HIV & Health Support for Lake Tanganyika Villagers

During a recent village trip, a mother and her 14 year old daughter attended the clinic for HIV testing. They had listened to the health talk conducted by our partners which addresses HIV awareness, prevention and treatment, and this encouraged them to find out their HIV status.

Both mother and daughter individually received pre-test counselling, followed by a HIV test. The young girl tested positive, her mother did not.

After learning of her daughter’s diagnosis the mother began to weep, devastated that she had not known her daughter was living with HIV. The medical team were able to give the mother and daughter support, information and advice on starting on and adhering to antiretroviral treatment.

Moments such as these are never easy. Our partners are thankful that they can be present to offer support to individuals and families who are dealing with the realities of HIV. Many have false beliefs that there is no hope after diagnosis and HIV is a death sentence. By offering HIV education and access to treatment, our partners are providing that hope. Thank you for enabling this vital service to continue and for making it possible for our partners to be present when individuals and families need it most.

The services our partners provide to communities along Lake Tanganyika are always received well and greatly appreciated. The medical team recently travelled to a different village having been invited by the Headman. He had heard about the Health and HIV services being offered in nearby villages and extended a welcome for this to be offered in his village.

The medical team travelled 2 hours by boat and over 3 days 495 people accessed health services. 51 people attended for HIV testing, 3 people were found to be HIV positive and were provided with antiretroviral treatment.

Our partners report that the community were receptive to the health education sessions and were open to know their HIV status. The team also performed 81 malaria tests, diagnosing 46 people as having the disease and provided them with the necessary treatment.

Thank you for your continued support. This makes it possible for people living in remote and hard to reach communities to have access to Health and HIV services.