On Monday, we will begin to focus our discussion on the client perspective. Our first posting next week will come from Anne Namwamba-Ntombela in South Africa. Anne is co-founder of a support group for people living with AIDS called Springs of Hope Support Group and she has been involved in HIV / AIDS work since 1996.
In today's e-mail we include:
- A comment from Dr. Rajat Kumar Das about the status of integration in India. He suggests that the best way to integrate HIV/AIDS with reproductive and child health projects is through local government bodies and asks for feedback on this idea.
- A comment from Bernadette Kazibwe, President of the Clare Nsenga Foundation. Bernadette talks about the problem of providing health education and health care in rural areas and about the Foundation's work in Uganda.
- A comment from Pastor Michael Mwandha about the work of the Beroya Gospel Fellowship in Uganda
- Information on an upcoming conference in October in Ethiopia on integration/linkages between reproductive health and HIV/AIDS
- Resources for statistics on HIV status and contraceptive use.
To participate in the discussion, you can:
- click reply to this e-mail
- send your comment to fphivintegration@ibp.wa-research.ch
- log into the forum website at http://my.ibpinitiative.org/Community.aspx?c=d1f835b2-0c72-420a-9ade-88186b49abe7 with the username and password you received.
ONLINE ARCHIVE
Postings are also archived at http://www.fpandhiv.org/videoconference/cpieventpage.php along with all the resources mentioned in previous postings. You do not need to know your username and password to read the postings on the web site. While you are there, please take a look at the web site as well. It was developed to bring together in one place all the relevant resources on integration of family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention and services.
We look forward to continued rich and interesting discussions. Thanks again for participating!
Best regards,
HCP and INFO Teams
Dr. Rajat Kumar Das - India
Greetings from Kolkata in India !
I have been associated as Consultant to the HIV / AIDS programme in several states of India as well as the State Reproductive and Child Health Projects. Both these projects are linked to National HIV / AIDS and RCH programmes. Owing to the vertical nature, different donor support base, separate delivery institutions and mechanisms there is very little integration of FP and HIV / AIDS. This is especially needed at the primary provider of services level but inter-sectoral coordination is easier said than done. One attempt which could provide a means of integration is for the Local self government bodies ( Panchayats as called in Indi ) to coordinate this integration. I would welcome any further suggestions and ideas.
Best regards,
Dr. Rajat Kumar Das
President
Association for Social and Health Advancement ( ASHA )
BE - 135, Sector - I, Salt Lake,
Kolkata - 700 064, West Bengal, India
Tel :- ( 91 ) ( 33 ) 2359 5475
e-mail :- ashacal@cal3.vsnl.net.in
Bernadette Kazibwe - Uganda/USA
Dear Friends:
Thanks to all who are brain storming on the issues of HIV/AIDS.
My name is Bernadette Kazibwe. President: Clare Nsenga Foundation and I have been reading all ideas and ways people are bringing the health care to the needy.
Some of them are good but others are just a guess work. For example. the one who wrote about men being circumcised that will decrease the AIDS, that is a just guess work. Yes, you may be cleaner hygiene wise, but when you have disease, it doesn't matter wheather you are circumcised or not.
I agree with Ssempala 100% and more. We need to teach morals, and with in that we need to be able to provide the screening to every couple who are to get married, and real keep up with the teaching that only being faithful to your partner is the only way to go.
Second, we need to empower our youngster that they should real try to do what they can to abstain from sex until they find some one they love and go for testing before they ever attempt to get together.
Our program is based in the villages of Uganda, Kisoro District, Bordering Rwanda where all escapees from the genocide of 1995 reside. There is nothing out there in those villages to learn about health issues at all.
In 2005 we were able to train health educaters with the funds from Mercy Action USA, we had the opportunity to send them in the villages to educate local people, it was amazing to see how many people never talk about sex and marriage.
Here is what we found, most people in the villages found a name for AIDS. It's called "Slim". This name was attributed to the fact that when people has HIV/AIDS they become small and eventually die.
I conclude saying that, we need to educate. Education is the key to real get to the bottom of this disease. People needs to learn how it's transmitted, how to care for those who are already infected, and take care of those orphans children who are left behind to care for there siblings.
The government too needs to get more involved in caring for it's people. for example: some organizations just stay in the Capital cities of their country and because of poor roads and no one wants to hear about poor people in the villages, the services ends just there in the capital cities. There should be a recognition and support for people who are trying their best to bring these services to local villages.
Right now there is no services in the villages. Not every one has a chance to go to capital cities to find what services are there. It is a very sad situation. People in the villages are born and die with out ever seeing a doctor. What does this tell you?
In the villages of Uganda especially Kigezi, the pervert and ignorance like most 3rd word countries is the first main killers besides AIDS.
People don't have any means to learn about health.Most of them have no education.
When I think about people in general who live in the villages where nobody knows that there are human beings there, I just feel sad and pray to God to help them. People in the villages has no hope for the future, there are hopeless.
This is my motivation, to try and educate and bring hope where there is no hope.
If any one is interested in coming with us in Feb of next year 2007 we are going to Uganda for 2 weeks Kigezi,Kisoro District to open Clare Nsenga Health Center.
This is an opportunity that you don't want to miss. Lets stop the spread of HIV/AIDS through education , counseling, testing for everyone couple who wants to get married and care for the sick with compassion.
Come, you can be the first to witness what I am talking about. For more information on the foundation, check the website at http://www.clarensenga.org .
I also wish to inform you that UConn Medical Center in Farmington is donating Medical equipment to Clare Nsenga Health Center. If any of you is willing or know how we can ship the 40feet container. Please let us know.
God bless and keep you in his care.
Bernadette Kazibwe:
Phone: 1-860-537-9163 :USA.
E-mail: bnkazibwe@sbcglobal.net
Pastor Michael Mwandha - Uganda
Dear sir/madam,
Greetings from Pastor Michael in Uganda .
I am serving as the Executive Director of Beroya Gospel Fellowship in Uganda which is a faith non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Uganda . We do have programmes of HIV/AIDS mostly in VCT and community education whereby we have 750 women whereby 30 women are positive with HIV and they have a big number of children whom we feel that we could help them and we are still encouraging the remaining number to go for their blood testing.
For your information , I want to share with you that we do have a health service center where we do carry out the VCT program .We also seek justice for the oppressed and abused mother, orphans and other members of the society as afree service. Therefore it is my humble request to know , how best can we have you in partnership us so that we can raise support for these needy and sickly women and children .
Thank you with hope to hearing from you soon .
Pastor Mwandha Michael .
Executive Director ,
BEROYA GOSPEL FELLOWSHIP P.O.BOX 395 JINJA .
UGANDA , EAST AFRICA .
TEL: +256-782-593714.
Linking Reproductive Health and Family Planning with HIV/AIDS: What Do We Know?
Heather Bradley from the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA would like forum participants to know about this upcoming conference:
International Conference on Linking Reproductive Health and Family Planning with HIV/AIDS Programs - October, 2006.
Linking Reproductive Health and Family Planning with HIV/AIDS: What Do We Know?
Addis Ababa University and the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in collaboration with national and international organizations will hold a conference to assess the current state of knowledge on prevention and treatment programs in Africa with both reproductive health and HIV/AIDS components.
The UN and others have endorsed the integration of reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs, and most governments have policies encouraging such integration. However, research studies have only recently begun examining the programmatic compatibility and effectiveness of combining these two areas.
The conference, to be held in Addis Ababa, will also be co-sponsored by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the World Health Organization and the Ethiopian Public Health Association. The meeting will provide a forum for researchers and policy makers to share findings and to identify future research needs. Conference dates, details and a call for abstracts will be circulated within several weeks.
http://www.jhsph.edu/gatesinstitute
For more information, contact:
Heather Bradley
Bill and Melinda Gates Insitute for Population and Reproductive Health
hbradley@jhsph.edu
OR
Dr. Lensa Kuma
Addis Ababa University
lensinak@yahoo.com
Sources for Statistics on HIV / AIDS
HIV/AIDS Survey Findings (2004) - a special online issue of Population Reports that presents survey findings on HIV/AIDS awareness and behavior, in questions and answer format. Available in HTML [ http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/m18/hivaids/ ] and PDF [ http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/m18/hivaids/aidsq&as.pdf ]
DHS STATcompiler - a free, online tool that builds customized tables of data published in the Demographic and Health Surveys from more than 60 countries around the world. To access the STATcompiler, log on to http://www.statcompiler.com .
UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2005 - http://www.unaids.org/epi/2005/doc/report_pdf.asp
Welcome to the 10th day of our discussion of Client and Provider Perspectives on Integration of Family Planning Counseling and HIV/AIDS Services. Today is the last day that we will be focusing on provider perspectives.