Our Experience:
Home-Based Care Program for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania

Providing social support to People Living with HIV/AIDS to improve quality of life.

2008 - ongoing

Situation

Since 2003, the Government of Tanzania has made a concerted effort to scale up care, support and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients through a variety of initiatives, including Home-Based Care (HBC) for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their families.

In 2008, with funding from USAID, Akesis served as an implementing parter to support the HBC Program in the Lindi Region of Tanzania. The goal of this project was to provide a competent network of HBC for PLWHA through well-trained and effective community volunteers.

Solution 

Akesis worked directly with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) — through District and Regional health management teams — to strengthen the delivery of government-led HBC. To achieve this, the HBC program was integrated within the existing health system of Tanzania and a network of community volunteers was established.

By integrating into the existing system, a direct link was created between community volunteers and the District council. This link led to a high-level of local ownership, which translated to growing enrollment rates and services rendered, and contributed to a marked decrease in the number of bed-ridden beneficiaries. Akesis also provided periodic monitoring of data collected by volunteers, supervision of volunteers, and feedback meetings to ensure government health staff was integrated throughout the program and that local capacity was built.

Results

Due to the success of the program in the Lindi region, the program was expanded to the Mtwara region in 2010. Together, both programs reached more than 20,000 patients within 11 districts, since 2008.

Further, this methodology can be used as a model to ensure the sustainability of HBC programs across disease areas and throughout multiple regions of the world.