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A parrot on your shoulder: A guide for people starting to work with orphans and vulnerable children
International HIV/AIDS Alliance
2004

http://www.aidsalliance.org/eng/publications/_prom/parrot.htm

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Introduction
A parrot on your shoulder is one of a series of resources that the Alliance is developing to encourage participation in practice. It seeks to support individuals and organisations working with orphans and other vulnerable children living in a world with HIV/AIDS. Today, more than 13 million children currently under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. By 2010, this number is expected to have risen to more than 25 million (UNICEF, UNAIDS, and USAID 2002). A parrot on your shoulder is also a useful companion to the Alliance’s resources for communities working with orphans and vulnerable children in Africa, Building Blocks: Africa-Wide Briefing Notes and Building Blocks in Practice (January 2003).

The development of A parrot on your shoulder started with an initial request from one of our partners, the Khmer HIV.AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA) in Cambodia. KHANA described a great willingness and enthusiasm among their partners to work with children in a more participatory way, but had found that people were uncertain about how to get started. For example, during a field visit we noticed that children, having been lectured by a field worker about health and good behaviour, seemed very quiet and downcast. The field worker was uncertain about how to engage the children further. We decided to play some games with the children and this led to enormous fun and lots of laughter. Following the games, the children were much more relaxed and able to talk with the field worker an other adults about their problems, homes and ideas. One grandmother was heard to comment, ‘I have never known games could be educational!’

Further consultation suggested that this situation is quite common. People have enthusiasm, willingness and some skills, but need ideas to help them initiate meaningful dialogue with children, and to keep the conversations going. This can be true for people meeting children they don’t know for the first time, as well as for community workers who may know the children in their projects, but who want to create an opportunity for children to be more involved in project design and development.

This resource aims to meet the needs of people who want more meaningful engagement with children by providing activities that will help them get started.

The selection of activities is based on what our partners and others have found to work well.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

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