The CAP clinic at HEAL Africa

These children are being followed medically on a regular basis. Parents, (and in many cases, the grandparents as the parents have died,) bring them in for checkups. Only about half are on antiretrovirals (ARVs) because they are the last step in HIV care. Once you begin that treatment you must continue for life. You also need to eat well in order to tolerate the medicine. That’s too tall an order for some of the children in the clinic. So Dr. Vindu and her team try to keep the children nourished and as healthy as possible so the virus doesn’t grow to the point where they will need ARVs.

HEAL Africa’s HIV Harm Reduction program has been making strong progress in addressing the medical and social impact of HIV on the communities of Eastern Congo. Foster mothers are being supported so that children who are orphaned by HIV can stay in their communities and still grow up in families where they are cared for and have a future. Over 2000 HIV orphans are in school because their foster mothers or older siblings are part of a credit and savings program administered by HEAL Africa. Palliative care is possible for over 3000 people who are being cared for at home and checked in on by a network of activists, nurses and doctors. Awareness seminars and presentations continue in schools, with peer educators and through the various groups meeting at the Wamama Simameni houses, the Safe Motherhood groups, the Nehemiah Committees and Choose Life. PEP medicines and training for nurses in rural clinics—and awareness among the population has reduced the stigma of rape and increased the access to prevention of transmission by treating victims of rape if they come in within 72 hours. The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission has also been increased as people become aware, become tested, and as men increasingly choose to be tested.

The CAP clinic has received medicines through the Clinton foundation and Global Strategies for HIV Prevention since 2006. The Clinton Foundation has notified HEAL Africa that it will no longer supply anti-retrovirals after 2010. Congo is not a PEPFAR country, and the Global Fund has not supplied medicines in this part of Congo. The CAP clinic at HEAL Africa, started and run by Dr. Vindu. Read a story of a child with HIV