United States and Zambia Train Community Groups, Launch Guidelines to Protect Vulnerable Families

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The U.S. government, in partnership with the Ministry of Community Development and Social Services (MCDSS) and UNICEF trained over 1,400 community groups in new community case management guidelines to provide standardized support to vulnerable children.

The MCDSS Minister Doreen Sefuke Mwemba launched the new guidelines at a February 28 event.  These new guidelines outline the principles, roles and responsibilities, and processes for caregivers to properly care for vulnerable children and adolescents.  They include standardized forms that trained case workers can use to assess needs and develop a plan for delivery of services in the areas of HIV detection and treatment, health, and social protection.

Previously, community case workers lacked standardized tools to identify children in need, manage children who required support, and design targeted support for them.  To address these gaps, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) ACHIEVE project provided technical support to MCDSS to update the community case management guidelines and create uniform information-gathering tools that are more HIV- and nutrition-sensitive.  USAID and MCDSS also enhanced supervision and mentorship tools so that district MCDSS staff can support case workers at the community level.

USAID also partnered with MCDSS to train over 1,400 national, provincial, district, and community members to identify people in need and provide services to vulnerable families.  Today, with these standardized tools and trained case workers, children, adolescents, and their families in need of social protection, health care, and HIV services will be well supported.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy in Zambia.