HIV AIDS
ART Support Programme in the Eastern Cape
OUTREACH CARE FOR HIV+ CHILDREN
In South Africa, 43,000 children died of HIV/AIDS related illnesses last year. The Eastern Cape Province is one of the poorest regions in South Africa. In 2009, it was estimated that 23,000 children were infected with HIV in the Eastern Cape alone.
In 2004, One to One Children’s Fund and its partner, Small Projects Foundation (SPF), developed a successful model which has contributed to reducing the number of infected children in the province. Through the Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) Support Programme, we work hand in hand with local stakeholders and community workers to eradicate HIV, stop the transmission of HIV to babies, identify and support HIV+ babies, children and adolescents and provide treatment and care for their families within the community.
The projects also aims to fill critical gaps in the provision of care by the provincial health department, by providing nurses and community outreach.
In May 2010, thanks to funding from the Medicor Foundation over two years, One to One Children’s Fund has been able to extend the programme to two new clinic sites. The ART Support Programme in the Eastern Cape is currently implemented in 4 hospital sites, including 35 primary healthcare clinics (or satellite clinics) where most of the ART patients are referred. These are Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, Dora Nginza Hospital, Queenstown Hospital and Isilimela Hospital. Both Queenstown and Isilimela have a prevalence rate superior to the provincial rate of 26%. As many as 500 children and babies respectively should receive ART, but until last year there was no provision for these two local hospitals to treat paediatric patients with ARVs.
This Programme has demonstrated clearly that the impact of HIV can be significantly reduced by stopping the transmission of HIV to babies, identifying and supporting babies, children and adolescents with HIV, and providing the best possible treatment and care for their families within the community.
Our overall objective is to reduce Paediatric HIV to 2% (i.e. a maximum of 2% of babies born to HIV positive mothers contract the disease) and we believe this should be possible to accomplish in the next five years if we secure continuous funding exclusively assigned to the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) for 5 years.
This objective is based on evident changes in behaviour with many pregnant women and fathers getting tested as well as getting them engaged in PMTCT (through village and door to door outreach). Our two biggest problems now are:
- To get HIV positive pregnant women to bring their babies at six weeks to be tested.
- To prevent mixed breast and bottle feeding in the first six months of a baby’s life. Mothers and caregivers tend to do mixed feeding which can lead to transmission of HIV. We have already reduced HIV transmission to babies from about 37% down to 9,36% in the last year in the Isilimela area (Port St Johns). Mothers are now more aware and clinics are starting to do the right thing.
 |
EACH CLINIC IS SET UP TO
PROVIDE: |
THE GARDENING PROGRAMME:
The Gardening project is becoming an important component of this programme. The knowledge of gardening in South Africa has been eroded by the importation of intensive farming practices and by the decimation of an entire generation infected by HIV and other diseases. The gardening project, through its training activities, ensures that the vital knowledge of gardening continues to be passed from generation to generation – especially important for child-headed households.
Africa needs to focus on a new feeding model suiting both society and land. The gardening project will provide independent food security for the clinic, the people trained and their family as they could feed themselves and manage their own resources more sustainably.
|
“Before we had ARVs a positive HIV test result meant death, but the
great thing now is that with adherence and support at home, it means
life.”