Core Concepts

Over the past years, we have defined the following set of core concepts that guides our strategies and actions:

1. In line with the UN Millennium Development Goals, ASAP is working to reduce poverty by 2015. To this end, we have developed a model of community-based intervention for orphans and vulnerable children.
2. ASAP believes that development begins with people and the ownership and realization of their own ideas. Any change and intervention must stand in organic relationship to what the people on the ground are already doing and what they aspire to.
3. ASAP identifies and partners with emerging community-based organizations of women caring for orphans and vulnerable children, infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.
4. ASAP does not differentiate between orphans and vulnerable children. We support the development of community Drop-in and Daycare centre models of care rather than orphanages and institutions.
5. Drop-in and Daycare centres provide one-stop access to education; nutrition; psycho-social support; first-aid and Home-Based Care; clinic and hospital referrals; social welfare grants and youth development.
6. ASAP helps to build the administrative capacity of our partners by providing quarterly hands-on training in accounting skills, grant writing and monitoring & evaluation tools. The mutually agreed goals between ASAP and the women who run the community-based organizations, are to attain 100% accountability, to develop good governance internally and to build a sustainable organization themselves.
7. ASAP provides child care workers with organic agriculture training and gardening supplies, poultry and water harvesting equipment, to improve nutritional food security for orphans and vulnerable children.
8. ASAP facilitates Child and Youth Care training that gives women the skills to appropriately intervene in the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, and to constantly advocate for Children’s Rights in their communities.
9. ASAP supports pre-school, primary, secondary and tertiary education for orphans and vulnerable children in order to yield healthy, self-reliant young adults who contribute back to the community.
10. ASAP encourages Project Leaders to mentor staff and child care workers to ensure they learn from the expertise and experiences of one another. Regular workshops allow them to practice ongoing reflection and identify opportunities for further growth and improvement.
11. ASAP is concerned with the holistic development of orphans and vulnerable children. The community care we support strives to go beyond the urgent needs of food, medical care and education to encompass the issues of day to day nurturing and the fostering of relationships that ensure proper psycho-social support.
12. ASAP demonstrates that grassroots organizations and their networks of women are capable of scaling up and replicating effective models of care for orphans and vulnerable children.