Born Free of HIV in West Africa

This June we celebrated 10 years of Mother To Child Transmission Prevention (MTCTP) at the Sikoro clinic in Bamako. Of course we had to have a party with the whole community including speeches, masked dancers, drumming, a theatre troupe, and a big, shared meal. Everyone is proud of the progress made by all towards a healthier safer community. It's amazing to think that some of those first HIV-free babies born at the clinic will be teenagers soon!

We also began the preliminary conversations with public health officials about expanding our program to other clinics in the region of Commune 1 (a district of Bamako). At other clinics, MTCTP has not been successful, and there's a lot to do to make sure that proper preventions measures take place. The first steps are to meet with staff at the clinics and determine what is preventing proper MTCTP from taking place. The next step will be staff trainings and community outreach.

The end goal will be to ensure that 100% of women who come in for pre-natal visits are offered free HIV testing and counseling. It's also important that 100% of women who test positive give birth at the clinic so that they have a safe, clean environment to reduce risk for the baby.

The government HIV prevention networks in Mali are making 2016 the year of MTCTP, and the goal is to eliminate this form of transmission entirely. GAIA has proven that we know how to eliminate vertical transmission, and we have 10 years of experience! 

Please join us as we start to grow this program so that we can have a greater effect preventing children in Mali from being born with HIV! Your help has always been crucial to us at GAIA!

Many thanks for your years of support!