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Organization: Ogra Foundation

Minimum Time Commitment: 2 Weeks

The Ogra Foundation was initiated, after a participatory needs assessment, to explore the situation and needs of people living and affected by HIV and AIDS in Miwani and Nyando divisions of Nyando District in the late 1990s. As a small Youth Self Help Group, it started by offering support to 24 orphans aged between 2 - 9 years with the aim of providing food, school fees, uniforms and shelter (identifying and linking orphans to foster parents).

The Ogra Foundation opened an office in Ombeyi in 1998 to facilitate effective and efficient coordination of the program activities. The numbers of orphans grew from 24 to 700 by the end of 2001. When it emerged that most of the orphans and their foster parents were infected with the HIV, the foundation took up the challenge to offer medication by hiring a clinical officer specialized in home based care. This initiative presented a much bigger challenge to Ogra which had no reliable resources to handle the growing demand. Since 1998 Ogra Foundation has been working in collaboration with local and international partners in areas of HIV and AIDS, education, poverty eradication and economic empowerment.

Service Opportunities:

As a service traveler with the Ogra Foundation you would participate in health, education and poverty eradication projects including, but not limited, to the following:

• Health: spend time with the community health workers visiting people living with AIDS and supported by Ogra. Work at the outreach and village clinics.
• Education: teach and work with orphans at the orphan feeding centers, work with the peer educators to teach prevention messages and work in schools.
• Poverty eradication: work with widows supported by Ogra in kitchen gardens and income generating activities. Build schools and hospitals and help set up small businesses for widows and youth.