Posted May 05, 2008

A Faith Based Organisation (FBO) delegation from the White House Community in the USA was impressed by the CHAZ ART programme during their visit to CHAZ Secretariat on December 5, 2007.

The Health Programmes Manager CHAZ, Ms Karen Sichinga and ART Coordinator, Dr. Dhally Menda shared with the visiting team some of the lessons learnt and challenges encountered on the programme.

The team heard that CHAZ serves a population of 1, 493, and 194 in the ART sites, where 28 Church Health Institution (CHIs) provide the service which includes PMTCT. By the time of the visit CHAZ had provided ARV prophylaxis to 3, 029 women and 7, 995 people had been placed on ART of which 3, 287 are male, while 4, 708 are female.

Dr. Menda briefed the delegation that CHAZ’s presence in the neediest remote areas has helped in saving thousands of lives of AIDS patients, adding that the use of Community Based Agents & Food supplementation has helped to enhance adherence.

The Doctor added that community involvement is paramount for the ART programme’s success & sustainability and that To up allowances helped to retain trained staff. He also observed that adequate, appropriate & timely logistic supplies enhanced quality service delivery & job satisfaction, while partnerships improved service delivery.

The ART Coordinator, however, told the team that the programme had met several obstacles such as inadequate staffing leading to burnout: Doctor (42) - patient ratio: 1/35,552 and Nurse (548) -patient ratio:
1/2,725.

Erratic funding, difficulty to maintain Equipment, high needs/ demand from CHIs, small storage capacity, poor road network for distributions and inadequate transport for Programme Officers were the other challenges mentioned.