Wednesday, September 12, 2012

SAFE HEALTH INITIATIVE PROGRAMME NIGERIA FIGHTING HIV/AIDS

UCHENA ANOZIE, NIGERIA


Safe health initiative programme was born out ingenuity of Uchenna Anozie and Johnpaul Onwuaso both Nigerians and with the utmost mentorship and support from Dr, Sugata from In India.

Both initiators have been in the field of battling HIV/AIDS for more than 7 years in Nigeria,  They have worked for many local , national and international organizations. It is with their gathered experiences that they decided to launch a pet programme in a pilot scale to fight against AIDS.

They decided to have a peer education program for sex workers in 2 states outs of 36 states in Nigeria namely Ebonyi and Anambra State. In the course of running this programme they found out that people living with HIV/ AIDS in Ebonyi state lacked attention from the Government and even concern of the health facilities, it is due to this factor that safe health initiate programme extended her hands to work with people living with HIV/AIDS using a private health facility (Fellysussy Memorial Hospital)  as an ambulatory hospital for PLWHA in the state.

Today Safe health initiative Programme has 15 sex workers that receive support from the programme and over 16 PLWHA’s receiving support from the initiative, these supports ranges from health promotion, psychosocial support, linking patients to main hospitals that administer (HAART: Highly active antiretroviral treatment)at Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, education on nutrition, free distribution of mosquito nets, HIV screening, ambulatory treatment for PLWHA, blood donation for anemic patients, and even vocational support through other NGOs.

The programme is facing lots of challenges, especially in the area of ensuring that patients receive appropriate attention from Hospitals that Administer HAART but recently through the help of a Nurse in Federal Medical Teaching Hospital Abakaliki called Sister Ann and a Doctor known as Dr. Eze, things are much easier now.
Another challenge is that most people living with HIV/AIDS in our area are women, more especially pregnant women, they are mostly low income earners therefore lots of financial support is needed to help them transport to health facilities, have micro-gardens at homes, vocational trainings and even money to supply them with relief materials such as sanitary materials, mosquito nets and food supplements.
So far we observed that 80% of the women enrolled in the programme are HIV  discordant with their husbands thereby creating  huge social problems for them but it’s part of the programme to educate their spouses on how to cope with HIV discordant relationship.

The initiative hopes to expand her services and even enroll much number of sex workers and PLWHA in future and we solicit for fund, health support materials, food supplements and vitamins, malaria drugs, cloths, food for babies living with HIV/AIDS etc.

The initiative appreciates in a special way Dr. Sugata who has been a mentor and a technical adviser to the initiators of this pet programme we also thank Nurse Ann for her special way of facilitating protocols that are observed in the HAART center in Abakaliki for our patients.

The programme also remembers all her enrolled members both sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS and encourages them to keep practicing safe and positive health practices.
If you are moved by our programme (Safe health Initiative Programme) please do not hesitate to comment or even write us at: donuchman@yahoo.com or sms+2348033746531 or post mails to No 12 Onitsha street, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State Nigeria. If you want to give any support by donating materials or giving financial support to the programme, please do write us with the above email address so that we can facilitate your donation.

Remember your ideas are very important and we count on them.Thanks for reading.