BHASO’s Values: As an organization BHASO values accountability,
confidentiality, gender sensitivity, respect for human rights, meaningful
involvement of people living with HIV and cooperation.
BHASO’s Main Objective: To build the
capacities of people infected by HIV&AIDS for positive living.
Target groups: BHASO works with the
infected and affected being mostly HIV support groups, youths, poorly resourced
rural farmers, orphans and other vulnerable children.
BHASO is currently operating in Gutu, Chivi, Bikita, Zaka,
Mwenezi, Chiredzi, Masvingo Rural and Masvingo Urban Districts, thus covering
the whole of Masvingo Province. Operations are being decentralized for a
greater presence in the Districts and District Offices have already been opened
in Gutu, Zaka, Bikita and Chivi Districts with Mwenezi following in due course.
Batanai hopes to extend its activities to other Provinces in Zimbabwe and
even abroad as more resources become available.
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Auxillia Chimusoro the founder of Batanai had this to say at
an international conference, “As time went on, we managed to rent a room from
the Community Services Department, then a full house and recently we built our
own house from the proceeds of our projects. We still wanted to prove to them
that although we were HIV positive we could manage our own affairs socially,
psychologically and materially. We are also urging other support groups in Zimbabwe to
have the same objectives, and achievements we have attained.”Batanai does not give fish to the hungry but teaches them
how to fish, hence its main objective of empowerment of the disadvantaged. To this end Batanai sees itself growing into a well-run
organization that keeps on empowering the infected and affected towards
positive living in a world that recognizes their humanity. Batanai wishes to
keep the fire that was lit by its founder, Auxillia Chimusoro, burning brighter
and brighter as it strives to offer more comprehensive services to a wider
community.
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About Us
It all started in 1992 when 12 people living with HIV from
different parts of Zimbabwe
came together in Harare
to discuss their plight as people living with HIV&AIDS. They decided to go
back home and start HIV&AIDS support groups. Auxillia Chimusoro, the first
woman in Zimbabwe to publicly disclose her HIV positive status came back home
to Rujeko T/ship in Masvingo and in the face of stigma, discrimination,
ridicule, poverty and sickness, started the first HIV&AIDS support group in
the country and called it Batanai.
Auxillia and other members of Batanai went on to work very
hard facilitating the formation, training and coordination of support groups in
various Districts of Masvingo Province forming the strongest provincial network
of support groups in the country that she coordinated under what is now the
Zimbabwe National Network of People living with HIV&AIDS (ZNNP+), an
organisation that she co-founded with several other people living with HIV.
In 1996 Batanai was registered as a Private Voluntary
Organisation (PVO Number 16/96). That same year Batanai members bought a two
roomed core house in Rujeko T/ship using profits from their own small income
generating projects and later added 4 more rooms in 1998 with assistance from
the German Development Services and FEPA, a Swiss funding organisation. Friends
of Auxillia Chimusoro in Sheffield, UK and in Germany chipped in with valuable
financial, material and moral support that kept Batanai afloat in the absence
of major programme funders. Another Batanai friend assisted with computers.
On 19 June 1998
Auxillia passed away.
Things went quiet at Batanai when in 2000 the Masvingo
Provincial Network of Support Groups which had been named the Auxillia
Chimusoro Masvingo Provincial Network of People living with HIV&AIDS in
honour of Auxillia, was weaned from Batanai to stand on its own as more support
was expected to come from ZNNP+, the mother body. All along friends of Auxillia
in Sheffield and Germany
supported Batanai with small financial and material donations and kept it
afloat.
In 2003 efforts were made to revive Batanai as an
organisation. It was then that Farai
Mahaso, Auxillia’s first born son and Peter Marimi teamed up to revive it with
serious programming funded by PSI and FEPA starting in 2007. Batanai was able
to expand its activities as more funding became available.
An external evaluation carried out in 2009 recommended that
the name Batanai HIV&AIDS Support Group should be changed to Batanai
HIV&AIDS Service Organisation (BHASO) in order to give the correct picture
of the current status of Batanai as an organisation and separate it from
Batanai support group which continuous to meet at Batanai House in Rujeko while
BHASO operates from offices in the Masvingo CBD and in 4 Districts of Masvingo
Province.
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Guiding Principles
- Promote understanding, analysis and focus on the critical impact of HIV and AIDS as a development issue rather than simply as a health issue. This
recognises that the issues and impact of HIV and AIDS on people's lives
is beyond health and encompasses other areas of their development and
daily lives.
- Disseminate information that is effective in promoting changes in knowledge, practice and behaviour of individuals and communities
using an evidence-based approach taking into account lessons and best
practices. This means carefully selecting and targeting information that
will directly impact people's behaviours. Understanding that it is
through sustained behaviour change that people will reduce their
vulnerabilities to HIV and AIDS
- Promote the use of multi-sectoral and multi-faceted regional responses
and interventions to the epidemic. This is aimed at recognising the
critical role of all sectors in building an effective response to the
epidemic and should be aligned to the national responses of the
countries in which SAfAIDS work.
- Influence key agencies to mainstream HIV and AIDS and gender related issues into their development work.
The principle acknowledges that the majority of people infected are
women and that the relationships between men and women are integral to
the development of an effective response to the epidemic
Promote the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV)
in BHASO work in the region. This is an acknowledgement of the fact
that people living with HIV and AIDS are an important stakeholder and
partner in responding to the epidemic. Therefore PLHIV should be given
opportunities to contribute not just as beneficiaries but as equal
partners that can participate meaningfully in the design and
Head Office: 6 Rekayi
Tangwena Avenue, Masvingo P O Box 1707, Masvingo
Tel / Fax 039 264 960
Cell: 0773 415 292/0772 405 790
Gutu District Office : Agribank
Building
Mupandawana, Gutu
Cell: 0773 907 888
Zaka District Office: Zaka Rural Council
Offices, Jerera Growth point
Cell: 0773 907 957
Chivi District
Office: Chivi
Rural Council Offices Nyaningwe Growth Point
Cell:
0775 371 932
Bikita District : Chikwanda Surgery, No. 585, Nyika Growth Point
Cell: 0773 907 958
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