In our HIV awareness and prevention programing, ICODI has worked with different Districts in Uganda through working with health facilities, community structures like local, religious and cultural leaders as well as youth and women leaders and their groups to promote global efforts in improving the lives of key HIV affected populations with a “Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free strategy” as a Fast-Track framework for ending AIDS in children, adolescents and young women. In Mbarara District-South Western Uganda, ICODI has worked with the District’s local government, different health facilities providing HIV care and treatment as well as different local stakeholders like women and youth leaders and their groups, local and religious leaders to utilise community, patient and family based approach to help in reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on women’s and children’s health through reducing on lost to follow up rates among HIV +ve women (pregnant and breastfeeding) and the exposed children receiving HIV care in Health facilities as well as promoting early identification of children living with HIV through ensuring Early Infant Diagnosis.
ICODI utilised the approach (community, patient and family based approach) through; (1) Training and working with Village Health Teams (VHTs)/Community Health Workers (CHWs) to strengthen their capacity to extend PMTCT information in vulnerable communities using appropriate community based models, (2) Training and equipping local and religious leaders with basic information about PMTCT in order for them to utilise their community gatherings to educate and encourage couple HIV testing, encourage pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV to always attend all the PMTCT clinics/sessions in health facilities and also encourage male involvement in PMTCT programmes, (3) Carrying out community based eMTCT campaigns focusing on couple HIV testing and Early Infant Diagnosis, (4) Building capacity of health workers in the district to strengthen health education among women living with HIV and their partners in communities. Capacity building was in areas of Early Infant Diagnosis (EID), breast feeding among women living with HIV, complementary feeding for babies and other nutritional information for children and mothers, (5) Working with health facilities to strengthen active linkage of HIV positive mothers (pregnant and breastfeeding mothers) from the point of HIV testing to the point of HIV care in order to reduce on the incidences of identified HIV positive mothers going back without getting enrolled HIV care and (6) Carrying out health facility based trainings for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers living with HIV about the importance of taking their ARVs, importance of testing their children for 1st DNA/PCR, 2nd DNA/PCR and a Rapid HIV Test at 18 months among other strategies.
