Health Care for 500 HIV+ Children in Zambia

Wishing you and your family a 2019 filled with peace and joy!

Power of Love's pediatric HIV care program has been providing health-care services in an impoverished neighborhood in Lusaka, Zambia for the past 14 years. Most residents are poor, many are HIV+, have little education, and need our support. Direct beneficiaries are 400 HIV+ children and indirect beneficiaries are estimated to be an additional 1900 community residents. As we close 2018, we wanted to give you an overview of program activities, their impact, and our plan for the upcoming year. 

Impact

The goal of all program activities is to prevent new HIV infections, and to ensure that no child under our care develops AIDS. With your support, all 400 HIV+ children under our care are improving or stable in health. The families have better knowledge about HIV, more people are coming forward for testing, and there are more open discussions about HIV. All these result in HIV prevention, reduced stigma and discrimination, and higher school attendance and performance. 

Highlights of program activities in 2018.

• Added 50 children: This brings the total to 400 HIV+ children under our care.
• Training in HIV was provided to 53 new family members to ensure that the new children are under the care of a trained caregiver 24/7. This is in addition to the ongoing training provided to family members during home visits.
• Psychosocial counseling provided to all children. This helps children adjust to their HIV status, interact better with peers, and feel a sense of belonging in the community.   
• Testing for HIV: More than 300 family members were tested for HIV and provided with counseling services.
• School support: 63 children were provided with funds to help pay for school fees, books, school bags, uniforms, shoes.
• Electronic health records: A simple electronic health records system was implemented to help improve health outcomes.
• Adherence to medication: All children are adhering to their medication regimen. At present we have 100% adherence to medications.
• High protein soya supplement: Provision of a high protein soya supplement ensured that no child was malnourished and reduced the number of undernourished children. 
• Program services: All 400 HIV+ children receive food, medicines and a package of life saving health care services and will continue to do so till they turn 18 years of age. As a result, their health is stable or improving as measured by weight and CD4 counts.

Plan for 2019

• Add 50 to100 HIV+ children.
• Continue to monitor the health of children under our care.
• Zero new HIV infections via PMTCT (Prevention-of-Mother-to-Child-Transmission).
• Track school attendance and performance to ensure the children are learning.
• Encourage older children to volunteer as these children are role models and mentors for younger children.
• Expand the skill set of community members via the provision of education and training programs.
• Gather more in-depth feedback from community residents. 

Thanks for making healthcare accessible to hundreds of orphans and vulnerable children in Zambia.   

Links:

• About our pediatric HIV care program
• What makes our pediatric HIV care program unique?
• Impact of our Pediatric HIV care program