Projects in progress: a UK Aid Match team visit to Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone

In Spring 2025, our UK Aid Match teams visited grant holders CBM and Trócaire in Zimbabwe and Restless Development and Street Child in Sierra Leone.

The visits provide valuable opportunities to connect with grant holders and their delivery partners, strengthen our role as critical friend, and deepen our understanding of project progress and challenges. They also allow time for more in-depth exploration of ideas, troubleshooting, and tailored support – whether that’s navigating technical or financial reporting issues, or better understanding the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) approaches to safeguarding, and other important aspects of grant management.

Below is a brief summary of the visits:

In Zimbabwe, CBM is strengthening eye health care services by training health workers to identify people with eye conditions, delivering thousands of sight-restoring cataract surgeries to those who need it, and improving infrastructure across eight district hospitals.

During our visit the team travelled to Gokwe South Hospital and met with key hospital staff and the Provincial Medical Director. They observed surgical processes and aftercare and discussed project implementation and outreach from community health workers with partner staff and clients.

The impact of the project was clear. Many people who had once lost their sight to cataracts shared how their lives had been transformed. With restored vision, they could return to work, care for their children, re-engage in their communities, and feel less of a burden to their families. Strong coordination between trained community health workers and local eye health champions  – trusted community members who raise awareness and encourage uptake – has significantly increased demand for services. In fact, when our team visited a local eye camp, so many people attended that the event was extended an extra day to accommodate them.

Further, a key strength of this project is CBM’s expertise in disability inclusion and its partnership with HelpAge Zimbabwe. This collaboration has been instrumental in reaching older people, often an overlooked group when it comes to healthcare services in Zimbabwe.

As eye health continues to be a low priority in many countries with constrained healthcare budgets, projects like this are often the only way people can access essential services. CBM is making important progress on sustainability, particularly through strengthening local health systems and building long-term capacity, and their advocacy and training of community health workers and local eye health champions is critical to embedding lasting change.

As the project enters its final reporting stage, we look forward to hearing more about the longer-term social, economic and wellbeing impact of improved eye health, and how these lessons can shape future approaches.

Photograph: A patient at a CBM eye camp. Credit: ©CBM UK/Thabani

In Zimbabwe, particularly in rural areas, climate change has brought increased droughts and extreme seasonal weather, leaving livelihoods at risk. Trócaire’s three-year project focuses on supporting local agricultural capacity to boost incomes, diversify crops and enhance resilience amongst farmers.  

Although security concerns cut our team’s visit short, preventing a trip to the project site, they held productive discussions with Trócaire and their three local partners Caritas Masvingo, Musasa Project Trust, and Organisation of Rural Associations for Progress (ORAP), visiting their country office in Harare and chatting remotely. The team heard how the project is working in collaboration with the Department of Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX) to bring more sustainable farming to life, such as utilising seed banks and local crops, along with traditional planting and pest control methods. By learning to grow a wider variety of crops and try out alternative composting methods, farmers are better prepared to face unpredictable weather. The impact is already visible, with participants sharing how lead farmers are passing their skills to others and community farms are thriving due to newly developed water infrastructure.

In the project communities, men traditionally control household finances, and women are often left without a say and face heighted risk of Gender-Based-Violence (GBV). By building strong ties with local authorities, including the Victim Friendly Unit (VFU) of the Zimbabwean police, the project has set up one-stop centres where women can get information, support, and a safe space to resolve GBV cases. These centres have opened the door to new referral pathways and host sessions on women’s rights, bringing men into the conversation too. Internal Savings and Lending (ISAL) groups are also progressing well. Not only are the 31 project-backed groups working closely with local authorities to ensure long-term sustainability, but five more have been launched by participants to start in their own communities, drawing on lessons from their training and empowering farmers to learn from each other.

These approaches on building local ownership are key to ensuring sustainability once the project ends. In addition to collaborations with AGRITEX staff and VFUs, local Environmental Management and Water Point committees have been set up and have started making independent decisions, indicating a level of community confidence. As the project moves forward, we look forward to seeing how these partnerships are translating into long lasting change.

Photograph: A farmer with her crops. Credit: Trócaire

In Bombali and Moyamba Districts, Sierra Leone, Restless Development’s ‘Power Up’ project works to keep girls safe through community-driven protection measures, and improve their life chances through access to formal and informal education and life skills training. In the project communities, harmful practices such as early and forced marriage, and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) pose significant challenges, contributing to high rates of teenage pregnancy, and subsequently high numbers of adolescent girls out of school.

During our visit to Bombali District, the team observed lively and engaging life skills and empowerment sessions for out-of-school girls, and listened in on school-based Boys’ Club activities. They also met with mentors and community leaders to hear how the project is progressing, and representatives from Bombali District Council Officials who expressed strong appreciation for their involvement in the project such as engaging in project reviews and selection of communities.  

Photograph: Emma Hayward (Senior Performance and Risk Manager) with Bombali District Officials and members of the Restless Development Sierra Leone Leadership Team in Makeni

With support from the project, communities have established ‘safe spaces’, where adolescent girls can spend time together, share experiences and take part in basic literacy, numeracy and life skills sessions run by mentors. Girls have established their own rules for these spaces, which now include accessibility adaptations for those with disabilities, and crèche facilities to enable young mothers who have dropped out of school to participate.

It was clear that the mentors are highly trusted by the girls and respected by communities and school staff. Restless Development’s mentor programme is a well-established volunteer network in Sierra Leone, and all Restless Development Sierra Leone staff, including the Hub Director, started their careers as Restless volunteers, creating a strong sense of pride in and ownership of the organisation’s programmes. Mentors serve as positive role models for adolescent girls and they told our team they are confident that their experience in the Power Up project would support future ambitions, such as studying social work or becoming teachers.

Photograph: Restless Development Mentor, Zainab, delivering a Life Skills session at the safe space in Mapaki community.

Our team also met a dynamic Link Teacher, who has been trained by the project on safeguarding and inclusive teaching practices. His approach created a safe, trusting classroom environment, an important factor in keeping girls in school. Boys in his class demonstrated strong engagement in the Boys’ Club activity and spoke passionately and in an informed way about the importance of girls’ empowerment and protection, as well as their own responsibilities in supporting this, reflecting the project’s influence on shifting attitudes.

Photograph: Our team with girls and mentors from the Restless Development Safe Space in Mapaki community, Bombali District. Photo credit: Restless Development

Girls, boys, and both male and female caregivers have been meaningfully involved in shaping community action plans and in holding duty bearers accountable for their delivery. Community leaders shared how local-by-laws, developed from these community action plans, have successfully empowered girls and supported their education. Results seen so far include a reduction in teenage pregnancies, several early marriages being stopped, and the banning of discoramas (night time dance parties) during term time to reduce distractions from schooling and keep girls safe from harm.

Our team are looking forward to supporting the project further as it continues in its final stages.

Across four districts in the north of the country, Street Child, through its local partners, are working with 2,000 caregivers to support them to overcome the economic and social barriers that are keeping 4,500 children from attending school.

In many of the project communities, caregivers identify finances as the biggest obstacle to sending their children to school. To address this, the project is supporting 2,000 caregivers to establish small businesses, through distribution of small Family Business Support (FBS) grants and business skills training. The team saw that businesses are up and running, and caregivers reported that their financial ability to keep children in school is improving as a result of business and savings activities.

But money isn’t the only challenge, some children face different barriers, including caregivers not valuing education, children not wanting to attend school, and for those who have a disability, ongoing stigma and challenges with accessibility. These children are also supported by social workers through counselling and family mediation to shift attitudes and encourage school enrolment. Caregivers spoke of understanding the value of education in a new way as a result of these interactions.

During our visit it was encouraging to see that families have formed strong, trusting relationships with Street Child family business officers and social workers, shown through warm receptions, emotional storytelling, and the staff’s deep knowledge of family histories.

Photograph: Aisha’s mother selling mangoes in Makeni, Bombali District

Another aspect of the project is to support the safeguarding and protection of children. Government-mandated Child Welfare Committees (CWCs) have been revitalised through the project by re-establishing inactive ones, electing new members and training them in child protection and safeguarding. These CWCs include diverse community members such as chiefs, teachers, police, faith leaders and students, ensuring children have a wide range of trusted individuals to turn to if they feel unsafe. Efforts to strengthen links between CWCs and government-run Family Support Units (FSUs) and the Police are also taking place, meaning more serious child protection cases can now be referred and managed more effectively, making homes, schools, and communities safer.

Photograph: Our team and Street Child staff in Koinadugu District, meeting the Director of the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs

CWC members told us they are confident they will continue their work once the project ends after 2025, as they have learned a great deal and are motivated by the positive changes they’ve seen – such as increased peace in their communities, and reduced teenage pregnancies, rape, gender-based violence, and fighting. We look forward to seeing how these community initiatives continue to thrive through the final stages of the project.

Photograph: Emma with Saiyo and her daughter – participants in a previous Street Child UK Aid Match project – explaining how their business has grown over the past three years in Kabala, Koinadugu District

A thank you

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals involved with these visits. We really appreciated all your time and continued hard work.

*Please note this podcast episode addresses themes of sexual and gender-based violence, which may be upsetting or triggering for listeners*

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) sexual and gender-based violence is rife and often used as a weapon of war.

SCIAF are the official relief and development agency of the Catholic Church in Scotland and have been working in the DRC since 2001, supporting women and girls who have been affected by sexual and gender-based violence.

In our latest podcast episode, we spoke to Louise Joyce, lead for the UK Aid Match programme at SCIAF and Thérèse Mema Mapenzi, Director of Centre Olame in the DRC (SCIAF’s partner) about their recently completed UK Aid Match project.

During this episode Louise and Thérèse share SCIAF’s six-pillar approach to sexual and gender-based violence which includes supporting survivors with medical care, trauma counselling and legal support, as well as looking at ways to prevent sexual and gender-based violence in the future. We also hear from Rachel Mwinja Nyakadekere, Community Animator at Centre Olame, who reads out a story from a survivor who has established her own sewing business, and a story from a participant in the project who has become a role model for positive change in her community.

Listen in to the podcast episode to learn how SCIAF implemented their six-pillar approach, how they challenged harmful gender and social norms, and their key learnings and reflections for other organisations who are thinking of working with survivors.

Extract from podcast

“So as part of our six pillar of prevention, we trained youth, local and mixed-faith leaders, and they became key influencers for change at the individual household and societal level amongst their peers and within their community structures. The training covered theoretical and practical aspects of leadership, human rights, as well as promoting gender equality and positive masculinity. It’s very important to include men and boys who are part of the solution.”

Listen to the podcast in full on YouTube.

In January, UK Aid Match Fund Director Sarah Donachie, accompanied by Fiduciary Risk Officer Bridget Hall, and FCDO colleagues Bruce Reilly and Nicola Currie for the Open Societies team, visited Bangladesh to see how three fund projects were getting on.

They enjoyed warm welcomes from the RNLI/CIPRB, World Child Cancer/ASHIC and British Red Cross/Bangladesh Red Crescent programme teams, and from the communities they are supporting.

Here is a short write-up of what we saw from these visits.

Preventing childhood drowning – RNLI

The RNLI has been working with the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research Bangladesh (CIPRB) in Kalapara sub-district over the last 3.5 years to keep children safe from drowning through their UK Aid Match project.

In Bangladesh, drowning is the leading killer of children, with vulnerability at its peak between 9am and 1pm when parents must work to feed their families and are unable to provide close supervision.

Many are are faced with an impossible situation, and paid-for childcare is out of reach especially in rural communities, even for those that could afford it.

Through this UK Aid Match programme, 300 Anchals – community-based creche facilities – have been established, offering a safe environment for over 5,000 children aged between one and four years.

They are run by local women, or ‘anchal-maas’, to provide a secure place away from open water for children to play and learn important early childhood development skills.

Access to a free anchal place has reduced a child’s risk of drowning and provided essential early childhood development support. The programme has also empowered women in the community by providing them with opportunities to work.

This project has now come to an end, however the RNLI and CIPRB have secured additional funding from the Government of Bangladesh to continue their work in drowning prevention. The team will be launching a significant new programme (called the Integrated Community-Based Centre for Child Care, Protection and Swim-safe Facilities Project) in the coming period for young children across Bangladesh to survive and thrive to their full potential, with comprehensive attention to physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth and development. Watch this space for a podcast exploring this further in the near future.

Improving paediatric oncology outcomes – World Child Cancer

With only a quarter of children who develop cancer in Bangladesh each year ever receiving a diagnosis and as few as 45% of those surviving, World Child Cancer’s three-year UK Aid Match project has been working across the country to improve access (to treatment), care and quality of life.

In Bangladesh, the long-term treatment required when a child has a cancer diagnosis often pushes an entire family further into poverty. This project’s focus has been on strengthening the health system and working across the seven leading government paediatric cancer units to ensure long term change is affected so those that benefit from it will not just be the thousands of children, their families and health workers, but also children who are diagnosed with cancer in future years and their families.

It was evident from the visit that the project is operating within a resource-constraint environment, and the COVID-19 pandemic significantly worsened the situation for children with cancer in Bangladesh given the additional pressures on the health care system and limited mobility (as the majority of available care is in Dhaka city). The project team have adapted well as a result but the challenges associated with health care service delivery following the pandemic appeared to continue. Despite these challenges, the project has been able to introduce psychosocial support, which was not previously an element of the care offering and has evidently provided much needed support to children and families in their cancer journey.

Protecting and securing women’s livelihoods – British Red Cross with Bangladesh Red Crescent

With this UK Aid Match project, the British Red Cross have been working with the Bangladesh Red Crescent in the slums of Barishal in Bangladesh, where monsoons and flooding are inescapable and life for women is hard.

Back in November, we shared an overview of the project on the UK Aid Match website explaining how it has been supporting the women living here. They often miss out on an education, struggle to make a living, and are frequently raising families alone and suffering violence just because of their gender.

This project has supported women’s small businesses to thrive through vocational training, apprenticeships and small cash grants (to help set up microbusinesses).

The outcome? They are earning an income, building savings and helping their communities to flourish.

Groups called Women’s Squads are also raising awareness of issues like menstrual health and gender-based violence, and within these Squads, women have a platform to stand together and have their opinions heard, amplifying their role and voice in society and reduce their isolation.

The visit highlighted that despite the delays experienced as a result of COVID-19 the project team have made significant progress: there were several areas that had created clear benefits for project participants, specifically the opening of bank accounts and linkages to other service providers such as government welfare schemes. A large number of project participants had set up a bank account for the first time as a result of the project support and this formal financial inclusion had clear benefits such as reported increases in savings and access to wider and more diverse supply chains and markets. Alongside this, many members of the Women’s Squad shared that, through the project, they have been able to create more linkages to local government who have been more responsive to their requests for support.

Related, the meetings with the Women’s Squad highlighted the significant progress that the project has supported in terms of women’s empowerment. The women we met shared positive stories of how joining and being part of the Squads had supported them to have greater influence within their communities and households, and they shared that they were better able to address issues such as child marriage, domestic violence and child labour.

A thank you

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the organisations and individuals involved with these visits. We really appreciated all your time and continued hard work.