case of our “train to gain” farm it is a center where young women can learn better farming practices. The food from the farm is distributed to the other orphan projects and the livestock (chicken’s/goats, etc.) are often distributed in a pay-it-forward loan program targeted to grandmother’s with grandchildren.
Although, FIPAG (from the Dutch government) has been contracted to bring water to the Chimoio communities, actual sanitation and water safety courses have not been implemented on large scale. In this manner, other NGO’s such as OSEO, World Vision and a number of community based churches have requesting this training from AIDS orphans Skills Centers for the past year as the next step to our well safety program. Water filters and training will be placed outside of the AOSCI centers as well in strategic locations such as city parks and markets for everyone to get access to safe water. This will be done under the watchful eye of our girls clubs who will do the maintenance and cleaning of these water filters bringing clean and safe water to the community.

Government Interaction:

Ancillary activities:

WASH Education and Strategies - Throughout the initial month-long technology transfer and business and organizational development trainings, ASD will be introducing WASH education introducing water technologies as one of the strategies to alleviate the local water issues.
Capacity Building – This project will build the capacity of orphaned youth to become local water educators as well as suppliers of appropriate water technologies to address the needs of the community.
Livelihood and income-generation – With the new skills and technologies that the students will learn, it will support the sustainability of the center and create a livelihood for the students.
Marketing – ASD will assist the organization to use marketing strategies through water awareness and water testing to create demand in the community for the technologies offered by the AOSCI. The additional water filters will be placed strategically through out the city and the province with the ASD emblem and AOSCI emblems poured into the cement for people to know where to come for further training and assistance in preparation of safe water.

Other Issues:

AIDS Orphans Skills Centers focuses completely on survival skills training for children. The products that AOSCI makes are always geared towards making educational and wellness materials. For example our products currently include anti-bacterial and anti-itch soaps and insect repellent candles. Also, we make anatomical dolls which are having a huge impact on HIV awareness and training. Along with our safety schools we teach family law, rights and self defense to teenage girls. This project of being able to bring an income generating activity to older orphan girls who are the head of their household while bringing clean and safe water to the community is an absolute compliment to the existing curriculum at AOSCI. Nationally, and even internationally, AOSCI is becoming recognized for its impact in safety and awareness, through its innovative training programs and products. Also, AOSCI is being recognized for its emphasis on sustainable systems for youth and communities – last year the CdCAO (Creativity Center for the Support of Orphans) generated 25% of its operational cost in-country through training and programs to make the center sustainable and set an example for the children of achieving your goals through sustainable projects and management of inventory, expenses and incomes.
The first choice of participants in income generating activities is always older orphan girls who are supporting younger members of their household. These are chosen based on their home-necessity as well as the number of family members they are supporting (normally about 7 people per household).