Year in Review 2021/22

One To One Children’s Fund A YEAR in REVIEW – 2021/22

Where the roads end, who goes the extra mile?

Our mentor mothers cover 3,100 SQUARE miles...

YOU

As the pandemic ran into a second year, the close relationships of One to One’s Mentor Mothers to the communities they serve came even more into focus. Our knowledge of the situation on the ground, combined with our logistical infrastructure, meant we were able to provide the support for 45,000 people to receive their COVID-19 vaccines.

We highlight in this report the role One to One plays in going the extra, last mile, reaching communities who live beyond the end of the tar (tarmacked) roads. These communities are, to a great extent, forgotten by the health and welfare systems of South Africa. But they are not forgotten by us, and with your help, we provide lifechanging and sometimes life-saving support. Our Enable project is a shining example of this, achieving the miraculous near zero transmission of HIV between mother and baby. Our mother and child nurturing care framework does not end here. This year has seen our early development playful parenting programme, Bright Start, and nutritional Garden Project starting to be integrated into our Enable model – all delivered by trained Mentor Mothers.

Bringing great energy and insight to our work on the ground in South Africa has been our new Executive Director for One to One Africa, Gqibelo Dandala, who we introduce on the facing page.

Our huge thanks to Gqibelo, the Mentor Mothers and all the team for their dedication, enthusiasm and ingenuity in overcoming formidable obstacles and going that extra mile.

But, most of all, thanks to you, for your unflinching and generous support. We couldn’t do any of this without you.

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

THANK

03 As the new Executive Director of One to One Africa, Gqibelo Dandala brings a passionate and practical approach to our work, informed by the unusual balance of her background in investment banking and her enthusiasm for development work.

Co-founder of the Future of the African Daughter (FOTAD), a development organisation that helps girls become impactful leaders, her work was recognised by Michelle Obama at the Young African Women Leaders Forum.

Gqibelo comes from the Eastern Cape, the area in which we primarily work, as she explains:

INTRODUCING GQIBELO DANDALA

“I am a descendant of rural people who studied their way out of poverty. I come from eDutyini, a rural village near the blink town of Mount Ayliff in the Alfred Nzo district municipality in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Despite being the home of two former presidents this province remains ravaged by poverty manifested in illiteracy, economic impoverishment, high unemployment and high birth rates.

“My ‘why’ is to ensure that we maintain the dignity and respect of our team within their homes and society at large. It is to ensure that the children we serve can achieve their developmental milestones by improving their health outcomes today. And it is to ensure that One to One continues to reach other Last Mile communities throughout South Africa, my South Africa, bringing hope and assistance to communities ‘too far from civilisation’ for anyone to know or to care. Well, I care, and One to One cares.”

IT WAS ABSOLUTE KISMET TO BE RECRUITED TO BE A PART OF ONE TO ONE AFRICA, AN ORGANISATION TRULY COMMITTED TO IMPROVING THE MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH OUTCOMES OF RURAL COMMUNITIES. WHAT I DIDN’T ANTICIPATE WAS THE EXTENT OF THIS COMMITMENT! ONE TO ONE LITERALLY SERVES LAST MILE RURAL COMMUNITIES.

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

REACHING THE LAST MILE

The abject poverty belies the strength and resilience of the women in these communities, ordinary women we have trained to become Mentor Mothers and who are effectively community health workers. The smiles on their faces don’t reflect the harsh realities of their daily work, walking many miles in harsh conditions to go door-to-door to each and every household in the village, bringing health education and advice to those households. Their bright green shirts have become bright beacons of hope within the communities.

On a recent visit, Gqibelo Dandala, Executive Director of One to One Africa, witnessed this first hand…

Last Mile communities are literally villages that are furthest from the main tar roads. These roads are a link to urbanisation, and by default resources, development and all that that represents. Conversely, the distance from the tar roads correlates with impoverishment; the greater the distance between a community and a tar road, the more severe the impoverishment.

With Last Mile communities, there are no services, no development, no employment, just about nothing.

We serve such Last Mile communities.

“We visited a household with a pregnant woman suffering from high blood pressure. She lived a walking distance from a medical clinic, yet our Mentor Mother had to walk many miles to her house every two days to closely monitor the high blood pressure. Upon seeing my confused expression, it was explained to me that the clinic had no doctor, the maternal nurse visited once or so per month and the clinic was often out of stock of necessary medication for the mother-to-be.

“So our Mentor Mother took it upon herself to visit and check on this client every two days instead. However, worried that this would in the long run impede on visits to other clients, the Mentor Mother decided to give this mother-to-be a blood pressure monitor, taught her how to use it and then called the mother-to-be daily to monitor the blood pressure. A simple solution to a potentially life-threatening situation.

“I’m in absolute awe of the responsiveness of our Mentor Mothers who go beyond the call of duty and their job descriptions to ensure the health of our clients. For them, it’s merely par for the course.

They provide pro-active solutions and promptly share those successes with the rest of the team at the monthly meetings, thereby ensuring constant improvement in our work which translates to improved health outcomes for our communities! I am proud and humbled to be a part of this team.”

Each mentor mother covers an area of up to

100 SQ

MILES

05 ITHEMBA One To One is delighted to be launching the iThemba Women’s Giving Circle, a philanthropic initiative for women across the world to support the empowerment and wellbeing of other women through harnessing their resources and networks. The UK Chapter of iThemba was hosted by One to One UK on International Women’s Day March 8th while the South African Chapter was launched on 30th March 2022 by One To One Africa during Human Rights Month. iThemba’s focus is on the work done by our incredible team of Mentor Mothers (community health workers) in the Eastern Cape villages of the Wild Coast, from whom we can learn so much about challenging community norms and

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Mobile clinic will help reach an additional

empowering local women. iThemba means ‘hope’, ‘trust’, and ‘faith’ in Xhosa, the local language of the Eastern Cape. It says everything about the community-led, peer support projects that iThemba is collaborating with on the ground.

In its inaugural year, the project iThemba has adopted is a mobile clinic to support and promote maternal health in villages, where medical facilities are inaccessible. The aim is to raise sufficient funds to purchase and operate the mobile clinic for at least 12 months, covering over 20 villages, reaching over 1,500 women and children per month to ensure that the first 1,000 days of children’s lives receive the medical care and attention they so richly deserve.

VILLAGES

1500 reaching over

women and children per month

ENABLE

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

During the pandemic, when you would expect all health interventions to be severely compromised, Enable has had greater success than ever. For example, in 2020, 0.004% of clients were unaware of their HIV status, compared to 76% in 2016. This is not a paradox.

It is because our Mentor Mothers are embedded in their communities – they are known and trusted and so people turned to them even more in the face of this unprecedented health crisis.

Since 2016, our Enable project, in the impoverished Eastern Cape of South Africa, has provided integrated, door-to-door, health interventions by trained Mentor Mothers, ensuring access and referrals to clinics and hospitals when needed.

Our Mentor Mothers, women from the community they serve, are recruited, trained and equipped to provide integrated, door-to-door, health interventions including antenatal and postnatal care, baby weighing, nutritional advice and seeds for kitchen gardens, referrals for immunisations, HIV support, deworming and vitamin tablets, and even help on birth registration and child support grants. The Mentor Mothers become a trusted presence in mothers’ homes, they make referrals and transport to clinics and hospitals when needed and advocate for them to receive medical care at those facilities.

This has shown great success, with the stand-out achievement being an almost 0% mother-to-child transmission of HIV rate after more than 2,000 births, despite the fact that nearly 24% of the mothers we work with are HIV+. Our Enable Mentor Mothers now have more than 4,000 clients, more than half of whom are children.

Now we are building on Enable’s great success.

Preparations are well underway to integrate the evidence-tested and researched Enable model into government health structures. This began with training government Community Health Workers (CHWs) in the Enable model, whilst providing supervision. We are now training and supervising 24 Government Community Health Workers covering 8 different clinics.

A new proprietary mobile technology tool, mHealth, has been introduced, using Android tablets for improved data collection and analysis. This also allows real-time feedback and support to Mentor Mothers, seamless referrals, a psychosocial wellbeing tool, as well as active data review at all levels and communication of important health messages that Mentor Mothers can share with clients. A year after introduction, the app is undergoing upgrades to remain relevant and appropriate to the challenges Mentor Mothers meet in the field.

The success of the next phase has the potential to transform healthcare delivery, in partnership with government, across South Africa’s rural areas, home to more than 20 million people.

PEOPLE TURNED TO MENTOR MOTHERS EVEN MORE IN THE FACE OF THIS UNPRECEDENTED HEALTH CRISIS.

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91% 94% 0.03% of children are fully immunised

of HIV+ women are adhering to ART

HOW WE HELPED VACCINATE 45,000 PEOPLE

mother to child HIV transmission

The COVID-19 pandemic has endangered the health of people worldwide. However, there is even greater risk to those who are immunocompromised, like those living with HIV in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. With this in mind, we were compelled to help in South Africa’s vaccination efforts, which have faced many challenges and obstacles in remote and rural portions of the country.

We led vaccination support for the over-60s community members in OR Tambo, which is largely made of up of rural communities with poor access to healthcare services and is widely considered the most povertystricken region in the Eastern province of South Africa.

The over-60s have little or no internet access for registration of COVID-19 vaccination and equally, cannot walk long distances to reach a vaccine centre.

We focused our resources on helping over-60s get to and from the vaccine centres. Many had been unable to get to the vaccination centres due to transport challenges, so we provided essential transportation for both legs of the journey. We followed the vaccination team as they rotated all 4 clinics in our catchment area: Canzibe Hospital, Pilani Clinic, Lwandile Clinic and Mgojweni Clinic.

We are delighted that we have helped over 45,000 people from across the region reach the vaccine centres!

Finally, our team organised community registration for those who didn’t have internet access. To enable operations to continue to run efficiently after our support ended, we also purchased and donated laptops and tablets to the vaccine sites so that they could continue with patient registration independently.

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

GROWING OUR NUTRITIONAL SUPPORT

Enable focuses on the development of every child from the womb through the critical first 1,000 days, which includes addressing the challenges for food security and nutrition at each stage of the child’s development.

Improving access to nutritious food is a priority so Mentor Mothers provide seedlings to clients to circumvent food insecurity and subsequent nutritional problems leading to stunting, low body weight, lowered immunity and micronutrient malnutrition. Seedlings provided are from our Garden Project, an intervention model designed to increase the availability of nutrition fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This project provides a direct and effective way to enhance food availability and strengthen the resilience of local food systems.

A good example is Ntomboxolo, whom we met when she was pregnant and mother to a baby in 2019. Needing food, her family received food parcels, but that was a temporary solution. The team further advised her on food nutrition guidance, and particularly the importance of eating a variety of vegetables, and provided vegetable seedlings. Ntomboxolo started her own vegetable garden which boasts a different yield each season. As a result of our support, she no longer feels a victim of hunger and food insecurity.

THE

GARDEN

PROJECT

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300+

Over 300 family members involved in Garden Project

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

Early childhood is a critical stage of development that forms the foundation for children’s future learning, relationships and wellbeing.

However, there is mounting evidence that 70% of children who live in HIV-affected households experience developmental delays and cognitive deficit, whether the children themselves are infected or not. This can mean that children are denied the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

In response, our Bright Start project, grounded in the academic research of Professor Lorraine Sherr of UCL/Royal Free Hospital, is bringing early childhood development support directly to vulnerable children and families affected by HIV. The pandemic meant we had to have a re-think.

With lockdown restrictions, and people’s (justifiable) reluctance to meeting in large groups, it made sense for us to think innovatively to still provide this impactful programme despite the circumstances.

Professor Lorraine Sherr training our Bright Start facilitators

In 2021, Bright Start was run exclusively on digital platforms, using WhatsApp, where around 80 caregivers were recruited, and participated in bi-weekly toy demonstration sessions. We are recruiting via WhatsApp, with sessions on alternating weeks for feedback, problem-shooting and discussion. This also opens up the opportunity for the future: by implementing Bright Start on a digital platform, it allows for more rapid scale and replication in new communities (a much more ‘portable’ approach). We also have 5 new Early Child Development (ECD) Mentor Mothers who together are reaching and training 1,000 caregivers in playful parenting, providing a series of structured learning toys for each household.

The impact of the Bright Start programme has led to its planned integration in the Enable programme in the Eastern Cape, where we are targeting 1,000 caregivers to provide play learning, as per Bright Start, and book learning from new partnerships with Mikhulu Trust and Nalibali, respectively. 24% of babies in the programme are born to HIV mothers and although they are thankfully born HIV-free, they remain more vulnerable to learning difficulties and will benefit enormously from this integration.

1,000 caregivers trained in playful parenting

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BETTER TOGETHER PROGRAMME EVERYONE WAS SO KEEN TO TALK, WE HAD TO KEEP TELLING THEM, IT’S TIME FOR US TO END NOW!

AIDS is one of the leading causes of adolescent deaths in Africa. Stigma, low diagnosis rates, and limited access to care contribute to poor adolescent health outcomes. For those receiving treatment, the outcomes are still poor and self stigma as well as peer stigma plays a big part in this. As adolescents start to manage their own care, things can fall apart.

Concerns about peer relationships and self-image often conflict with the demands of chronic illness and treatment regimens.

The Better Together programme, created by Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) in partnership with One to One Children’s Fund, is one of the first of its kind worldwide to identify the advantages of bringing young people with different conditions together, especially when it comes to overcoming the sense of isolation and stigma.

The Adolescent Clinicians Group (ACG) at the Hospital provides a weekly open-facilitated, structured group available to all adolescents who are living with a chronic illness. Groups are led by trained peer mentors or ACG clinicians. Topics addressed not only relate to caring for a chronic illness but also deal with sexual health, self-esteem and relationships.

Peer mentors have been selected from their clinics and provided with training and ongoing supervision. They play a “big brother/sister” role to individuals within their clinics, and also facilitate the weekly group. Since the COVID-19 crisis, they have increasingly used telephone or online support to stay in touch with adolescents.

During the initial lockdown, all face-to-face aspects of the programme were suspended. Over the last year, we have slowly managed to restore several core aspects of the programme:

2021

1. Introduction of a digital component – Digital engagement with young people via WhatsApp groups 2. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, parent and caregiver support groups not permitted 3. Some adolescent Support Group sessions took place in Groove Schuur Hospital

2022 PLANS 1. Expansion of our our digital reach – launch of the Digital Youth Network. Hosting Adolescent Health Programmes (AHP) on WhatsApp groups, Zoom meetings, social media campaigns and discussions on AH led by the adolescents in the programme.

2. A new site in the Western Cape 3. More support to be provided for parents and caregivers – taking the Better Together programme to the community for support groups 4. Host Better Together Regional Symposium – invite identified partners from Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe to be our implementing partners in their respective countries

A YEAR IN REVIEW

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FUTURE LEADERS PROGRAMME

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The Future Leaders Programme is a leadership course for refugees and asylum seekers aged between 18 and 27 who are looking to develop communication and leadership skills alongside others from their communities.

The programme is supported by One to One Children’s Fund. ​ Online workshops, and one-to-one mentoring led by inspirational leaders from across the UK help develop a range of new skills and a supportive network, empowering them to support others in their own communities.

Following successful completion of the Future Leaders Course, graduates become a part of a dynamic and diverse network of leaders spread across the UK. Ongoing alumni support and opportunities to network with fellow graduates and leaders ensure the impact of Future Leaders is felt across communities.

Future Leaders runs two to three cohorts per year with approximately 15-20 students in each cohort, drawn from JRAN member organisations. We have an attendance of over 90% on all courses. Despite this there continues to be a huge demand for the Leadership course with over 60 applications from 20 referral organisations applying for the Spring 2022 cohort.

The cohort is made up of 11 nationalities including Angola, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Niger, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey, the DRC, Sudan and Ethiopia. At least 50% of the cohort are women. By September 2023 we aim to have at least 60 alumni – all of whom will be able to mentor the next cohorts.

The programme has been approached by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to run bespoke leadership sessions for their refugee clients during the summer months when Future Leaders is between programmes.

There is a programme to employ Future Leaders graduates in administrative roles in both Future Leaders and JRAN. This follows a successful trial to employ an intern from the pilot cohort to support delivery and act as an interface between the students and One to One. The programme provides work experience for the student. The current intern, a female graduate and journalist from Northern Iraq, has just been offered a full-time role as a journalist (see story below).

CASE STUDY

ZOZAN Zozan grew up under military dictatorship, as a Kurd in Turkey. She says: “While war was something in the countryside before, it actually spread into cities from 2015 and 2016. Covering all this as a journalist, and living through these experiences, everything became so difficult. My passport was cancelled, and I found that I was stateless.”

Zozan received asylum in the UK, and last year, joined the Future Leaders Programme. She was then offered the chance to be an intern for the Programme. She says, “The Programme and the work experience helped me to gain confidence in so many ways, to be able to communicate more and to understand that you can ask for help and get support.”

“While I was working there, I was also searching for opportunities as a multimedia journalist. I applied to a media organisation that focus on humanitarian crisis all over the world. Its work is something that speaks to my heart.

“I had many interviews, tasks, and tests, and it was a really long recruitment process. Finally, I got the offer, and I started two weeks ago. It’s a very good opportunity for me. For the first time in my life, I feel I can make plans for the future and create something for joy, rather than just being in survival mode.”

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A YEAR IN REVIEW

JRAN UKRAINIAN REFUGEES JRAN is a network of grassroots and charitable organisations working with refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, supported by One to One Children’s Fund. It works in close collaboration with UKCP, Refugee Council, RefuAid, Amna (formerly known as Refugee Trauma Initiative which One to One helped start and fund) and the Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the UK. At very short notice, JRAN pulled together a strong line up of speakers for an online Ukraine Summit following the launch of Homes for Ukraine scheme and the UK’s response to the crisis.

Feedback on the forum from the over 60 individuals from 40 organisations in attendance has been overwhelmingly positive. A number of action plans resulted from the workshops and a number of working groups have been set up to drive ongoing collaboration between organisations in the sector.

Through the Ukraine Forum JRAN has played a key role in the rapid response and resourcing of the sector. JRAN has encouraged and facilitated increased collaboration between organisations,

solution-focused discussions and thorough and timely gap analysis that continue to support and guide ongoing work.

Representatives from JRAN met with Sir Ed Davey (Leader of the Liberal Democrats) to discuss the needs of the sector, the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the key gaps identified by organisations engaging with their work. They hope to meet with a number of other MPs and Peers. Dan Hall participated on behalf of JRAN in a livestream broadcast by Jewish News hosted by the Chief Rabbi, alongside Citizens UK and Refugees at Home.

JRAN also coordinated an emergency forum bringing together experts from across the psychotherapy and refugee sectors to discuss access to psychological first aid amongst refugees both from Ukraine and elsewhere. The primary focus during the Forum was to identify key challenges for these individuals, and the sector as well as to create opportunity for solution focused discussions and collaborative action.

One to One Children’s Fund and Sarah Niblock, Chief Executive of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). The forum brought together key organisations and experts within the sector including The Refugee Council, The Association of Psychoanalysts and Psychotherapists of Ukraine, The Israel Centre for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, Amna, UKCP as well as the voices of professionals with lived experience of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

As highlighted both through the keynote speakers and the breakout sessions, one of the central concerns is the need for better co-ordinated services amongst professionals and organisations to support structured collaboration across the sector. As with our previous Forum, a number of organisations and individuals highlighted the ever-increasing risk of duplication, inefficiency, slow response times and the difficulty for both refugees and host communities to access resources, advice and much needed mental health support and psychological first aid.

JRAN will become the co-ordination hub that has thus far been lacking.

The forum was hosted by Dr Jenny Altschuler, a family psychotherapist and Co-Founder of

THROUGH THE UKRAINE FORUM, JRAN HAS PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE RAPID RESPONSE.

Thank you for helping us realise our mission to improve the well-being and life chances of children, young people and families affected by dislocation, poverty and chronic illness.

15 OUR MOST RECENT JRAN FORUM ADDRESSING THE UKRAINE CRISIS WAS ATTENDED BY OVER 60 INDIVIDUALS REPRESENTING ALMOST 40 ORGANISATIONS. If you would like to support One to One Children’s Fund, please visit: www.onetoonechildrensfund.org/donate

One to One Children’s Fund Old Town Hall 213 Haverstock Hill London NW3 4QP

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Tel: (+44) 020 7317 7040 www.onetoonechildrensfund.org Email: office@onetoonechildrensfund.org Registered Charity No. 1086159