OSSA

31/01/13

Teddy and I have been paired with another pair of volunteers, Alexandra and Yewel for our placement. We will be volunteering with the Organisation of Social Service for Aids (OSSA) in the Hawassa office. Teddy is particularly pleased about this as it is an area he has a huge interest in.

So, what will we be doing? At the moment, our plan is very vague, I think this will be the sort of placement that will improve as we get into the swing of things. We have a few key things that we will be involved with;

Peer education, particularly prevention of mother to child transfer (PMTCT). We will facilitate this through girls groups which are already in place, raising awareness and involving them in the community.

Working alongside volunteer counsellors in the community, visiting the homes of beneficiaries of the charities and providing support and materials where needed.

Creating case stories for beneficiaries of the charities, i.e. a profile, which are then sent to head office and they are used to generate funding for the beneficiaries needs.

SWAT analysis of the OSSA Hawassa branch and producing reports on findings and resolutions.

Producing and carrying out a baseline survey for the benefit of the 3 years of funding being received from CORDAid.

Office support, improving administrative function and assisting with informative document production.

All of the above sounds very interesting, I cannot wait to get stuck in. Luckily for me the office is only 10 minute walk from my host home. We will work Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm, with lunch from 12pm -1:30pm. The only exception being Friday, as we have VSO team meetings so we will only have a half day on placement. I learnt that the girls groups mentioned above are on Saturdays so potentially we will ‘work’ then also.

Before I go, I will leave you with some abbreviations I have learned, which are used in the context of HIV/Aids, see how many you know;

OVC, PMTCT, PLWHA, CORDAid, ART, HAART

Leave your comments below on your solutions for the abbreviations above!

Kx