Background

The Faraja home based care program began in 1993. The need came as a result of a higher demand of care and coping for HIV affected individuals. This was the period where HIV and AIDS were hardly known to individuals and the problem was further worsened by the social stigma and discrimination among community members. Yet there was no any intervention on home care in Morogoro municipality. Many patients who could not get support from relatives at home due to stigma overwhelmed the only government available in Morogoro municipal.

As the community integrated project, the Home Based Care carters for HIV and AIDS prevention, care, support and coping mechanism for PLWHA, bedridden with chronic diseases, the HIV and AIDS affected individuals as well as care givers.

Program Activities

• To provide counselling and supportive counselling to HIV and AIDS affected individuals
• Home visit to the HIV and AIDS affected people
• To provide material support such as food, cloth and other basic requirements
• To provide proper information on food and nutrition to HIV and AIDS affected families
• To provide education to community towards alleviation of stigma and social discrimination in the community
• To provide pastoral and spiritual counselling to affected families and community at large
• To provide medication for opportunistic infection to PLWHAs
• To research and provision of traditional medicines to PLWHAs
• To provide educational support to CABA

How to access support from Faraja

There are several ways on which a client can access support from Faraja. Through self-referral clients come by themselves or accompanied by relatives. They come at the centre for VCT due to a number of reasons including; marriage purposes, and out of curiosity. Some are referred by Community based councillors. The HBC are people chosen from the criteria set by the community. The community trusts them. Faraja trains them on home-based care provision, counselling and community HIV prevention and mobilization; they act as a bridge between Faraja and the community. Their role is to provide HIV preventive information and sensitisation including VCT to the community. They provide information to where people can access the VCT and home care services, in this case Faraja. Apart from the CBC, religious leaders, hamlet leaders and key people or individuals do refer clients to us. Faraja also receives clients referred from the government hospital.

Networking with the community

In order to bring about community involvement in care and support of HIV patients and to make the project sustainable, Faraja in collaboration with local leaders at grass root level started the Community initiative home based counsellors. After training are allocated back to their respective wards. There they a role of a link between Faraja counsellors. They refer clients to faraja and they also follow up clients at their respective homes and report about the clients’ conditions to Faraja home care department.

During home visits, bed-ridden patients’ physical conditions are assessed aiming at observing opportunistic infections, which need immediate attention. If a patient is unable to talk for example, a relative is asked. Medical examination is done where blood, pulse, respiration, temperature. Observations are also made in case a patient is having diarrhoea, vomit-which will indicate higher degree of dehydration. Home environment observation is done so as to assess the degree of poverty, socio-economic status and the degree of stigma and discrimination by and within the society. The observation will also enable you to know the viability of food, type of housing, housing and support available to client
The care givers are interviewed about patients to seek information such; patient medication, if a patient is able to eat, state of consciousness or unconsciousness and psychosocial issues.

The care giver practises needs and what immediate action to take so as to save the life of patient (rapid reaction), this include; dehydration, to find a safe place at home, investigate life threatening symptoms. Some times an immediate transfer of a patient to hospital is done if a patient needs, oxygen or blood transfusion etc

Success/Achievements

• Since 1993 the program has provided counselling to about 1,450,352 and the program has supported about 1,024 PLWHAs
• The program facilitated the formation of the association of people living with HIV and AIDS in Morogoro (WAVUMO) in 2000.
• Stigma and social description has been minimized
• The program is now facilitating the formation of children and youth living with HIV and AIDS
• Formation of several support groups
• The use of tradition medicine to treat opportunistic infections have shown positive results
• Through community involvement the number of clients who seek the VCT service has increased

Challenges/Problems:

• Higher demand of services as compared to limited resources
• Stigma and social discrimination is still a problem
• Poverty among PLWHAs as a result fails to meet basic needs such as medicine, food and nutrition
• The un availability of ARVs
• Poor knowledge on the usage of ARVs