Power and empowerment: fostering effective collaboration in meeting the needs of orphans and vulnerable children
Wallis, A.; Dukay, V.; Mellins, C.
Global Public Health 5(5): 509-522
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 1744-1692 PMID: 19626505 DOI: 10.1080/17441690903120912Document Number: 206768
In sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS has resulted in a rapidly growing population of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). These OVC have strained the traditional safety net provided by extended families to its breaking point. Increasingly, community-based initiatives are emerging to fill the gap. However, relatively little is known about these efforts and their effectiveness. This article looks at one such initiative in rural Tanzania, and explores the relationship between local communities that seek to empower themselves to address the needs of their OVC and external organisations that have the resources and power to help them. This case study describes the successful effort of a community to build a Centre housing its orphans, and the subsequent closure of that Centre despite its evident success, because of a conflict between internal and external interests. This case study is used as the basis of a broader discussion on how those with power, and communities seeking empowerment, are complexly intertwined.