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For more information please contact: Hazel Plunkett Country Director, HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tel. +255 22 2126880 & 0754894357 hplunkettl@aiha.com

US Government-supported Partnership Trains Social Workers and Other Caregivers to Improve Conditions for Youth Affected by HIV/AIDS WASHINGTON, DC, and DAR es SALAAM, TANZANIA, March 21, 2007—A one-day symposium on the role of social work in support of orphans and vulnerable children in Tanzania will be held March 24 at the Institute of Social Work in Dar es Salaam. The event will be conducted by members of an HIV/AIDS Twinning Center partnership that links the Tanzanian Institute of Social Work with the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Jane Addams College of Social Work and the Midwest AIDS Training and Education Center. With support from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, this partnership is training social workers and para-professionals to provide much-needed care and assistance to Tanzanian children orphaned or made vulnerable by the AIDS epidemic. Explaining that the partnership is helping build critical human resource capacity to better meet the needs of vulnerable youth, Institute of Social Work Principal Dr. Hossea Rwegoshora says, “This collaboration between the United States and Tanzania provides social workers and other caregivers with a vital opportunity to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills they need to better support orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS.” The symposium and media briefing will follow the partnership’s first training course, “Equipped to Care: Building Skills to Assist Vulnerable Children and Families Affected by HIV/AIDS,” which will be held in Dar es Salaam from March 19-23. Some 45 District Social Welfare Officers employed throughout Tanzania are expected to attend. Participants will receive training in case management, leadership, and other skills necessary to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV/AIDS. Nearly 2.5 million Tanzanian children—10 to 12 percent of all children in the country—have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS and UNICEF. Each one is likely to experience isolation, stigma, limited educational opportunities, malnutrition, and a general lack of care and support. Social workers can be instrumental in efforts to fill these gaps, yet the existing welfare system is severely overstretched with trained social workers assigned to only one-third of the country’s 126 districts.