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| COMMUNITY BASED CARE & SUPPORT PROGRAMME » |
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| INTRODUCTION: |
The work area of Asha Deep Foundation is illegal encroachment and slums of Delhi. The most of the community living in these slums are illiterate or neo-literate. The most of the people are either seasonal employed in low profile jobs or unemployed. These communities are vulnerable to HIV epidemic. The slums and illegal encroachment across the state border have all type of illegal activities such as Drug Trafficking, Sex workers etc. These activities have flourish in this area as these areas are on the Delhi-UP border. Most of the frequent travelers such as Drivers, sales people and many more get trap into the viscous circle of this epidemic. It is important to note that this as soon as a person gets infected with HIV, they pass it along to other people with a variety of ways .The people often are not aware of the fact they are having AIDS until many years of infections.
After conducting a baseline study at Janata Colony of East Delhi District, Asha Deep Foundation initiated Community Based Care & Support Programme for the community women & children in the month of May 2008. The programme is supported by MAMTA Health Institute For Mother & Child of Delhi.
MAIN AIM OF THE PROJECT:
The main aim of the project is to mitigate the impact of HIV&AIDS on women and children and strengthen the capacity of the families and communities to facilitate care and support for them.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT:
- To reduce the vulnerability of increased number of children and women to HIV infection in intervention areas through awareness generation.
- To enhance the access of women to safe motherhood and PPTCT (Prevention of Parents To Child Transmission) services in the community.
- To create an enabling environment to mitigate and reduce the impact of HIV&AIDS on women, CLHA (Children Living with HIV/AIDS) and CAA (Children Affected with AIDS).
- To provide necessary care and support services for needy CLHA and CAA in the community.
- To influence policy makers and service providers on successful approaches to reduce vulnerability among women and children.
TARGET GROUP:
Target groups of the project are women, children and adolescent girls of the community.
TARGET AREA:
Target area is Janata Colony of East Delhi District. The total population of target area is approximately 1 lakh. The colony has nearly 2500 households. The colony is divided into 25 blocks and lane.
ACTIVITIES OF THE PROJECT:
The programme was divided into five major components to reduce the vulnerability of HIV infection among the women and children, which as follows:
- Vulnerability Reduction
- Service Access Enhancement
- Enabling Environment
- Care & Support Service
- Advocacy, Policy Making
UNDER THESE COMPONENTS ACTIVITIES ARE PLANNED IN FOLLOWING LEVELS:
FAMILY LEVEL
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Nutritional support,
- Educational support,
- Income generation support,
- Travel support for medication,
- Home care training,
- Family counseling,
- Family support
COMMUNITY LEVEL
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Community Inducers,
- Community Mobilization,
- Referral & Linkages,
- Support groups,
- Community linkages with services providers,
- GIPA (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS)
SERVICE DELIVERY LEVEL
- Sensitization and skill/capacity development
POLICY AND PROGRAM DECISION MAKING LEVEL
- Influence the policy & programme making bodies, special focus on positive women, children and affected children
TO REALISE THE MAIN AIM OF THE PROJECT FOLLOWING ACTIVITIES ARE ORGANISED UNDER THE GIVEN LEVELS:
- Meetings with the women and pregnant women to sensitize them on the HIV/AID, PPTCT, Safe motherhood, immunization, ANC, Pre & Post Natal Care, STI/RTI and ‘Sexual and reproductive health’.
- Counselling of pregnant women and their spouses.
- Family counselling of WLHA and spouses.
- Street plays on the issues of HIV/AID, PPTCT, Safe motherhood, immunization, ANC, Pre & Post Natal Care, STI/RTI and ‘Sexual and reproductive health’.
- Distribution of IEC material in the community HIV/AID, PPTCT, Safe motherhood, immunization, ANC, Pre – and Post Natal Care, STI/RTI and ‘Sexual and reproductive health’.
- One-to-one interaction for identification and capacity building of community Inducers in the community.
- Health camp for women and children
- Get-together of all the children (competition, cultural, sports, etc)
- Meeting with the prominent persons & local leaders of the community.
- Meeting with schoolteachers.
- Meeting with NGOs working in the area
- Meeting with local doctors.
- Meetings of adolescent support groups.
- Financial assistance provided to PLHA family to rehabilitate in community.
- Education material provided to CAA.
- Nutrition provided to CAA.
- Medicines for opportunities infections provided to CLHA as medical support.
- Training organised for the caregivers of WLHA and CLHA.
- Meetings with policy makers are organised to impress them the success of the approach to reduce vulnerability.
- Meetings with service providers are organised to help them adopt a feasible strategy to reduce cases of STD/RTI, and increase the accessibility of safe motherhood and PPTCT services in the community.
Conclusion:
The programme is gaining acceptance in the community. A total of 3 children have been identified HIV positive. Women and community people are gradually becoming aware of impact of HIV. They are going for test. The frequency of test in hospitals has also been increased after the sensitization of caregivers. Most importantly participation of community in the programme is very encouraging. It is assumed that after 3 years of intervention, information level of community people about HIV/AIDS will be increased thus reducing the vulnerability of infection among the women & children.
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