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Key findings include:

• Strategic objective 1: Improve quality of life of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their households.
  • School attendance among OVC improved during the study period. By the midterm and endline surveys, data indicate that overall school attendance was increasing, and that the educational disadvantage (i.e., lower school attendance rates) suffered by OVC was getting smaller, especially among boys.
  • Among households who reported receiving caregiver visits to support OVC or chronically ill individuals over the prior six months, the mean number of reported visits during the preceding six months increased significantly from 2.3 to 10.9 visits. Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported that the caregivers had brought changes to the household, a significant improvement from 53 percent at baseline.
• Strategic objective 2: Improve quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS.
  • Percentage of respondents who were aware of stigmatizing behaviors in the community dropped throughout the study sites over time. By 2009, awareness of stigmatizing behaviors in the community was measured below 10 percent across all sites.
  • Caregivers requested greater attention from RAPIDS to regularly replenish their supplies—especially the contents of their caregiver kits—in order to enable them to provide better service to their clients. They also requested ongoing and refresher training sessions to continue to improve the quality of the caregiving duties that they perform.
• Strategic objective 3: Improve livelihoods of vulnerable youth.
  • Among the male youth covered in the household survey, involvement in RAPIDS livelihood activities, including vocational skills training (tailoring, knitting, carpentry, and catering) and microenterprise development, increased significantly during the evaluation period, from 20 to 38 percent. However, participation of females in livelihoods activities appeared to lag behind, remaining stable at 15–17 percent, when compared to their male peers.
  • Both male and female youth living in households who reported receiving RAPIDS services in the past six months showed a much higher rate of reporting that they had participated in any income-generating activities; females significantly so (24 percent vs. 11 percent, p < 0.000).
• Strategic objective 4: Strengthen resilience of households made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.
  • Among households supporting someone who is chronically ill or a child who had been orphaned or taken in, coverage of RAPIDS food support services such as beans, maize, cooking oil, or kapenta (a small, freshwater sardine) increased from 10 to 13 percent overall. During the same period, data show that the demand for food support was consistently high—up to 90 percent of households surveyed requested food support at endline.
    
    

Based on these findings, researcher recommendations include:

• Consider continuing to spend effort acquiring school items that are needed by OVCs.
• Caregiving services to people who are chronically ill must continue to address the changing needs of people living with HIV and AIDS as the availability of antiretrovirals (ARVs) increases.
• Continue to address the caregiver role in adherence for PLHAs, including monitoring client intake of ARVs and proper diet and exercise.
• Prepare for an increase in demand for palliative care, especially physical therapy, as clients live longer and develop later stages of the chronic symptoms of AIDS.
• Develop a system to integrate services within the Zambian health system.
• Explore creative new ways to create opportunities for youth to utilize their skills, including access to capital and experienced business leaders.
• Research future economic growth trends to lay the groundwork for more effective livelihood programs.
• Continue to use lifeskills and livelihood training venues to reinforce HIV and other relevant messages to the attending youth.
• Continue with plans to integrate alcohol awareness and gender-based violence messages into the household model.
• Maintain attention to programming that will provide particular support to female-headed households and households who lack healthy adult caregivers.
• Provide additional training to caregivers on how best to advise their clients on nutritional intake.
• More focused income-generating activities and increased caregiver visits, especially in households who are missing one or more adult health caregivers, are crucial to the households' success.
  
  

RAPIDS evaluation final report 2005-2009 key findings (PDF) 
Apicella,Louis; Schenk,Katie D.; Khan,Hena
Publication date: 2010


Community interventions providing care and support to orphans and vulnerable children: A review of evaluation evidence (abstract) 
Schenk,Katie D.
AIDS Care 21(7): 918-942
Publication date: 2009


Circumstances and motivations for fostering children in Zambia (abstract) 
Schenk,Katie D.; Ndhlovu,Lewis; Tembo,Stephen; Nsune,Andson; Nkhata,Chozi; Walusiku,Batuke; Watts,Charlotte
Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies 3(1): 78-84
Publication date: 2008


Supporting orphans and vulnerable children affected by AIDS: Using community-generated definitions to explore patterns of children's vulnerability in Zambia (abstract) 
Schenk,Katie D.; Ndhlovu,Lewis; Tembo,Stephen; Nsune,Andson; Nkhata,Chozi; Walusiku,Batuke; Watts,Charlotte
AIDS Care 20(8): 894-903
Publication date: 2008


RAPIDS baseline survey report 
Schenk,Katie D.; Ndhlovu,Lewis
Publication date: 2006