Homoine, Mozambique — June 1, 2009 — Today, the Executive Director of the World Bank, Sammy Wilson, joined with representatives from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Irish Aid to visit two recovering AIDS patients enrolled in IRD’s home-based care (HBC) HIV/AIDS alleviation activities in Mozambique. The sponsoring organizations assessed IRD’s partnership with community-based organizations (CBOs) as a success and got to see first hand the importance of extended peer-health community services. The visit comes in the midst of a 15 month long project, funded by Irish Aid that will link over 2,520 HIV/AIDS and chronically ill patients with basic health care, food services and community organizations in order to provide a wide-range of support to those most affected by the disease.

In Homoine, IRD provides capacity-building and institutional strengthening to the local CBO Kurula, helping to serve over 180 HIV positive and chronically ill people.  In addition to offering support to those suffering from HIV/AIDS, Kurula also provides HIV prevention training, orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) care to over 500 children, and educational advancement programs in the region. According to the elected president of Kurula, Auriana Chipanela, IRD makes it possible for those in Homoine to lead more productive lives and gives the resources necessary to help prevent the spread of HIV in the future. “With IRD’s support we have been able to educate ourselves and other members of the community about HIV/AIDS.  We can now live without fear creating this association that demonstrates to all that you can live a normal life with HIV/AIDS.”

The June visit to Homoine illustrated the success of IRD’s HBC programs by providing the opportunity for partners to meet with those served by local CBOs. Bedridden, abandoned, and at the brink of death only five months before, one patient was in the midst of recovery. With the help of Kurula and community partners, she was voluntarily taken in by a local substitute family and is now receiving the antiretrovirals (AZT) she lacked before.

“It makes me very emotional seeing the progress Kurula has made over the years,” says Nick Ahlers, IRD’s Provincial Coordinator in Inhambane.  “When I first began working with them in 2005, they were a group of ten people living with HIV that wanted to make a difference in Homoine district but were afraid to ‘break the silence’.  Receiving today’s visit only reiterates the importance of programs like these, it demonstrates first hand the impact that services like home-based care have on fragile communities.”

A second visit offered a glimpse into the sustainable network of volunteers that CBOs often generate through the ongoing relationships they establish with patients who later become HBC volunteers. Admitted to Kurula last May, a second patient is now on a successful course of improvement, living with her sister through the support of HBC providers and serving as a volunteer offering counseling to those beginning the program.

IRD’s program works within the context of community health care to the chronically ill, but what makes it unique, or is the heart of our program, is its customized capacity trainings which provide both the tools and the space for CBOs like Kurula to confront the challenges within their communities both realistically and sustainably.