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HIV AIDS Patient Support
The illness AIDS is a significant problem in Tanzania. Over one in twenty women and one is thirty three men are afflicted by this life-changing illness.
The government, to its credit, provides free health care for all AIDS-related illnesses and distributes life-saving anti-retro virals (ARVs) without charge.
However, health care does not extend to non-AIDS related illnesses, to which many HIV+ people are particularly vulnerable.
To be known to be HIV+ is to be invariably ostracised by one’s own village inhabitants, This sad attitude inevitably leads to unemployment and impoverishment. Thus, paying for health care is for many not an option
There are ten central health clinics in the Usambaras to which people go to access their ARVs on a monthly basis. We have attended five of these clinics (Mnazi, Kangagai, Mlalo, Mnolo, and Sunga) and spoken to the attendees and have now enrolled them in a government health insurance scheme that gives them free health care no matter what the issue.
An important part of reducing HIV is to increase awareness and encourage testing. We worked with the Peace Corps volunteers there to raise HIV awareness and encourage the men to do the test. Here is the Event Summary of the event in the above video.
$5 could provide health insurance to one of the blind school students or HIV adult patients whom we seek to support.
In the coming months we will attend the other five clinics to enrol what will be a large proportion of the Usambara AIDS patients. It is worth noting that the majority of the attendees are women, as the men are much more reluctant to risk public exposure. We emphasise to the attendees that there is absolutely no shame in being sick - no matter what the illness is.
So far, we have paid the health insurance of 1,620 patients at a cost of $5 per person. We have an estimated 1,500-2,000 patients still to enrol in the five clinics. Plans are already in place to begin visiting them beginning in July 2024.
The health insurance fees renew at the beginning of each year.
We have also begun chicken projects in two of the health centres. We gave each participant three chickens with the idea of giving people either income from selling eggs, or eating the eggs for nourishment. We are still assessing the impact of this.
The health insurance fees renew at the beginning of each year.