Jhpiego Receives $16.5 Million for HIV/AIDS Innovations in Tanzania
25 August 2008
Baltimore, Maryland (20 August 2008) —
Jhpiego has been awarded $16.5 million from the United States Agency for International Development, over five years, to provide support for a program in Tanzania to increase access and use of HIV counseling and testing services.
Knowing your HIV status is critical for preventing the spread of the disease and for receiving life-extending treatment. Jhpiego, with its partners Africare and T-MARC Company Ltd., will provide innovative, high quality community-based HIV counseling and testing services for women and their families in Tanzania. The newly formed coalition will work with hospitals and clinics to help them implement the Tanzanian government’s new provider initiated testing and counseling strategy.
“For 15 years, Jhpiego has worked in Tanzania to help improve the health of its citizens by offering innovative, low-cost solutions to many of their most challenging diseases,” says Dr. Leslie Mancuso, President and CEO of Jhpiego. “This generous funding is necessary to continue to build community involvement in preventing the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS.”
The goals of the program are to:
- Rapidly increase access to quality HIV counseling and testing services for all Tanzanians, particularly those at high risk, by implementing health provider-initiated testing and counseling nationwide and by working with local civil service organizations— including faith-based, non-governmental and community-based organizations—for targeted outreach counseling and testing services.
- Develop provider skills for quality counseling and testing service delivery by using a new onsite-training approach for facility level service providers, strengthening quality improvement systems, and advocating for and supporting the shift of HIV counseling and testing duties to lay counselors
- Strengthen linkages to prevention and care and treatment programs, and establish community care and support for HIV-positive clients through the close coordination with PEPFAR-supported care and treatment partners, the reinforcement of referrals under PITC, and the establishment of post-test support groups
- Create demand and mobilize communities, including high risk populations, for HIV counseling and testing, by employing mass media and interpersonal communication channels
About Jhpiego
For 35 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
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