Participants
Oniyire Adetiloye
Program
MDI – Ghana Class of September 2011
History of the Agency
Founded in 1973 as an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, Jhpiego is currently working in 54 countries, mostly in Africa, Asia, Central and South America. Jhpiego prevents the needless deaths of women and their families by building local human resource capacity and forming partnerships to strengthen health care systems through the development of: family planning; maternal and newborn health; postpartum hemorrhage; malaria in pregnancy; cervical cancer; and HIV/AIDS education.
Statement of the Problem
There is limited ability for HIV positive pregnant women to qualify for “Preventing Mother-to-child Transmission” (PMTCT) services in the northwest Nigerian state of Zamfara. For the few with access, there is unsatisfactory and untimely access to anti-retroviral treatment.
CHIP Project
Based on the above problem statement and targeting 15 health care facilities, this project aims to expand HIV counseling and PMTCT for pregnant women, increase access to anti-retroviral treatment for those who are identified as HIV positive, and provide appropriate referral and connections for women and infants who require follow-up treatment and HIV management.
Impact to Date
- Ongoing project implementation in the 15 facilities as planned
- 105 facility providers were successfully trained to carry out preventative services
- Additional 45 community volunteers were selected, trained and organized to promote and enhance referral/escort services for the 15 facilities
- A series of monthly supportive supervision and onsite mentoring sessions at all sites
- Up to date monthly data for the tracked indicators collated from all the sites to monitor project progress
- One data audit carried out across all the 15 sites
These initiatives have resulted in:
- 96% of pregnant women attending prenatal care visits were successfully counseled and tested for HIV
- 86% of identified and qualified HIV positive pregnant women have received ARV prophylaxis and treatment
- Appropriate and successful referral/escort services provided for 92% of those that required the services within the reporting period
Lessons Learned
The MDI showed me how evolving and dynamic project implementation could be. There are issues that one might not have anticipated in course of planning, but there should be enough flexibility to take on board relevant changes to ensure that the overall goals and objectives of the project are met.