Charles Kawuma recognises how impactful the community-led approach has been on rallying both the community and healthcare workers around addressing paediatric HIV. Charles highlights that youth voices and mothers living with HIV have been elevated and the gaps in care between community and health centres reduced. He works as a health educator and HIV focal person in Mubende District, Uganda and is involved in the Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda programme.
“The youth voices in HIV are now more noticeable. It has helped us know the issues faced by the youth and what to address. For example, we no longer work through generalised services and use more youth-friendly services. Using the youth peer educators supported by PATA (a Breakthrough project partner) has helped us with awareness raising to reach more young people than ever before. We have realised a closer connection between our health centres and the communities which has improved client tracing, referral and ultimately treatment outcomes. Much as we persistently have few health workers, these trained youths and community structures help with mobilisation and basic health education to reach fellow young people and other targeted groups such as mothers, caretakers, and exposed infants”.
He recognises that using multiple pathways in the community, at the health centre, and ensuring that the various community workers are well trained and linked together is crucial for paediatric HIV prevention and care.
“Moving forward, we are sure we can sustain a number of efforts started because of the technical capacity built within our health officers. I have observed a culture of ownership built within our community health workers, the youths, and health officers which will keep the changes alive.”
Community Breakthroughs Storybook
Charles Kawuma’s and many more inspiring voices on community-led interventions supported by Aidsfonds and our partners aimed at ending paediatric HIV in some of the worst affected areas in Uganda, have been captured in an comprehensive storybook. This Community Breakthroughs – Community-led Interventions for an AIDS Free Uganda Storybook is available for download.
The Paediatric HIV Breakthrough Partnership is an ambitious initiative committed to ending paediatric HIV in regions most urgent. It aims to strengthen collaboration between community, health facilities, government, health care providers and civil society, placing communities at the heart of the response. Aidsfonds, together with the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric Foundation, PATA and UNICEF, collaborates in this partnership which was initiated and funded by ViiV Healthcare Positive Action.
Communities
Adolescent girls and young women, Children
Brussels Metro Campaign Calls on EU to Invest €800M in the Global Fund to Save Lives
Brussels Metro Campaign Calls on EU to Invest €800M in the Global Fund to Save Lives
This week, commuters across the Brussels metro are invited to reflect on the real-world impact of global health investment. A commitment from the European Commission of €800 million to the Global Fund could help save up to 1.2 million lives - roughly equivalent to the entire population of Brussels - making clear how vast and human the impact of this investment would be in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The campaign is led by Friends of the Global Fund Europe, ONE Campaign, Alliance for Public Health, Global Health Advocates, and Aidsfonds, as part of a broader joint appeal endorsed by 330 organisations across Europe and beyond. Together, they are calling on the European Commission to demonstrate leadership in global health by committing €800 million to the Global Fund ahead of its next Board meeting in February.
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