Community engagement and motivation through volunteering
Kubatsirana is a Christian ecumenical association founded in 1995. Based in Chimoio, Mozambique, Kubatsirana means, “helping each other” in the local dialect. Kubatsirana employs holistic approaches to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among vulnerable populations including children, youth and women. The organisation specifically aims to engage with local communities to reduce the socio-economic impact of HIV and AIDS.
Kubatsirana works with volunteers in several of their programmes and many of these are facilitating home-based care for people living with HIV and AIDS. In April 2009, there was a total of 231 men and 504 women engaged in volunteering with Kubatsirana – all from the local community.
Training the volunteers
Volunteers are mobilised through their churches and are motivated to respond to the HIV and AIDS epidemic, particularly by supporting those in their communities who are both infected and affected. The volunteers are trained by a government licensed home-based care trainer for a total of 12 days, before they can engage in any support work.
The training covers three key areas:
- the general context about HIV and AIDS
- primary health care
- emotional support.
Engaging the community
Christian values are at the core of Kubatsirana and impact on both the motivation of the volunteers and the approach to their work. Various management initiatives are used by Kubatsirana to retain their volunteers. This includes monthly allowances (in line with national guidelines), uniforms, t-shirts and kapanas [grilled beef snack], first aid kits, ongoing support meetings and refresher trainings – to mention just a few. This supports the ongoing engagement of the communities through retaining volunteers and motivating new recruits to their programmes – so much so that they now have more people wanting to volunteer than they can currently cope with!
Involving young people
Kubatsirana organises various sporting events also to bring in different members of the local community and to help fight stigma and discrimination against those living with HIV and AIDS. A female football team is a particularly novel example of bringing in young women and they also organise family sports days and activities for orphans and vulnerable children.
Another key aspect of Kubatsirana community engagement is through their gardens where they grow food for clients and also give the local community advice on nutrition. Kubatsirana are fortunately also able to grow medicinal plants to help those living with HIV and AIDS. All of these initiatives ensure that Kubatsirana is able to engage with the local community in their commitment to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS.
