Learning Groups > Community Action
Communities and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic
Community responses form a vital link in the response to the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. Eager to reach more children, community-based organizations are growing, but often struggle to reach their goals due to lack of available resources or inappropriate and cumbersome grant application processes. More information is needed to better understand the work that is currently being done by community organizations in highly affected areas and how governments and other stakeholders can help these groups in their efforts.
Research Objectives of the Community Action Learning Group
The Community Action Learning Group sought to define how external organizations can best provide support for community responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. Some of the key research questions of this learning group include:
- How can external financial resources and technical support be most effectively channeled to strengthen community responses to children and families affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS?
- How can community groups best target cash transfers to strengthen household coping in the face of poverty and HIV/AIDS?
- How can policy and programming on children affected by HIV/AIDS be made more accountable to children and youth?
Learning Group Leadership
The Community Action Learning Group was led by two Co-Chairs:
- Geoff Foster, based in Harare, Zimbabwe, is a specialist paediatrician with the Government of Zimbabwe, a founder of the Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), and a board member of the Firelight Foundation.
- Madhu Deshmukh, based in Atlanta, United States, is director for HIV/AIDS at CARE USA. Deshmukh previously worked with grassroots organizations in India as well as the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO).
Research Findings
The Learning Group commissioned papers examining the issues impacting the community response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Geoff Foster
Geoff Foster took up his current appointment as specialist pediatrician with the government of Zimbabwe in 1985. Two years later, he founded Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), a faith-based, non-governmental organization and one of Africa’s first AIDS service organizations, which he currently chairs. In 1992, Dr. Foster designed the FOCUS programme, considered by UNAIDS as a model approach to community-based care for orphans. He conducted a six-country UNICEF/WCRP study on faith-based responses to orphans and vulnerable children, and a four-country SCF(UK) study, “Bottlenecks and Dripfeeds,” examining funding mechanisms for community-level responses for vulnerable children. He is co-editor of A Generation at Risk: The Global Impact of HIV/AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children (2005) and co-editor of the international journal Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies. In 2003, he was awarded an Order of the British Empire for services to HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Madhu Deshmukh
Madhu Deshmukh is a Deputy Director with the Policy Advocacy Unit at CARE USA. Previously, she was the Director for CARE USA’s HIV/AIDS Unit and directed activities including those related to economic development, sexual and reproductive health, and girls’ education. Before joining CARE, Ms. Deshmukh worked with UNAIDS in Geneva, and with grassroots organizations and the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) in India, as well as with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and UNDP. Ms. Deshmukh’s expertise ranges from designing HIV/AIDS interventions for populations at risk to strategy development, project management, and strengthening community-based networks and networks of people living with HIV, with specific emphasis on community empowerment, gender, and human rights.
