HIV/AIDS Intervention
The first case of HIV was reported in Ghana in 1986. A lot has been done by the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health, international organizations and private benefactors, to curtail the rate of HIV infection and improve the lives of people living with AIDS. However, HIV/AIDS still causes an average of 30,000 deaths each year. REACH believes that by empowering communities with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools needed to tackle the HIV pandemic, even more progress can be made. Community-based approaches have been found to be the key to tackling diseases that are devastating many communities in regions that do not have access to quality health facilities and professional services.
REACH's first major project is an HIV Intervention Program which entails providing HIV counselling, screening and care for 18-35 year olds on major university campuses and surrounding communities in Ghana. With this population contributing to over 40% of new infections, REACH is establishing itself within this niche to contribute to what is currently being done to control HIV in Ghana. Mother-to-child transmission of the virus contributes to a majority of HIV infection in children, and targeting this group has the additional advantage of making young women at the onset of reproduction aware of their HIV status to significantly reduce the incidence of infected newborns in the future.
While HIV awareness is thought to be relatively high in Ghana, there are indications that awareness has not translated into widespread behavioral change. For instance, there is lack of willingness to participate in HIV testing, presumably due to fear of stigma and discrimination, and the notion that a positive HIV test is equivalent to a death sentence. Yet from previous interventions in resource-poor settings, there are strong indications that patients are more likely to consent to HIV testing if they are made aware that there are options for care and access to treatment if they are found to be positive.
By targeting individuals in the university setting, REACH hopes to influence behavioral changes in an educated population that likely needs to change its attitudes concerning sexual behaviors, stigma and testing with respect to HIV and other STDs. Additionally, including members of the surrounding communities in this program will allow REACH to connect with a less educated population that may have less HIV education and establish a lasting relationship between these universities and their surrounding communities to build capacity for the long-term.
The main goals of the project are as follows:
1) To minimize the number of persons who are unaware of their HIV status by conducting a widespread HIV screening exercise in the area
2) To provide training for voluntary HIV counsellors within each community, equipping them with knowledge and materials to help educate other members of the community about HIV/AIDS prevention and to reduce stigmatization of people living with AIDS.
3) To link HIV positive candidates to local clinics for follow-up testing and care, and to provide them with counseling and financial support for ARV therapy where necessary.
4) To conduct surveys that will help us understand the social factors which drive and influence HIV spread within this population, and to collect data on general knowledge about the disease, risk perception, condom use, stigmatization and general attitudes towards the disease.
The project is scheduled to take place in Aug/Sept 2010. For more details, or to find out how you can be a part of this project, email info@reachghana.org
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The
Project Director for this program is Benedicta Osafo-Darko, who holds a Bachelor's in Health Administration and Policy, and a Master's in Applied Sociology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She loves to travel, cook, write and dance. She also loves kids! She has very fond memories of her childhood in Ghana growing up in a family of six children. When she was younger, she was certain she wanted to become a medical doctor. She attended St. Martin de Porres School and Holy Child School in Ghana. She continued high school in Rockville, Maryland, where she was certified as a Nursing Assistant. She volunteered often at nursing homes and got her first hand experience in direct patient care as a student intern in the Oncology Department at a hospital in Maryland. This experience made her realize that perhaps direct patient care was not the career path for her.
Her interests include stigmatized illnesses and health behaviors such as HIV/AIDS and suicidal behavior. She is particularly interested in pathways and mechanisms that link social and behavioral patterns in health outcomes, especially among vulnerable populations, and how they can be improved using community-based interventions. Bennie combined her passion for travelling and researching when she studied in South Africa, Lesotho and Switzerland. Her research in these countries focused on the social factors that drive HIV/AIDS. She has also volunteered at the Midway Clinic in Achimota.
Her interest in research led her to seek a job a Westat in Rockville, where she is a Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Reporter. DAWN is a public health surveillance system that monitors national and local trends in drug-related emergency department visits.
Email: benedicta.osafo-darko@reachghana.org
To find out how to become a Project Director for other REACH projects, email info@reachghana.org.
