In collaboration with our grassroots partners and the Rwandan government, WE-ACTx has provided VCT services since October of 2005, with both fixed and mobile teams, testing over 24,500 women, children and men. Our mobile teams coordinate with our grassroots partners to bring the services deep into the community, with advance outreach.. VCT is provided in a family-centered model, with each family member offered testing, and all family members of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) being encouraged to test. Our mobile and community-oriented approach increases the likelihood of reaching vulnerable populations, including orphans and traumatized women, who are less likely to seek VCT in centralized medical settings. Identifying HIV infection in multiple family members, and referring them to immediate medical care prevents the family from sharing their medications (which results in inadequate treatment and can lead to virologic resistance to antiretroviral treatment), or having to choose which members will receive treatment—all will be treated appropriately. For families with HIV infected children, additional counseling and support are provided through our grassroots partners, to help ensure that their special needs are met.
Our community-based and family-centered testing also allows us to reach more pregnant women. In Rwanda less than half of pregnant women access prenatal care or deliver their infants in attended medical settings, and thus do not access VCT or programs for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT). Linking pregnant women to these services is a key goal. As important feature of VCT is to link it to medical services for immediate care, which both ensures early initiation of ART for those who need it and for most patients mitigates the distress and anxiety of a positive diagnosis, in that they are able to take action. WE-ACTx is working with our partners and health officials to implement this replicable model of service, demonstrating that a full access public health approach to HIV testing and care in a community is both feasible and affordable, resulting in a renewal of health for the entire community. With the help of a generous grant from the Stephen Lewis Foundation for 2008, we will be expanding this important program.
Women's Equity in Access to Care & Treatment