Physical Health Uganda Project #72745

Establish a Youth HIV Drug Refill & Adherence Hub

by Youth Alive Uganda

Project Report | Jul 16, 2026
Progress Report _ Youth Alive Uganda: 72745

By JUDE OKONGO | DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & PARTNERSHIP

Profiling of Malnourished Children

Youth Alive Uganda

GlobalGiving Progress Report: Establish a Youth HIV Drug Refill and Adherence Hub (72745)

Youth Alive Uganda (YAU) has taken swift, concrete steps to establish immediate safety nets for children living with HIV (CLHIV) who were cut off from care after the abrupt loss of our major federal funding.

Our mobilization efforts over this past quarter have focused intensely on Gulu City, Gulu District, and Omoro District in Northern Uganda, areas where gaps in pediatric HIV management and nutrition support remain most critical. Here is what we have accomplished so far:

Key Milestone Achievements

30 Community Health Workers Mobilized & Oriented: We have successfully identified, recruited, and fully oriented 30 dedicated local para-social workers. These frontline responders are now fully prepared to restart home visits, track treatment dropouts, deliver life-saving medication refills, and provide vital emotional support directly to vulnerable families.
124 Non-Suppressed Children Profiled: We have successfully mapped and profiled 124 out of our target 400 non-suppressed children living with HIV (CLHIV). Understanding their specific barriers to viral suppression, whether due to stock-outs, lack of food, or psychological trauma, allows us to tailor home-based counseling to help them achieve viral suppression.
89 Malnourished Children Profiled: Recognizing that antiretroviral therapy (ART) cannot work effectively on an empty stomach, we have profiled 89 out of our target 200 malnourished CLHIV. These children are now lined up to receive immediate therapeutic nutrition packages to restore their health.

The Road Ahead

With our field teams and community structures now active in Gulu and Omoro, our immediate next step is to initiate direct delivery of nutritional therapies and intensive adherence counselling.

We are deeply grateful for your solidarity. By standing with Youth Alive Uganda, you ensure that these resilient children are not forgotten and that local communities have the tools to protect their own. Thank you for making this vital recovery work possible.

CHWs Training in Adherence Counselling

Links:

Permalink

Feb 9, 2026
Crisis in Care End of Project Report

By Okongo Jude | Project Lead

Distribution of nutritional products

Youth Alive Uganda, with support from GlobalGiving, implemented the Crisis in Care program to improve treatment adherence and nutritional status among 168 children living with HIV in northern Uganda who are not virally suppressed (NS). The closure of the USAID OVC Northwest Activity negatively affected viral load suppression in this group, with rates dropping from 92% in January 2025 to 83% in May. This program strengthened children’s immunity, supported consistent ART adherence, and contributed to better clinical outcomes and overall quality of life for these vulnerable children.

The CiC project responded to this emerging crisis by:

Profiling and enrolling non-suppressed CLHIV,
Providing home-based case management, adherence counselling, and treatment literacy,
Conducting nutritional screening and household-level nutrition education, and
Tracing and re-engaging children who had interrupted treatment.

By the end of implementation, 162 of the 168 targeted children (83 females, 79 males) had been profiled and enrolled; 115 children and their households received focused home-based services; 111 children were nutritionally assessed; and 48 of 53 children who had missed appointments were successfully traced and returned to care. The project also detected and helped correct serious ART prescription errors in children on third-line regimens.

The Crisis in Care project demonstrated that, even in the wake of major funding cuts, targeted, community-based interventions can significantly stabilize care for non-suppressed CLHIV. Through profiling, home-based case management, nutritional monitoring, and active tracing of children with treatment interruption, YAU and its partners were able to re-establish a minimum standard of care and create a platform for further improvements.

The support from GlobalGiving and its donors was instrumental in preventing a deeper crisis among some of the most vulnerable children in Northern Uganda. Continued investment—in human resources, treatment literacy, community systems, and nutrition—will be critical to ensure that these children not only remain on treatment but can achieve and sustain viral suppression over the long term.

Attachments:

End of Project Report (DOC)

3 Attachments

Permalink

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.