Development Projects > Zambia
The Siavonga/Kabwe Community HIV/AIDS Mitigation Project
The Siavonga/Kabwe Community HIV/AIDS Mitigation Project
The Project
January 2008 marked the beginning of a new
and exciting project for Crossroads Missions.
In partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), Visionledd and an established national partner called Chreso
Ministries, we were able to strengthen Zambia's medical system through
offering the innovative concept of a mobile clinic that will service high-need
areas of Zambia. In just 14 months,
this project has experienced enormous success by reaching over 19,000 people
with Primary Health Care (PHC).
The idea is to reach communities that have no access to medical care for various reasons. Typically, in the context in which we're working, people living in remote, rural communities would have to walk up to 20 kilometers to the nearest clinic. In one instance, we drove 2 hours into the bush to set up a day clinic for a village. Imagine how long it would take a person to walk that distance! And that was just the distance to the nearest tarred road-not to the nearest medical clinic.
Primary Health Care and Voluntary Counseling & Testing
A mobile clinic is a low-cost means of
being able to take medical services to those people who are too remote, and too
poor to access existing medical facilities.
This 3-year project offers Primary Health Care (PHC) and Voluntary
Counseling & Testing (VCT) to all community members. VCT involves offering information sessions
on HIV/AIDS before the start of each clinic, and a counselor that meets with
each patient individually to provide further information and patient
assessment. An HIV test is made
available for people to test on-site, and results are provided
immediately. The counselor prepares the
person for the results and writes referrals for ARV treatment if
necessary. The number of people choosing
to access the VCT service increased 342% within the fist 14 months of the
project.
The mobile clinic is an extension of the permanent VCT clinic in Lusaka, operated by Chreso Ministries. With 78% of Zambians living below the poverty level, Chreso Ministries has been implementing innovative ideas for over 30 years in order to try to meet the needs of the people. The cost of services needed to meet the need is always a challenge.
Zambia - The Country
Since the first reported case of HIV in
Zambia in 1983, the country's prevalence rate of 16.5% is significantly higher
than the sub-Saharan region as a whole (7.5%).
Abject poverty and despair make youth, and in particular females, vulnerable
to the impact of HIV/AIDS. Girls aged
14 - 19 are 6 times more likely to become infected with HIV than males of the
same group.
Zambian themselves are also working to address cultural practices that perpetuate the HIV pandemic, such as polygamy. Our Zambian colleagues are working cooperatively with local chiefs to educate their people on high-risk behaviors and cultural practices that perpetuate the spread of the disease. Information sessions and forums of discussion work to break down stigmas and cultural barriers associated with the spread of HIV and other communicable diseases.
