SUPPORT GROUPS

 

Every parish/workstation has a support group for its clients who meet once a week for continuous education and they also have income generating projects which have helped them uplift their standards of living i.e. SILC (Savings Internal Lending Cooperative).  These groups have helped a great deal in trying to eradicate stigma since many clients have been able to testify of how ARVs have improved their lives & that there is life after one gets infected with HIV. Our Archbishop Boniface Lele has been on the front line in encouraging People Living With Hiv/Aid’s.  We appreciate his sacrificing his time to meet members of support groups and also health workers. He has met them severally at their meetings where he has had a personal encounter with them.

 

 

 

 

HOW THEY ARE DEVELOPED AND RUN


Formation of support groups in our facility


Support groups are comprised of people undergoing similar challenges in life and have one thing in common.


Factors considered

 

  1. Age group – According to this factor, we are able to classify the young children, adolescents, teenagers and put them in different groups for health education.
  2. Marital status – Those clients who are married and positive are classified together as couples and given similar education, as are widows and singles.
  3. Occupation – People doing similar work for earning a living are grouped together e.g. Brewers.

 

Clients are divided into different groups in order to health educate effectively on the same challenges they are undergoing.


According to different groups, we are able to access and identify their needs to help give health talks accordingly.


We have several support groups which meet monthly for education. Such groups include:

 

  1. Kids club
  2. Teenagers
  3. Youth
  4. Professionals
  5. Discordant couples
  6. Guardians
  7. Single/widowed
  8. Alcoholics 
  9. Couple
  10. Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)

 

Each and every group has their own income generating project and SILC- Savings Internal Lending Cooperative. In each group they do select chairman, secretary and treasurer.


We also have satellite support groups whereby they always meet weekly, mostly on Friday


This group is involved in various activities like:-

 

  • Continuous health education on drug adherence
  • SILC activities
  • Testimonies
  • Groups of client from different facilities have the same goal and objective.

 

CHILDREN


Formation of kids club

 

Kids club was formed due to the realization that one major challenge facing children is disclosure. It was formed for the purpose of health education on HIV and gathering together for mutual play, fun and support. The date of clinic appointments is set so that it is the same day as the kids club. The children together with their guardians are gathered and taught on the importance of forming a group for children to enhance continuous health education for both the children and guardians.

 

Children below 18 years are gathered. Those who undergo frequent adherence counseling and disclosure are separated from the others and thus there has been the formation of  a Teens club (between 12 – 18 years). This comprises those who are aware of their HIV status. Those above 18 years form yet another youth support group.

 

Issues of Importance for Children and Adolescents

 

  1.  Disclosure
  2. Adherence counseling
  3. Adolescence counseling
  4. Prevention of infection
  5. Reproductive Health education

 

 Prevention Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT)

 

After introduction of PMTCT almost all children born of HIV positive mothers have tested negative (98% of the children born of HIV+ mothers turn negative). This shows that with PMTCT we can reduce the cases of HIV in the country.

 

According to our clinic enrolment around 66% of patients started ARV drugs are female.
The trend has been gradually increasing and the following are some of contributing factors:

  • The more the mother becomes stable on ART especially between 20-35     years, the more the need to have children hence some who are Widowed get   remarried and hence conceive.
  • Some learn PMTCT awareness.  Some of the mothers are ready to conceive because they have seen others have HIV negative children (We do DBS at 6 weeks) and repeat antibody tests at 12 months/18 months of age.
  • Most of young widows/widowers get remarried after they become stable hence either of partners wants to have children.
  • As compared to the past years, there has been gradual increase of pregnancies of HIV positive mothers on ART

 

 

 

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