Paediatric HIV Care

Why children are left behind in HIV care

A high number of children living with HIV and pregnant women are still unaware of their HIV status or not able to start and continue treatment. They have to deal with long distances to a health facility, lack of means to cover transport to a clinic or to ensure healthy nutrition, limited knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment, as well as stigma and traditional healing beliefs. At the health facility level, the staff is often overburdened and not sufficiently trained to offer child-friendly services. Paediatric HIV medicines are not always in stock. This all makes children and pregnant women unable to access health services to enroll in appropriate and life-saving HIV care and support.

The Aidsfonds paediatric HIV approach

Our approach comprises five components that mutually reinforce each other: community-based programmes; linking & learning; strategic partnerships, advocacy, and research. With this comprehensive package, we are determined to reach the following goals:

All children living with HIV are supported to start and continue their treatment and live healthy lives
Appropriate and child-friendly HIV treatment is available, accessible, and affordable for all children and their caregivers
All pregnant women living with HIV receive treatment and their children are born and remain HIV free

Find out more

infographic five elements of the paediatric HIV approach

The Kids to Care model

Aidsfonds works in collaboration with governments and local partners, to test and scale up community-based HIV programmes. These are based on our Kids to Care model which:

• Empowers communities to find and support pregnant women and children living with HIV
• Strengthens the links between communities and health facilities.

Community health workers are a crucial link at all four stages of HIV care for children: find, test, start and stay. It means children can live healthily with HIV.

Find out more about Kids to Care

Wake up! Our children are dying

“It does require a huge commitment, politically, financially but also from civil society to ensure that children are not left behind,” says Shaun Mellors, Director Community Stakeholder Engagement. Govt Affairs and Global Public Health ViiV Healthcare. “We see Aidsfonds as a very important strategic partner to ViiV Healthcare Positive Action but also to the global agenda to end paediatric AIDS.”

Watch the video with Shaun Mellors’ call to end paediatric AIDS

Where we work

In 2016 Aidsfonds piloted and further developed the community intervention model for paediatric HIV in the Towards and AIDS-Free Generation in Uganda programme. Based on its positive results and valuable lessons including sustainability we contextualized and rolled out the model in Zimbabwe in 2018.

Currently the model is being implemented in 9 African high-burden countries to successfully find missing children in need of HIV treatment, care and support.

World map with Kids to Care countries indicated

Our Paediatric HIV projects

project

Kids Health, Kids Rights

The new Kids Health, Kids Rights project aims to eliminate vertical transmission and ensure all children living with HIV and their mothers live healthy and full lives. It applies the Kids to Care Model by building capacity of community volunteers and community health workers. They will work jointly with support groups and households in identifying children living with HIV. Community volunteers and community health workers will be trained in vertical transmission, door-to-door testing and referral, and establish or strengthen links between the health care workers and the volunteers. The project will mobilize young mothers with children living with HIV and link them to safe spaces and support groups both for them and for the children. Young girls involved in transactional sex will be targeted as well. In this project already existing committees will target female sex workers together with their kids. The support groups will also form a crucial capital in grassroots advocacy to improve polices related to finding, testing, treating and maintaining kids living with HIV in care. The project will be implemented in Thyolo, Chiradzulu and Nkhatabay districts in Malawi.

Communities

Children,

project

Imarisha Afya

The Imarisha Afya project aims to empower communities to find, test, treat, and retain children, pregnant and lactating mothers, and young mothers living with HIV into care. An age-appropriate response will be used to help fill the service provision gap for all people reaching the facility and those who don’t due to long distance to the facility, lack of transport cost, or lack of escort, among others. Community representatives such as community health workers, women and children protection committee members and leaders, religious leaders, people living with HIV groups, champions and mentor mothers, teenager clubs, and caregivers support groups will be capacitated and engaged in the project implementation. Staff at health facilities will be trained to offer child-friendly services and collaborate closely with communities. The project will be implemented in two regions and six councils in Tanzania which are Dodoma in Dodoma City, Kongwa and Chamwino district councils, and Njombe in Njombe Town, Makete, and Wanging’ombe District councils.

Communities

Children,

project

Champion-ID

Implemented by Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC), the Improve Children living with HIV's Welfare, Livelihood and Protection through Multisectoral Collaboration project will focus on ensuring all children living with HIV in Sorong (Southwest Papua) and Manokwari (West Papua) are supported to start and continue their treatment and live healthy lives. It relies on community health workers who use their community networks to find children living with HIV and pregnant women. They will be equipped with HIV knowledge and communication skills to deliver educational messages on the importance of knowing your HIV status as well as starting and staying on treatment. In Tanah Papua, IAC has forged strong partnerships with the communities, District Health Offices, and two of the largest church affiliations. In collaboration with the District Health Office the project adopts the existing method of training medical ethics that the IAC has established with the Ministry of Health and that is endorsed by the Executive Office of the President.

Communities

Children,

project

Scale up and Enhance HIV Paediatric Care with an Integrated Family Care Approach

The project will train 20 community health workers to strengthen their capacity to find, test, treat, retain in care of mothers and their children (0-14 years) and follow up to improve health outcomes. They play a critical role in conducting household visits with families to provide education on HIV, dispelling myths and reducing stigma and discrimination. In addition, the project will identify eight male mentors who are partners of women living with HIV (14-24 years). They will influence fellow male partners to take part in prevention of vertical transmission and paediatric HIV care programmes. It will also integrate community-based sports activities into the Kids to Care model to raise awareness for paediatric and adolescent HIV care services. The project will adapt the Clinic-CBO Collaboration (C3) model. The strengthened linkages between communities and health facilities help increase uptake of HIV services, combat stigma and discrimination, monitor quality and contribute to building stronger local health systems. This project will be implemented in four sub-counties in Zambia: Chisakila, Chiawa, Kambale and Chitende.

Communities

Children,

project

BLOOM project

The aim of the project is a healthy life for children and their mothers (10-24) living with or exposed to HIV.

Communities

Adolescent girls and young women,
Children,

project

KidzAlive@Home

KidzAlive@Home is an innovative approach to improving identification, testing, treatment and retention in care for children living with HIV in South Africa by supporting caregivers to access comprehensive services in a child-friendly environment. It puts the child at the centre of care. Its needs are taken care of within a circle of key players, including their caregivers, the child’s family, community structures and the health facility. The programme was implemented by Zoë-life Innovative Solutions in South Africa with support from Aidsfonds, and focused on two communities in eThekwini and uMgungundlovu districts in KwaZulu-Natal province. KidzAlive@Home is based on identifying children living with HIV through engagement with community-based organisations and community structures building on the Kids to Care model stages which include find, test, treat and stay.

Communities

Children,

project

Kusingata

Kusingata means ‘support’ or ‘warmth’ in local language, referring to a support approach to families and children living with or affected by HIV. It is rooted in traditional systems of the communities in Inhambane. The programme makes use of these community structures for referrals to testing and treatment; individual support through home visits; support groups and community dialogues. Implementation of a community scorecard, a social accountability tool at health facility level, quality of HIV services have been improved from a user-perspective. To assure intrinsic motivation of clients, field staff and health care providers have received training on motivational interviewing. The Lafiyan Yara project is built on the Kids to Care model, using the four stages of find, test, treat and stay, where early detection of HIV can reduce infant, child and maternal mortality. To facilitate early detection of HIV, community-level mobilisers for health are engaged to conduct effective case identification and linkage to care.

Communities

Children,

project

Lafiyan Yara

The Lafiyan Yara project is a community-based response to paediatric HIV in Nigeria. Run by Society for Family Health, it aimed to increase uptake of HIV services among children aged 0-14 years and to reduce mother-to-child transmission. The project worked with traditional birth attendants, village health workers and patent and proprietary medicine vendors, who worked to eliminate vertical transmission and identify children living with HIV as early as possible so they can be linked to care and supported to live healthy lives. Lafiyan Yara was implemented between 2019-2022 in eight local government authorities in Taraba state with support from Aidsfonds. In Hausa language Lafiyan Yara means 'well-being of children'. The Lafiyan Yara project is built on the Kids to Care model, using the four stages of find, test, treat and stay, where early detection of HIV can reduce infant, child and maternal mortality. To facilitate early detection of HIV, community-level mobilisers for health are engaged to conduct effective case identification and linkage to care.

Communities

Children,

project

Paediatric HIV Breakthrough Partnership

The Breakthrough Partnership is a commitment to end paediatric HIV in regions most urgent.

Communities

Adolescent girls and young women,
Children,

project

Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda

The Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda (TAFU) programme was Aidsfonds’ first paediatric HIV community intervention programme. The programme trained up community health workers to identify HIV positive children, and link individuals to care and ongoing support. The programme was co-created through community leadership and engagement with key stakeholders, building on community knowledge of the needs of children living with HIV. Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda changed the way that community-based paediatric HIV services were delivered.

Communities

Children,

Paediatric HIV Care

Why children are left behind in HIV care

The Aidsfonds paediatric HIV approach

The Kids to Care model

Wake up! Our children are dying

Where we work

Our Paediatric HIV projects

Kids Health, Kids Rights

Imarisha Afya

Champion-ID

Scale up and Enhance HIV Paediatric Care with an Integrated Family Care Approach

BLOOM project

KidzAlive@Home

Kusingata

Lafiyan Yara

Paediatric HIV Breakthrough Partnership

Towards an AIDS Free Generation in Uganda

Our partners