HIV/AIDS Pograms

HIV/AIDS Pograms

Africare’s first HIV/AIDS programs were in Nigeria and Rwanda, in 1987. Today, Africare’s HIV/AIDS programs reach every country where the organization works. The broad program areas are:

  • HIV prevention
  • HIV/AIDS counseling and testing
  • Treatment, palliative care and other support for people living with HIV, AIDS and TB/HIV
  • Support for AIDS orphans

Specific assistance programs have taken dozens of forms. In countries such as Benin, Nigeria and Rwanda, for example, Africare has addressed HIV/AIDS at the national policymaking level. In the early 1990s, Africare helped develop Africa’s first Portuguese-language HIV/AIDS awareness materials, designed to serve millions of people in Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe. HIV prevention work has ranged from peer education among adults ― to school programs, “orphan clubs,” traveling drama shows and counseling centers especially for youths. With Africare’s support, village volunteers and local groups of all kinds have gained improved means of responding to their own communities’ HIV/AIDS issues. Care for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS is both home-based and through networks of hospitals and rural clinics; and the work embraces both medical care and socioeconomic support. Africare helps AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children by several means, including relief to homeless “street children,” education and other support and, equally important, assistance to the children’s adult caregivers.

Africare supports free-standing HIV/AIDS programs. In addition, larger Africare programs in other areas (food security, rural health and emergency response, for example) incorporate components addressing HIV/AIDS.

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