Bayessa's NLK initiative

NLK’s programme’s support has been resurrecting the lives and fostering the resilience of the people and communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, COVID-19 among especially women, people living with HIV and AIDS, NLK’s programme’s support has been resurrecting the lives and fostering the resilience of the people and communities that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, especially women, people living with HIV and AIDS, children orphaned by AIDS, and their grandmothers. These programme beneficiaries in the target programme communities provide education and counseling about HIV prevention; care and treatment; distribute food, medication and other necessities; reach into the homes of the sick and vulnerable with home-based care; help children orphaned by AIDS gain access to education and cope with their grief; and support grandmothers, who are overwhelmingly the caregivers for their orphaned children.

NLK has always understood that what is fundamentally at stake in the response to the HIV&AIDS pandemic is “resilience”: people’s ability to cope with crisis, to regroup and rebuild, and to continue on with their lives. We are enabling immediate investments in service delivery to translate, over time, into more substantial, longer terms benefits for people and their communities. Immediate needs are met through NLK’s support to help cope with crisis: entry into treatment, entry into school, adequate nutrition, removal from violent situations, adequate housing, and counseling and therapy. Once those needs are met, further investment is made to help individuals and communities regroup and rebuild, in areas such as income generation, medical care, and positive living.

And particular attention is paid to psychological and emotional well-being, and the bonds that connect people – be they nurturing relationships within families, social networks created through child, youth, and elderly groups, or community-based organizations. With this comprehensive support, stability begins to return over time. Children stay in school, positive people stay on treatment, families are functioning, and small but reliable incomes are being produced. And, ultimately, there are signs that people have recuperated to the extent that they have regained their self-determination and can take active control over their own lives – children graduate from school and start working, women become community leaders, groups advocate with their governments to claim their rights.