Civil society groups to get grants

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday March 19, 2015 19:44

 

Botswana Family Welfare Association, Nkaikela Youth Group, Silence Kills Support Groups and BONELA will sign for the grant amounting to P7 million, which will be divided amongst the organisations.

These funds will be used to support the implementation of targetted HIV Preventions interventions for key populations in Gaborone, Maun, Francistown and Selebi-Phikwe during the 2015.

According to the event coordinator, Binagwa Benjamin, MSH share of funds is from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

He says BLC is a five year project from 2010 to 2012, which contributes to the USAID Regional HIV/AIDS Programme (RHAP) goal of strengthening the overall sustainability, quality and reach of HIV and AIDS interventions in the region particularly in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland to implement policies and health services for those infected with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

In Botswana, BLC focuses on two main areas which are, strengthening HIV prevention and treatment services targetting populations at the greatest risk of acquiring HIV infection, and supporting the Gender Affairs Department of the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to develop standard operating procedures for government and ministries working on Gender Based Violence (GBV) interventions to improve service delivery to victims and survivors of GBV, he says.

“The aim of the partnership between BLC and civil society organisations is to strengthen CSO capacities to enable effective reduction of new HIV infections in Botswana by designing and implementing evidence-informed and sustainable interventions,” he says.

The signing ceremony will be held on March 26, 2015 at MSH premises.