FOST was born in 1997 as a response to the increase in orphaned children on farms in Zimbabwe largely due to the devastating impact of HIV and AIDS. It is a registered Private Voluntary Organization (PVO), which solicits and facilitates support for orphans and vulnerable children in farm communities in Zimbabwe. The FOST programme was originally focused in farm worker communities in the commercial farming sector, gradually adapting to the changes in the agriculture architecture to include support for vulnerable children in the whole range of farming communities with a bias to those supported by their grandparents.
The overall intention of the FOST programme is to proactively increase the capacities of the farming communities to respond to the orphan crisis and is based on the belief that orphaned children have the best opportunity for development within a family group, without sibling separation, in an environment that is familiar and where they have the opportunity to learn their culture first hand.
The FOST programme is rooted in the community, is culturally sensitive and acknowledges that children who are orphaned belong to everyone – they are everyone’s responsibility. Consequently, FOST endeavors to ensure protective measures are in place to care for the most vulnerable children by building on existing community structures. The programme works to ensure that all children have the same opportunities for development and that all children have their rights respected and fulfilled.
FOST is a member of Family for Every Child.
Where they operate
Organization Size
Organization Type
Main Areas of Work
Family and Community Strengthening
FOST promotes the improvement of the nutritional status of OVC and their households, including children in early childhood, through awareness and education of caregivers. FOST interventions also strengthen the livelihood situation of the households, through the sale of surplus vegetables, sweet potatoes and tomatoes produced in the gardens. FOST has extensive experience in the area of economic strengthening and food security at household level and has the ability to replicate project activities in other food insecure areas.
A FOST flagship programme is support for self-help groups. The programme utilizes Internal Savings and Lending approaches for the most vulnerable households in the community. The project has reached over 1850 women who have been supported to establish and to grow their own businesses. This project has enabled women to send over 1650 children to school, improve their household income and participate in the development of their communities. The groups meet monthly and FOST uses the meeting to undertake training and awareness raising in a range of lifeskills and parenting skills linked to the rights of vulnerable children.
FOST also undertakes Psychosocial Support (PSS) to build children’s resilience and improve their coping skills to deal with loss and grief through a number of interventions, including case management, psychosocial support camps, memory work, age- appropriate support and counselling, education assistance. PSS provision, especially through PSS/OVC camps, has been a success story. The initiative has created positive memories for both children and their caregivers and helped to improve their relationships.
FOST also implements PSS meetings with caregivers to avoid burn out of caregivers and train them on parenting skills. Through these meetings, FOST has discovered that there is a child in every adult that needs the chance to play. Involving adults in play has helped them to realise the importance of play for children and has given the skills to interact with children.
Youth Capacity Building
Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights: FOST provides Life Skills and Vocational Skills training to build the self-reliance, assertiveness and empowerment of young people to make informed decisions on their lives and positively influence the behaviour of their peers.
Empowerment of Children & Youth: FOST also supports safe child-led advocacy using Digital Story Telling. Here, children are trained to make films about their personal stories, either positive or negative, and show how these experiences have affected their lives. The films have been used as a tool to create dialogue and awareness on issues that affect children in communities and in other forums.
Kids Clubs, established and supported by FOST, equip children and youth with social skills and life skills. FOST is acknowledged as having considerable experience and expertise in supporting such clubs. The approach has been replicated in many other OVC programmes. FOST has supported over 5,000 out of school youths through establishment of clubs that focus on various activities including, reproductive health education, recreation, sports, entrepreneurship, vocational skills training
Child Protection & Child Rights
FOST participates in advocacy forums where the rights of children, especially vulnerable children who are at risk of increased exposure to crime, abuse, including child labour and trafficking, neglect, exploitation, violence and discrimination.
As well as facilitating education assistance, access to legal services and supporting foster care schemes, FOST also supports and promotes Child Protection Committees in the areas that it operates both at school and community level.
FOST has successfully rolled out educational support programmes (block grants, ECD centres, direct payment of fees and distribution of uniforms, stationery, provision of sport material and equipment, play centre development, training of teachers in PSS, training of para-professionals for ECD, PSS camps for children, homework clubs) to support OVC in farming communities.
And FOST has supported the establishment and development of early childhood development (ECD) centers. The model can also be replicated elsewhere in the country and beyond. FOST's current education assistance project is directly supporting 140 children in both primary and secondary school and building the capacity of caregivers to cover education user fees through the Self-help groups.
Organizational Capacity Building
FOST has strong working relationships with Government line ministries such as MoLSS, MoPSE, AGRITEX, and MoHCW. This makes it easy for collaboration, networking and mobilization of training resource persons, and enables evidence based advocacy around policies affecting OVC.