BLOOM project
BLOOM project
The aim of the project is a healthy life for children and their mothers (10-24) living with or exposed to HIV.
- Adolescent girls and young women,
- Children,
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Paediatric HIV Care
Why children are left behind in HIV care
A high number of children living with HIV and pregnant women are still unaware of their HIV status or not able to start and continue treatment. They have to deal with long distances to a health facility, lack of means to cover transport to a clinic or to ensure healthy nutrition, limited knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment, as well as stigma and traditional healing beliefs. At the health facility level, the staff is often overburdened and not sufficiently trained to offer child-friendly services. Paediatric HIV medicines are not always in stock. This all makes children and pregnant women unable to access health services to enroll in appropriate and life-saving HIV care and support.
The Aidsfonds paediatric HIV approach
Our approach comprises five components that mutually reinforce each other: community-based programmes; linking & learning; strategic partnerships, advocacy, and research. With this comprehensive package, we are determined to reach the following goals:
- All children living with HIV are supported to start and continue their treatment and live healthy lives
- Appropriate and child-friendly HIV treatment is available, accessible, and affordable for all children and their caregivers
- All pregnant women living with HIV receive treatment and their children are born and remain HIV free
The Kids to Care model
Aidsfonds works in collaboration with governments and local partners, to test and scale up community-based HIV programmes. These are based on our Kids to Care model which:
• Empowers communities to find and support pregnant women and children living with HIV
• Strengthens the links between communities and health facilities.
Community health workers are a crucial link at all four stages of HIV care for children: find, test, start and stay. It means children can live healthily with HIV.
Find out more about Kids to CareWake up! Our children are dying
“It does require a huge commitment, politically, financially but also from civil society to ensure that children are not left behind,” says Shaun Mellors, Director Community Stakeholder Engagement. Govt Affairs and Global Public Health ViiV Healthcare. “We see Aidsfonds as a very important strategic partner to ViiV Healthcare Positive Action but also to the global agenda to end paediatric AIDS.”
Watch the video with Shaun Mellors’ call to end paediatric AIDS
Where we work
In 2016 Aidsfonds piloted and further developed the community intervention model for paediatric HIV in the Towards and AIDS-Free Generation in Uganda programme. Based on its positive results and valuable lessons including sustainability we contextualized and rolled out the model in Zimbabwe in 2018.
Currently the model is being implemented in 5 African high-burden countries to successfully find missing children in need of HIV treatment, care and support.
KidzAlive@Home
KidzAlive@Home
KidzAlive@Home is an innovative approach to improving identification, testing, treatment and retention in care for children living with HIV in South Africa by supporting caregivers to access comprehensive services in a child-friendly environment. It puts the child at the centre of care. Its needs are taken care of within a circle of key players, including their caregivers, the child’s family, community structures and the health facility. The programme was implemented by Zoë-life Innovative Solutions in South Africa with support from Aidsfonds, and focused on two communities in eThekwini and uMgungundlovu districts in KwaZulu-Natal province. KidzAlive@Home is based on identifying children living with HIV through engagement with community-based organisations and community structures building on the Kids to Care model stages which include find, test, treat and stay.
- Children,
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Kusingata
Kusingata
Kusingata means ‘support’ or ‘warmth’ in local language, referring to a support approach to families and children living with or affected by HIV. It is rooted in traditional systems of the communities in Inhambane. The programme makes use of these community structures for referrals to testing and treatment; individual support through home visits; support groups and community dialogues. Implementation of a community scorecard, a social accountability tool at health facility level, quality of HIV services have been improved from a user-perspective. To assure intrinsic motivation of clients, field staff and health care providers have received training on motivational interviewing. The Lafiyan Yara project is built on the Kids to Care model, using the four stages of find, test, treat and stay, where early detection of HIV can reduce infant, child and maternal mortality. To facilitate early detection of HIV, community-level mobilisers for health are engaged to conduct effective case identification and linkage to care.
- Children,
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Lafiyan Yara
Lafiyan Yara
The Lafiyan Yara project is a community-based response to paediatric HIV in Nigeria. Run by Society for Family Health, it aimed to increase uptake of HIV services among children aged 0-14 years and to reduce mother-to-child transmission. The project worked with traditional birth attendants, village health workers and patent and proprietary medicine vendors, who worked to eliminate vertical transmission and identify children living with HIV as early as possible so they can be linked to care and supported to live healthy lives. Lafiyan Yara was implemented between 2019-2022 in eight local government authorities in Taraba state with support from Aidsfonds. In Hausa language Lafiyan Yara means 'well-being of children'. The Lafiyan Yara project is built on the Kids to Care model, using the four stages of find, test, treat and stay, where early detection of HIV can reduce infant, child and maternal mortality. To facilitate early detection of HIV, community-level mobilisers for health are engaged to conduct effective case identification and linkage to care.
- Children,
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Paediatric HIV Breakthrough Partnership
Paediatric HIV Breakthrough Partnership
The Breakthrough Partnership is a commitment to end paediatric HIV in regions most urgent.
- Adolescent girls and young women,
- Children,
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Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda
Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda
The Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda (TAFU) programme was Aidsfonds’ first paediatric HIV community intervention programme. The programme trained up community health workers to identify HIV positive children, and link individuals to care and ongoing support. The programme was co-created through community leadership and engagement with key stakeholders, building on community knowledge of the needs of children living with HIV. Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda changed the way that community-based paediatric HIV services were delivered.
- Children,
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Our partners
