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Overview
As part of its mission of encouraging collaboration and learning in the area of HIV/AIDS, HIVAN sponsors a Job Shadow programme between persons in KwaZulu-Natal involved in HIV/AIDS-related fields and partners elsewhere in South Africa and on the African continent. The goal is to develop skills, capacity and sharing of knowledge through this reciprocal exchange. By sponsoring such exchanges, HIVAN hopes to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships between individuals and organisations engaged in similar fields of work.

The job shadow process
Two individuals work together on an application to HIVAN?s Job Shadow Committee, on behalf of their organizations. If the application is successful, one partner then visits the other partner and they work alongside each other for two weeks. Later, the process is reversed. HIVAN funds the exchange.

Eligibility
The programme is limited to participants who live and work in Africa. Exceptions will be considered only under exceptional circumstances. Each partnership must involve a Job Shadow candidate who is resident in KwaZulu-Natal.

Funding
HIVAN provides funding for:

• Travel costs
• Basic health insurance
• A small subsistence allowance for each partner

Please refer to budget template below:

Key - X indicates the organisation responsible for payment of costs in each instance.

Duration
The expected duration of each visit is two weeks; that is, each partner visits the other for a two-week period. Depending on the circumstances, HIVAN will consider proposals for exchanges of up to four weeks in duration.

Application process
The partners should submit applications jointly. HIVAN can assist (where necessary) by suggesting suitable partners to potential job shadow participants. Joint proposals should include the following:

• A motivation for the exchange, focusing on the expected benefits and outcomes to each partner and his or her organisation.
• An outline of planned activities during the visit of each partner.
• Curriculum Vitae of each partner.
• Job description of each partner.
• Budget statements: a template of a suitable projected budget is included below.
• Letters of support from the management of both organisations.

Applications should be submitted to HIVAN three months prior to the intended starting date of the exchange. Successful applications should be taken up within six months of notification, unless otherwise negotiated.

Participating organisations? responsibilities

• HIVAN acts solely as the sponsoring agency and takes no responsibility for the development of the partnership or the well-being of partners who are away from home. The personal and professional success of the partnership is entirely up to the partners themselves.
• It is expected that each partner will accommodate the other and take responsibility for local transport.
• The award is made to employers/organisations, not to individuals. Therefore, participating organisations are responsible for the administration of monies granted.
• HIVAN may assist peripherally with the process, but partner organisations are expected to attend to all principal arrangements. See budget schedule for clarity on funding for such activities. These arrangements include: accommodation and health insurance, travel bookings, valid passports and visas, and ensuring that health requirements such as vaccinations etc. are attended to.
• Each Job Shadow participant is expected to complete a full report to HIVAN on his/her job shadow experience. See Addendum A for template. In addition, participants are expected to contribute a short report (if possible, with photographs) for the HIVAN Website, outlining their experiences and personal reflections. This must be provided within one month of the job shadow visit.
• Where distance allows, visitors to KwaZulu-Natal are required to participate in a forum discussion with HIVAN associates and staff on the work they do in their home organisation and their Job Shadow experience. In this instance, HIVAN will finance the costs of their transport from their local host organisation, to be present at HIVAN for this workshop.

Job Shadow Reports
Each participant will need to write his/her own report. The purpose of these reports will be to highlight the benefits, learning and general experience of your visit to your partner organisation. It is suggested that you record your experiences from the beginning of your visit.

Ways to do this would include:

• Keep a journal or diary, recording you daily experiences. Keep up to date with entries at a regular time each day. Use a blank ?diary? book for this purpose
• Take photographs together with notes about their content and your experiences and memories.
• Keep detailed notes about the people you meet, what do they do? Short interviews will provide useful information.
• Draw diagrams that show how people work together and how the organisation is structured.

The content of Job Shadow Reports:

Below is a basic structure which you can adapt to fulfill your reporting needs:

Introduction

• Background to yourself and your organisation.
• Your job description.
• Details about your host organisation
• Your partners job description.

The Job Shadow visit

• Describe the projects and/or activities that you were involved in during your visit.
• What were the highlights for you?
• What activities were challenging to you and why?
• What did you gain from the experience?
• What new knowledge or skills did you gain from your visit?

Application/implementation of new learning

• How do you think your organisation and the quality of your work will benefit from your Job Shadow activities?
• How do you intent to implement your new knowledge/skills into your work and organisation?
• What challenges could be present when implementing new learning, work procedures or best practices in your organisation? How do you plan manage these challenges?

Recommendations to the host organisation

• How do you think your host organisation has benefited/will benefit from your visit?
• What recommendations would you like to suggest to the host partner/organisation.

Recommendations to the Job Shadow Programme

• If you were to recommend the Job Shadow experience what would your highlight as the most important learning and gains from participating?
• What recommendations would give to potential Job Shadow participants?
• Do you have any suggestions for improvement in the overall Job Shadow concept?

Deadline
There is no deadline for applications, as the HIVAN Job Shadow Selection Committee sits on a regular basis and will accept applications at any time. However, applications should be submitted to HIVAN three months prior to the intended commencement date, to allow HIVAN time for adequate assessment, modification and planning of the proposed experience. Successful applications should be taken up within six months of notification, unless otherwise negotiated.

Enquiries
Bren Brophy
HIVAN (Centre for HIV and AIDS Networking)
University of KwaZulu Natal , Public Affairs Annex
232 King George V Avenue , Durban 4041
Tel: +27 (0)31 260 3334
Fax: +27 (0)31 260 2013
Cell: 083 673 456 9
Email: [email protected]

Michael Manana - HIVAN Job Shadow Programme Participant - 2004

Jill Kruger, Deputy Director, Social and Behavioural Sciences - HIVAN and Michael Manana, HIVAN Job Shadow Participant

As part of its mission of facilitating co-operation and learning in the area of HIV/AIDS, HIVAN sponsors a Job Shadow Programme between KZN workers in HIV/AIDS-related fields and partners elsewhere in South Africa and on the African continent. The purpose of the Programme is to permit opportunities for sharing of experience and expertise by workers in HIV/AIDS-related fields who believe they can gain from close interaction with one another. By sponsoring such exchanges, HIVAN hopes to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships between the individuals and organisations involved.

In March 2004, HIVAN sponsored a Job Shadow visit to Thandanani in Pietermaritzburg, from Mr Michael Manana, Co-ordinator of the Centre for Children in Need in Uganda. Mr Manana's visit was co-ordinated at Thandanani by Mr Johannes Adams and it coincided with the early training and research phase of a Mellon project: "Seeking Children's Truths" - an investigation into the specific developmental vulnerabilities and coping strengths of children living in child-headed households compared to those living in adult-headed households in poor communities in the greater Pietermaritzburg metropolitan area.

Report on visit to South Africa (March 2004) - Michael Manana:

My name is Michael Manana. I live in Sironkho, Uganda. It is a strong farming area. I obtained my Diploma in Agricultural Economics and a Certificate in German as a Foreign Language. Then, after other positions in industry, I served as an Administrative Assistant with the North-South Commission in Ellwangen, Germany, from 1988-1990 and I was attached to Unicef-OLS-Operation Life Line-SUDAN as an Associate Researcher for the Food Security Program in 1993-1996.

I saw many children in my district left on their own when adult caretakers died of AIDS. I thought I should no longer seek material gain but should work to help the children. In 1993 I co-founded the Centre for Children in Need (CCN) in Sironkho District, Mbala, Uganda and I have been the Co-ordinator there ever since.

In 1999 I also became the co-ordinator for a regional youth lobby on Environmental and Habitat issues and I retain this role until 2005. I have made a sincere effort to learn about HIV/AIDS issues in regard to children on the African continent and since 1999 have been a Senior Associate and Co-ordinator of AYH (Alliance for Youth) for UNHABITAT.

In May 2003 I met Jill Kruger, the Deputy Director of HIVAN, during the 19th session of UNHABITAT Governing Council iInformal youth consultations in Nairobi. We discussed projects for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Later HIVAN invited me to visit South Africa through its Job Shadow programme so that I could share my experience with others doing the same work and also see if I could take home something new. I spent two weeks in South Africa from 4-17 March 2003.

I proposed a Mission for my visit to South Africa:

A partnership in development and information exchange that will contribute to dialogue in public policy.

I believe that this partnership was set up between CCN, HIVAN and Thandanani through my visit. I was able to get a platform in order to contribute to the scaling up of services through participating in the research project that was in process in Thandanani at the time and funded through HIVAN. The project is "Seeking Children's Truths" and it offered me a first-hand experience of the inherent problems that child headed households in South Africa face in accessing basic services. This being the mission of our exchange.

It is a strategic principle in work with children in child headed households that there should be reponsiveness to, and demand-driven serving of, the needs of these children. To me it became clear that in relation to the description by the children, the social system seems to be fragmented and non-comprehensive as they are often hungry. Many of them have difficulties in accessing school grants. These children would welcome and benefit from a range of other possibilities like free books, uniforms etc.

The lessons I learned in South Africa that will make my work more productive and insightful in Uganda are: Firstly, I discovered lots of children's resilience, their strengths, factors that as an organisation, we had never taken into account. Secondly, at the level of adults and policy makers this insight will now enable us to develop programs that include children to good effect The South African experience showed me the value of engaging children as partners and showed me how insight arises from observing how they deal with the shortcomings of the social security system. Thirdly, I learnt how valuable it is to add observation to survey data because things are not always what people tell you as a researcher.

I believe that if there is continued interaction between Thandanani, CCN and HIVAN, it might be possible to develop a strong, joint voice on public policy - as an envisaged overall objective. This will support a regional approach that will enable a policy development process to ensure that the voices of children are heard and taken into account especially in relation to the short -comings of country social systems vis-a-vis health, poverty, education and their very survival.

Thandanani and HIVAN will be welcome to visit CNN in Uganda. I think they will benefit from the visit. They will find it to be a source of constructive criticism and challenge - since in Uganda we have formed a special constitutional office for the protection of children: the CHILDREN'S OMUBUSMAN. Thandanani and HIVAN will both draw from this experience.

Presentation to HIVAN on "Seeking Children's Truth" - Report Back on Research and Training during HIVAN Job Shadow Programme

1. Introduction: HIV/AIDS and children in Uganda

Uganda has about 24 million people and half of them (51%) are under 14 years old. There are about the same number of males and females. At least one-quarter of Ugandan households provide for the needs of one or more orphans.

In Uganda you will find that

• 22% of households are CHH (child-headed households)
• 15% of all children under 15 years old are orphans, that amounted to 1,731,000 children, in 2001

The HIV infection rate in Uganda has dropped. There was a 30% infection rate in 2001 but by 2003, it was 6%. The main reason for this reduction was strong political commitment that resulted in three forms of action:

• Programmes at district/local government levels
• Multi-sectoral strategy approach
• Strong civil society engagement

2. Centre for Children in Need (CCN)

To be relevant at a district level, all NGOs have to be registered and to have permission for funding from the National AIDS Control Council.

The magnitude of HIV/AIDS and its impact in the Sironkho District where I live, can be established from hospital bed occupancy: About 50% of patients are HIV-positive and there has been an increase in the rate of tuberculosis infection, according to WHO data.

The Center for Children in Need was set up to offer direct assistance to 230 of the neediest orphans in the Sironkho District. Not all of the children are of school-going age but this year, 83 children are registered for primary school and 40 more are waiting to be registered.

The CCN has a basic philosophy - that children grow best if they are kept within communities of origin and are not relocated to institutions. In their own communities they

• have sense of belonging and acceptance;
• have responsibilities.
• Orphanages are a Western concept; they are not African.

CCN's main goal is to ensure that the children form and maintain behaviours that keep them from risk. Another goal is to ensure their personal growth and enrichment through various programmes:

• AIDS prevention / Communications / Edutainment / Games for Life / Youth-friendly Services (which seem to be lacking in South Africa).

Once every 3 months there are meetings of Guardians of the children to give feedback and for training. About two-thirds of the Guardians are women but a third are men. They are important role models. Guardians attend to practical matters such as certificates, absence from school forms when children are sick, school bursaries, and so on. They also give emotional support, counselling and growth supervision.

The way I measure what I accomplish in CCN is easy: I have the simplest test, I am always satisfied with the best.

3. My observations during my time of Job Shadow at Thandanani

My Job Shadow time at Thandanani coincided with the training of facilitators for participatory child research there and with the start of the research. The training and lead in research was by Clacherty researchers, through HIVAN.

On the first weekend there was a workshop with about 10 children from CHH (child-headed households), run by Clacherty facilitators, for Thandanani staff members and myself. No volunteers were present.

The facilitators from Clacherty were good:

• The workshop was well-timed
• General organisation to mobilise the work was good
• The facilitators carried through the understanding of child participation well - knew what they were doing

What I learnt during workshop that was significant: - How interviewing is important and how to record interviews; how when you do home visits you find that information varies from what you have been told.

During the week I joined the research team to do field research. In the field I made the contribution on how to quantify things because we wanted to find out how far the grant will stretch that a child receives. "How much income do you get?" and "How do you spend it?" does not always give a good picture; sometimes you need to be more exact about what the children use money for on a daily basis.

I found out that in South Africa it is often children's own relatives who foster them and I also found out that relatives abuse children's property and inheritance rights.
This also sometimes happens in Uganda and other African countries. Sometimes only one child in a family has been helped to get a grant and we do not do this in Uganda. We help them all at the same time. There is a big problem for children to get birth certificates and identity documents so that they can get grants.

During the week I fitted in visits to CINDI and St Mary's Church & Holy Trinity Church. At all of these places I made good contacts.

I was very impressed by the commitment of the volunteers at the Volunteers Workshop on Children's Rights but I was surprised because there was only one man and 24 women. More men in Uganda work with children. The volunteers help children to access certificates and apply for grants and are very enthusiastic and even want to study further.

On my second and last weekend at Thandanani there was a Saturday workshop with a small number of children from CHH. No volunteers were present.