Project Report
| May 16, 2018
What Rafiki Means to our Patients
By Katherine MacDonald | Co-Leader
Dear Friends,
Thank you for all your support of The Rafiki Center of Excellence in Adolescent Care. Rafiki means friend in Swahili, and it reflects our commitment to a safe and adolescent-friendly clinic. The clinic has now been running for more than a year and we want to give you a glimpse of what your support gives our patients and the friendliness it provides.
Our adolescents shared these statements about what the clinic means to them:
- “I see Rafiki clinic as a safe haven for adolescents and young people”
- “The clinic stands out as a center of excellence in HIV management, access to information, and a rehabilitative center for the young people who explore on their talents and find mentorship on how to live a positive life free from stigmatization and discrimination.”
- “What I love the most about Rafiki is the flexibility of the staff with the aim of assisting the young people without judging them”
- “Adolescents can access services without discrimination”
- “Confidentiality of every client’s information is what I love most about Rafiki. There are many different activities at Rafiki so no one really knows of the health issues the adolescent is facing. They can access care without any of their peers branding them as infected.”
Without your support, our adolescents would not have had this safe and friendly space to access the care they need and deserve. Thank you for all that you have done for the clinic!
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Jan 9, 2018
A Year of Thanks
By Katherine MacDonald | Project Co-Leader
Dear Friends,
We simply want to take this time to give thanks to all who have supported us, the AMPATH adolescent providers, the staff and the adolescents. The clinic has been operating for just over one year, and the adolescents would not have had a medical home, it if weren't for you.
This year brings much ahead: Starting a reproductive health care catered to street connected youth, further rolling out of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, and more skills trainings in art work in collaboration with a well-established AMPATH supported initiative, Imani Workshop.
Thank you again for staying involved! Asante Sana!
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Oct 10, 2017
Under One Roof: HIV Care and Salsa Dancing
By Katherine MacDonald | Co-Leader
This weekend was truly magical . Key stakeholders (about 8 in total) from across North America and Kenya came together to discuss the infrastructure of care in the adolescent clinic: areas of strengths, areas of improvement, and short and long term goals. This meeting demonstrated deep rooted committment and momentum among those who advocate for our clinic.
Here are a few of the issues we discussed:
Strengths:
- Integrated into the hospital system with the majority of staff from the hospital
- Provides a model for outlying sites
- Draws both HIV negative and positive to clinic
- Provides free reproductive health care
- Committed staff
- Engages youth beyond their medical illness- Yes, thats right: daily salsa dancing, bead works, and spoken word
Areas of Improvement:
- People who are not known to be living with HIV are coming to the clinic, but not seeing the clinician.
- Working closer with schools which will help with ART adherence
- Uptake of reproductive health care
To start to address the above, we plan to increase adolescent friendly educational and health related signage to attract the usage of our services to non HIV positive youth, start working on establishing connections with administrators in school, and ensure clinic staff are well versed in counseling reproductive health issues. A training is in the works (which will be a refresher for some).
The clinic is the love, sweat and tears of all of us. Those areas of improvement will come with perservence and passion (which we all have) to provide adolescents the best health possible. We have an amazing and powerful set of assets, which leds itself to sustainability, resilience, and delivering the best care to our teens for a long time to come.
Best,
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