Health Care for 500 HIV+ Children in Zambia

Expanding our Pediatric HIV care program: You will be happy to know that as a result of your generosity and support, we added 50 HIV positive children to our pediatric HIV care program this month. The children will be receiving food, medicines and a package of life saving health care services till they turn 18 years of age. The package of health care services includes weekly health visits from community health workers, regular visits from the Project Nurse, psycho-social counseling, education in HIV prevention, and adherence monitoring and training for older children. In addition, primary caregivers (most are single moms and many are grandmothers caring for multiple orphans) will be undergo a five day training in caring for an HIV positive child.

Impact of this program:  Once the child has been under our care for 4-5 months, the child stabilizes in health; this is indicated by a reduced frequency and intensity of opportunistic infections. In subsequent months, the child improves in health; this is indicated by a sustained gain in weight, and higher CD4 counts. As the children stabilize and improve in health, they miss fewer days of school and perform better at school. In addition, the child’s caregiver has better understanding of HIV, the importance of keeping children in school, and in caring for HIV+ children, and other sick members in the family. As knowledge about HIV care and prevention improves, family members begin to come forward for testing for HIV, which is the first step in prevention of this disease. Finally, trained caregivers share their knowledge about HIV care and prevention with others in the community

Training to Caregivers:  Caregivers of children are provided with a five day training in HIV care, and prevention. The goal of this training is to equip family member in basic nursing skills and psychosocial counseling so that the child is under the care of a trained caregiver 24/7.  Post training, family members are able to take better care of different kinds of opportunistic infections common among HIV+ children at home and are able to escalate care to the next level. As a result, most children stabilize and improve in health (measured by fewer opportunistic infections, gain in weight, higher CD4 counts), once they have been on our program for 4-5 months. 

Profile of the New Children: The new children range in age from two to sixteen years with a majority of them in the age range from 6-12 years and most between 2-16 years. Since most of the children are of school going age, our goal is to ensure that children attend school and also educate caregivers on the importance of keeping children in school. Our goal is for these children to stay heathy and graduate middle, and high school.

To Sum: With the addition of 50 children, we will have a total of 300 HIV+ children that receive food, medicines and a package of life saving health care services. We are confident that these children will show a marked improvement in health in the coming months, attend school and live close to normal lives.

Thanks for your gift and health to children in Zambia.

Links:

• About our pediatric HIV care program
• Training Provide to Caregivers make our program unique
• Meet two children who inspire us everyday