Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Supporting Home Visitors

The CCC and mobiliser need to find ways to support home visitors in their important and challenging
work. This support may take the following forms:
 Fostering mutual emotional and spiritual support among caregivers through facilitating support
groups in which home visitors can share experiences, work through difficulties they are
encountering, and receive empathy and care from other group members.

 Organising community exchanges to give home visitors and other CCC members the opportunity

to learn from other communities’ efforts, to share successful practices, to motivate each other

and to develop joint action plans, thus scaling up a regional OVC response. Community exchanges

are a positive way to affirm the work that is already being done and encourage and challenge

communities to do more, especially if the process is enhanced by the inclusion of vulnerable

children and others testifying to the care and support they are receiving from within their

community.

There is debate as to whether or not to provide other support, such as material or financial incentives,
to home visitors. There are concerns that providing material support (such as hats or food) will draw
people to be involved out of a desire for personal gain rather than genuine concern for children and
families. Such incentives may also undermine community ownership and the sustainability of these
initiatives – when incentives end, assistance to the children might also end.

The CCC, in consultation with the community, could recommend incentives that they believe are
appropriate and sustainable. The community may recommend ways to publicly recognise, appreciate
and encourage caregivers. For example, in some areas community members assist home visitors with
household chores to help free their time for OVC care and support. Alternatively, home visitors could
be provided with tools that enable them to provide care to OVC more effectively, for example:
 Bicycles that enable them to visit children easily
 Basic palliative healthcare kits to treat ill children and adults
 Raincoats, umbrellas and rain boots
 Carrier bags for their handbook and records.

STAGE 9

Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children Unit 1, Module 1^17