With 24 years of experience in the field of health education, care and support CHEP has gathered experience that is of benefit to other organisations, communities and individuals throughout the Copperbelt Region and Zambia as a whole. The Copperbelt Health Education Project (CHEP) was born in 1987 out of a response, by the Rotary Club of Kitwe North in the Copperbelt Region of Zambia, to an emergi
ng HIV and AIDS epidemic. It was then officially registered as CHEP in 1988. The programmatic focus was, at that time, on prevention, which was consistent with the Ministry of Health National AIDS prevention and control programme (as it was known then). Today Zambia is experiencing multiple health challenges; HIV/AIDS has given rise to an increase in the incidence of opportunistic and communicable diseases. Although the HIV pandemic is stabilizing, it is still very high at 13.5 % amongst the reproductive adult population. The prevalence of HIV within communities has resulted in an increase in the number of diagnosed cases of communicable diseases such as TB. “The spatum-smear positive (SS+) case notification rate in Zambia [was] 193 cases per 100,000 population, more than 3 times the global average of 61 cases per 100,000 population [in 2009]” . Lack of access to health services in remote and rural areas adds to the likelihood that high numbers of TB cases go undetected and untreated. Malaria is another major cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly amongst pregnant woman and those aged under 5 years; malaria was attributed to 15 % of deaths in children under-5 in 2008 . While Government, with its collaborating partners, have made significant efforts in responding to these health challenges by increasing prevention, treatment, care and support services challenges still remain, the uptake and use of the services on offer remains low, prevalence is high and new infections occur daily. As a result, an average of 690,000 children aged between 0 – 17 years are orphaned annually , leaving them dependant on extended family members, fending for themselves or destitute. All of the aforementioned issues compounded have led many community groups and organisations to mobilise and take action. CHEP’s wealth of experience and development of a cost effective technical support and sub-granting system continues to build the capacity of local organisations to design, implement, monitor and evaluate programmes based on their local experience. CHEP does so by focusing on 3 main strategic directions as follows:
1. To facilitate resource mobilisation and provide grants management services to CBOs and NGOs to increase community uptake and use of various health services.
2. To strengthen the capacity of partner organisations in order for them to effectively implement innovative and evidence based community health programmes.
3. To strengthen organizational and technical support capacity of CHEP to deliver on its mandate. The thrust of CHEPs activities is to support communities through Community Based Organisations (CBOs) to increase uptake and use of available prevention, treatment, care and support services in order to see a healthy society in which everyone is economically and socially empowered and has the opportunity to make better life choices. In doing so CHEP will use its 24 years of community programming experience to provide valuable technical support to organisations throughout Zambia and act as a centre of knowledge and education throughout the Southern African region.
