“Strong performer: the highest category:” such was the rating given this September to AVSI in Cote d’Ivoire by the USAID/ PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) evaluation team. The positive performance review validated the work of AVSI, its 8 subpartners and other local partners to benefit orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), in the program funded by PEPFAR, USAID, and AVSI cost-share which began in 2008. The Cote d’Ivoire project, which has reached over 11,500 eligible children, supported 3,500 families and helped 3,800 children attend school in the sprawling urban areas of Abidjan and Bouake’, was a successful scaling up of what has been accomplished since 2004 in AVSI OVC projects in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Feedback on the review noted that AVSI often surpassed the target number of children and adults reached through health referrals, economic strengthening, and other activities, and thanked AVSI for its “hard work and passion, which are making a real difference in the lives of children, families, and communities as AVSI lives up to its promise to ‘lead by example.’”

Also noted was the dedication of AVSI and its partners who continued their work in the period of conflict after the elections in November 2010, which resulted in violence and displacements in April 2011 and the following months.

The focus of the work in Cote d’Ivoire is to help OVCs by strengthening their family and the wider community. Community building is accomplished within the various interventions in education, social support and promotion of urban horticulture, as is documented in PEPFAR CI’s July PEPtalk newsletter: “If there’s a silver lining to a horrific crisis, it may be that, forced to stay home and to deal with shortages, families who barely knew one another developed remarkable mutual support systems. Families supported by AVSI subpartner AJECI, and even AVSI staff families, assisted those who needed food, medications, or a helping hand. Since the crisis, these families have maintained their neighborly connections and continue to support one another by sharing experiences and organizing communal meals.”

Read more:

July 2011 PEPtalk PEPFAR Cote d’Ivoire newsletter