Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Preparing for Home Visits: Food Security and OVC

In this activity, you will:

 Discuss how home visitors can address issues of food security for OVC with

caregivers and other community stakeholders

Facilitator’s notes:

In this activity, participants will explore the ways that home visitors can address OVC food security

with caregivers and community stakeholders:

Activity 4

1 Home visitors need to assess each household in relation to OVC food security,

for example:

• What is the HIV/AIDS burden on the household?


• What are the food production patterns in the community and in the households
  with OVC (types, quantities and seasonality of foods)?


• Do they have access to health, social and financial services?


• Who mainly does the work in the household?


• How is the available food used (prepared, preserved, stored, bought and sold)?


• Food consumption patterns (number and times of meals, distribution of meals among
  household members, and social cultural factors).


• Coping mechanisms for food insecurity (food for work, food aid or migration)


• Availability of food (ability to produce and purchase, donations, diversity of foods
  available and amount of food).


• Accessibility – does every member of the household get enough food in terms
  of quantity and variety?


• How are household constraints and challenges met in adopting recommended practices?

2 Based on their assessment, home visitors can support households with OVC

to implement effective and sustainable food security strategies by:

• Encouraging households to improve food security by growing a variety of foods and
  rearing animals, such as chickens and rabbits.


• Getting information from local government and agricultural services on how to
  improve agricultural productivity using new crop breeds and new technologies to
  reduce labour requirements.


• Encouraging families to start income generating activities to enable the families to
  remain financially secure and conserve family integrity. Households may link up with
  micro-finance institutions to support production.


• Encouraging households to distribute food according to the different nutritional needs
  of family members.


• Giving households information on basic nutrition and the nutritional needs of children
  and those who are ill.

(^220) Unit 2, Module 3 Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children