Accelerated Paediatric HIV Prevention and Care in Serere District in Uganda

Funded by The Riverside Church Sharing Fund Committee, New York City, the one year (September 2020 – August 2021) project is aiming to increase the number of HIV-positive children on treatment and to reduce the number of new infections among infants in Kadungulu Sub County in Serere district. The project will also build family, community, and lower level health system centered approaches to help in reducing on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women’s and children’s’ health through;

Empowering 700 HIV affected families socially and economically to retain mothers and children in care and to mobilize support for those families with children living with HIV by;

• Improving caretaker Knowledge on HIV testing, prevention, treatment and care for children and women
• Support Community Health Extension Workers and health workers to conduct facility based information sessions
• Identify and refer Children and women for HIV testing and care
• Conduct monthly Community and Couple Dialogue Sessions
• Strengthening families economically by participating in VSLAs to better care for children’s health
• Empower Children living with HIV to deal with their status and adhere to treatment

Mobilizing communities in the target sub county to address barriers to testing, treatment and adherence and to create awareness around paediatric HIV treatment and the specific needs of children living with HIV by;

• Conducting quarterly Community sensitization on paediatric HIV care, EID and PMTCT

Strengthening tracing, referral and follow-up systems for HIV positive mothers and children especially at the lower levels of the health care system; and to improve coordination between Community Health Extension Workers and health centres by

• Building the Capacities of Community Resource Persons (CRP)
• Building of capacity of Health care workers in HCII and III to strengthen health education among HIV positive women and their partners and improve their services to women and their children exposed and living with HIV and their families
• Strengthening active linkage, tracing, referral and follow up between HCs and CHEWs of HIV positive mothers (pregnant, lactating and nursing mothers) and children from the point of HIV testing to the point of HIV care in order to reduce on the incidences of HIV positive mothers and children going back without getting HIV care which increases the risk of mothers transmitting HIV to their babies