The vital role of communities in ARV treatment
Press Release June 2004
1 June, 2004, Chrismar Hotel, Lusaka
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance Zambia today launched a project to boost community support, education and referral on anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for AIDS. The project will draw on the experiences of people with HIV/AIDS to educate and support other people with HIV/AIDS, and educate the communities in which they live.
“ARV treatment is life-long treatment, and people need support and education to adhere to these drugs every day”, said Daphetone Siame, Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s Zambia office.
“We need to ensure that communities are supported, as well as the health care workers in clinics. This project we are launching today will develop a whole series of activities to educate and support HIV-affected communities in Lusaka and Ndola”, reported Daphetone Siame.
Siame went on to describe the kind of activities included in this project: “Activities like support groups for people taking ARV treatments, treatment supporters in clinics, health fairs, youth rallies, street drama on ARV treatment…all of these activities will not only support people taking treatments, but hopefully they will have a powerful effect on the communities where positive people are living, to educate people about how ARV treatments can save lives and challenge HIV stigma.”
The project will also have a research component to study how these kinds of community activities impact on knowledge levels and on peoples’ abilities to adhere to ARV treatments and sustain protective behaviour.
Study investigator, Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, also from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, described how the project is working in partnership with a whole host of Zambian organisations – the Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS, the Central Board of Health, Horizons, Archdiocese of Lusaka, the Catholic Diocese of Ndola, the Traditional Health Practitioners Association, as well as others.
Dhaliwal described how important this work is to the Government ARV treatment programme: “A person taking ARV treatment might spend 10 minutes in a clinic seeing a doctor or health worker every few months. The rest of that day, that week, that month, that year, that same person is living in their community, taking ARV treatments. We want to support that person’s experience outside the clinic, in the rest of their lives.”
For further information about this project contact:
Daphetone Siame, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Zambia
Tel: +2601 260818; 264 792; 263 088
Dr Mandeep Dhaliwal, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Brighton, UK
Tel: + 44 7961440562 (mob); + 44 1273 718 951
Susie McLean, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Brighton, UK
Tel: +44 7890 124996 (mob); +44 1273 718976
This project is funded by USAID and the European Union. Participating organisations:
- International HIV/AIDS Alliance (Zambia and Brighton UK offices)
- Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS (NZP+)
- Central Board of Health, Government of Zambia
- University Teaching Hospital and Ndola Central Hospital
- Institute for Economic and Social Research, University of Zambia
- Archdiocese of Lusaka and Catholic Diocese of Ndola
- Kara Counselling
- Traditional Health Practitioners Association of Zambia
- Africa Directions
- DAPP (Development Assistance People to People)
- Horizons/Population Council
