A Mother & Child Community Development Initiative Chilenje, Zambia

Combating HIV/Aids

Two of the most powerful tools are the founding principles of the CWCG project.

1. Empowering women is a vital way to stop the spread of aids
2. Mother & Child community development initiatives empower women - not only within their own homes but also in the wider community

In addition to the good news above the Zambian government initiated a new "roll out" programme for a range of anti-retroviral drugs (ARV's) which greatly prolongs life for victims of AIDS. This programme, which is paid for by the USA, was initiated in 2005.

In Chilenje Clinic this meant that HIV infected women were encouraged to have a CD4 blood test (this test measures the development stages of the disease) to access their eligibility for free ARV drug treatment. Similarly there are now free ARVs for HIV infected children.

In the early stages of this programme the uptake by mothers was poor. Despite the ARVs being free only 12% of the HIV infected mothers and 5% of the infants were tested. These rates were low because of the severe and continuing problems of stigma in the community.

The Chilenje Women and Child Group (CWCG) made this low uptake of the new HIV help programme a major priority for change by initiating the following steps:

• Regular weekly discussions, led by doctors and nurses, on health issues affecting mothers and children. HIV/AIDS is openly discussed and the use of ARVs is explained.
• We host joint meetings with different groups within the community in which a full range of health issues are openly discussed and the support available is explained
• The women in the group network and support each other. This process empowers and enables women to tackle their life situations in more positive ways, and help them live with HIV/AIDS.

Overwhelming Positive Achievements

The above steps may seem simple but the results have been overwhelmingly positive.

1. The uptake of HIV testing among antenatal women at Chilenje Clinic has risen from just 12% in 2005 to nearly 100% by September 2007.
2. AZT is now given to all HIV infected mothers and this combined with breastfeeding exclusively has reduced the rate of mother-to-child transmission
3. The greatly increased uptake of the free ARV drugs means fewer women are dying and the numbers of new orphans is not increasing.

 

CWCG funded through the Hestia Charitable Foundation
UK Registered Charity 1095957

Hestia would like to note with thanks the generous support of the RLPF Foundation, USA