STAO PROGRAMS

Community Placement of Orphaned Children
As we identify children that have lost their parents, we trace the next of kin to try and place them there, so as to keep that unique semblance of familial attachment going. In the absence of relatives, we identify families with the capacity to absorb one or two extra children and then place them there. These families are expected to treat the orphans as though they are their own children, by providing them with whatever their families would: food, shelter, medical care, education, clothing, but above all, love without peripheral qualifications. S.T.A.O. now visits these homes twice every month to supervise and ascertain compliance to S.T.A.O.’s child placement standards.

Agape Children’s Home
In the absence of a suitable home for orphaned and vulnerable children, STAO provides a home to care for them as they can meet that need. Children’s needs are complex and require physical, social, developmental, and spiritual care to raise them with a sense of self confidence and self worth. Agape Children’s Home currently serves sixty-seven children.

Widows Economic Empowerment Projects
 It is women who assume much of the responsibility for orphaned children ultimately. The income generating capacity of these households is profoundly constrained by numerous dependent children; lack of opportunity to accumulate productive resources like cattle, goats, and farming implements; and difficulty in gaining access to credit. They are further constrained by limited education and training which limits their employability.  STAO has countered this trend by organizing widows in groups, and then offering them training in different skill sets such as tailoring, crafts, agriculture and farming. The women work on skills of their own choice and demonstrable ability for sustainability. STAO raises support for sewing machines for groups of four widows, supplies for crafts, and livestock.

Support Care Groups
Our activities include widows groups and households affected by HIV/AIDS. We have 40 active grass root inter-denominational community based groups, called Support Care Groups (SCG’s). Each of these groups has a leader, treasurer and secretary.

Community Based Health Education
Throughout Africa, thousands of community-based organizations are   addressing the needs of children and families made vulnerable by        HIV/AIDS. These organizations are strengthening the traditional safety net of the extended family through a range of vital programs and services. Often operating with minimal funding and with a great deal of volunteer support, community based Social Care Groups are the frontline response to the needs of children affected by AIDS. Very few funds are reaching this grassroots level.

We walk down to the people, deep in the remotest of villages, and teach the basics; what HIV/AIDS is, what it is not, ways and means of protection from infection, and how to treat and care for the victims without discrimination. In vicinities where there is electricity we show videos about HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and other sexually transmitted diseases. At times, when we deem it practicable, we mobilize a parish, using the local political leadership of the area, in concert with STAO’s own registered community based volunteers as a mass approach.

We also use the home-to-home approach where we reach out to those who cannot make it to the collecting centers for one reason or the other. This is where we also reach out to the chronically ill, assess the vulnerability rate of the children and take appropriate corrective measures, commensurate with our capacity.  We administer off the shelf medication, advise on when and where to visit professional medical care, and offer basic   necessities like maize flour, beans, salt, soap, paraffin and sugar. We also provide condoms through this approach, as we realized that the cost of a 3 condom pack in the local shops is the equivalent of almost 2 or 3 meals in this part of the country.

Education for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children
Education is such a vital ingredient of a country’s development, as it is known to furnish the tools with which children and young people carve out their lives, and is a lifelong source of comfort, renewal and strength. 

While Uganda currently has a free primary education system, many barriers stand in the way of children accessing a school, which has greatly   increased the overall dropout rate. The implicit costs of building fees, feeding, uniforms, books and pens and other scholastic materials are alone financially impossible for many families to provide. Added are the complications of AIDS and other health epidemics as children are required to stay home to care for their terminally ill relatives. Household resource bases experience shrinkage, as medical care, funeral costs, loss of work, and the like take their toll.

We at STAO realized that it was our duty to plug this gap in helping non-school going children access formal education through the provision of the stringent scholastic requirements necessary. To ease the burden of looking for the requisite materials necessary for schooling, we developed a primary school.

Agape Integrated School
We currently serve about 180 orphaned and vulnerable children who are either living at Agape Children’s home or children who come from our community that meet the qualifications as OVC. We run classes from kindergarten to year five of primary education. As we are able to meet the need, we intend to add a class as time progresses should resources for construction and sustainability of day-to-day activities become available.

Beyond Primary School
As a child progresses beyond primary school STAO pays OVC school fees at the middle and high school level in public school as our international partners and community members provide support.

Faith Community Center
STAO also has a church facility that serves the Mafubira community (over10,000 people) with a regular attendance of 300 members.