By Kim Pozniak,

This week, the CRS-led AIDSRelief consortium is handing over its HIV care and treatment programs in Rwanda to the local Ministry of Health. After a six-year partnership, and a carefully planned transition period, the local government will fully own and implement those programs that bring lifesaving treatment, care and counseling to thousands of people living with HIV.

This is the first transition of a program supported by the President’ Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to a local government entity. But it comes at a time when PEPFAR and other life-saving aid programs are facing the possibility of drastic budget cuts from the U.S. Congress.
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By Kim Pozniak,

After six years of working in partnership with the Rwandan government, the AIDSRelief consortium led by Catholic Relief Services is transitioning its HIV care and treatment program to the Rwanda Ministry of Health in a move that marks the first such transition to a local government partner.

AIDSRelief—an international consortium funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—and the government of Rwanda have worked together to scale up quality HIV care for Rwandans since 2005; planning for the transition has been in the works for the past two years.

“In the short time that we’ve worked with the Ministry of Health, we’ve seen a tremendous amount of personal commitment to learn how to run the HIV treatment program.” says Leia Isanhart Balima, chief of party for AIDSRelief Rwanda. The government has really been committed to seeing the process through and to work through the challenges. It’s neat to be able to let go and say that we’ve put in place the basic building blocks.”
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By Helen Blakesley,

Epiphanie Uwiduhaye and her one year-old son Benoit, right, wait with Josiane Nyiranizeyimana and 3 month-old Fabrice for a consultation at Bungwe Health Centre in Northern Rwanda. Photo by Helen Blakesley/CRS

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness” my godmother used to remind me, as a rather impish child. Well if that’s indeed the case, Kigali, the capital of Rwanda is but a few steps from Heaven.

The main city of the land of “mille collines” – a thousand hills – so the French claimed, looks the picture of cleanliness, efficiency and order.

As I arrived here for my latest reporting trip with CRS, I drank in my surroundings. Pretty red brick homes with blue or terracotta roofs dot the hillsides. Grasses and flowers and trees are abundant thanks to regular rains (a spectacular growling of thunder presaged the next refreshing downpour as I gazed). People and vehicles carried on by, minding their own business.
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The ONE Blog recently ran the following story about CRS with with AIDSRelief in Rwanda:

Last week, I visited the Bungwe Health Center, a small clinic nestled in the hills about two hours outside Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. The center is part of AIDSRelief, a program that has been providing HIV care and treatment in Rwanda since 2005 with funding from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). My employer, Catholic Relief Services, is the lead agency for AIDSRelief in nine countries.

During my visit I met a nurse named Cecile and her 12-year-old patient, Jean Claude. His mother is an AIDSRelief patient and Jean Claude had come to the health center to find out his own status. He’s been sick for quite some time.

Cecile counseled and tested Jean Claude, then talked with him about his results. To my surprise, he smiled. When asked what he will do now that he knows his HIV status, he said he will go to school to become a doctor. Jean Claude knows that with antiretroviral therapy and good medical treatment, he can live a long, productive life.

Read the full story here.

Churches have become HIV clinics in South Africa thanks to exceptional partnership. Debbie DeVoe/CRS

This week, South Africa celebrated an important HIV milestone in Johannesburg. Due to excellent partnership and program execution, management of a very large U.S. grant supporting HIV care and treatment for more than 60,000 people is shifting from the international hands of the CRS-led AIDSRelief consortium into the local hands of the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), St. Mary’s Hospital, and the Institute for Youth Development-South Africa.
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Painting by CRS beneficiary Tich, from Zimbabwe. Photo by Jim Stipe/CRS

After wrapping up Catholic Relief Services’ Continuum of Care Forum in Washington D.C. yesterday, most participants are headed to their homes all over the world. Three of the attendees have a little more work to do, though. At the forum, the audience heard from three people who have benefitted from life-saving HIV treatment and support services, and CRS wants our supporters to hear their inspiring stories, too. Today Christine, Danny, both from Zambia, and Tich of Zimbabwe are working with the CRS video team to record special messages for you.

Tich (pronounced “Teach”) has a wisdom beyond his 19 years. Then again, he had to grow up fast. Tich began getting sick at the age of 11, at first diagnosed with meningitis, then with tuberculosis. He remembers going to a clinic to receive different tests, and the doctor asked to speak with his mother alone. After that, he began taking medicine, but his mother never told him why. When he learned that his medicines were commonly used for HIV, he went to a clinic alone to be tested. He did not let the positive result discourage him. Tich has chosen to channel his talents into helping other young people living with HIV.

“I tell them, ‘Yes, we have HIV, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a future, that doesn’t mean we can’t go somewhere else and make good decisions in our lives.’ “

One way of expressing his feelings is through painting and drawing, a skill he lends to his work with children and young people. ”I help them create their own books about their lives, and they write everything and do all of the illustrations. It is good for them to process their feelings in this way.”

Tich brought several pieces of artwork to share in his message to you, the supporters who make possible the programs that changed his future. One, he said, particularly illustrates his life. It shows a man breaking free of chains that have bound him. Be on the lookout for the final video around Thanksgiving.

Christine Katyeka traveled from Zambia to Washington, D.C., to share her story of leading a healthy life with HIV. Today, she’ll tell her story at the Catholic Relief Services’ HIV Forum, held in the nation’s capitol. It’s fitting that she will speak in a city where funding of a bill called PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) gave her access to life-saving medicine.

Christine is bright, energetic, and full of inner strength. She had to rely on those qualities when her first husband wanted to take on a second wife.

“I thought to myself, ‘I am too smart to live in polygamy.’ “

It took strength to move back to her parents’ home, and to gather the courage to get an HIV test when she failed to recover from repeat infections. After she received a positive diagnosis, her father discouraged her from beginning anti-retroviral therapy.

“He said I would die if I started taking strong medicine. I had to find courage within myself to start treatment.”

She found a source to nurture that courage in a HIV support group where she met her husband, Danny.  They are the proud parents of a healthy toddler girl who does not have HIV.  And eventually, Christine’s father was won over by the profound improvement in his daughter’s health.

“Now he tells everyone to get tested, to get in treatment. He says ‘Look at my Christine!’  And they go.”

CRS’ HIV Continuum of Care Forum is underway in Washington, D.C., and experts from around the world are gathered to share best practices for providing services to people living with HIV. Although many of the discussions will be technical, the conference also highlights stories from people like Christine, individuals whose lives have been changed by quality HIV treatment and support services.

Ambassador Eric Goosby, the United States Global AIDS coordinator, is among the speakers at a two-day forum in Washington D.C. on September 15 and 16, Participants at the forum will examine the care of HIV and AIDS patients around the world.

Michele Jina (right) dispenses anti-retroviral drugs at the main pharmacy at Hospital Esperance, located in northern Haiti. The hospital is supported by the AIDSRelief consortium, led by CRS. Photo by Rick D’Elia for CRS

The forum, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, will feature presentations from practitioners and researchers from countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, as well as CRS headquarters in Baltimore. They will showcase innovative and promising practices from CRS care and treatment programs.

Focusing on the continuum of care, our experts will deliver presentations on how to treat HIV and AIDS patients over the long term, addressing a variety of needs of those of all ages in all stages—from pediatric to palliative care.

Dignity and quality of life are at the heart of CRS’ HIV and AIDS programming. CRS supports more than 280 HIV and AIDS projects in the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the developing world. In 2009, CRS will help nearly 24 million people affected by the pandemic—more than 8 million directly and nearly 16 million indirectly.

The forum will feature four beneficiaries of CRS’ work in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Uganda. CRS President Ken Hackett will be among those addressing the gathering, which will be held at the Academy for Educational Development Conference Center, 1825 Connecticut Ave., in Washington, D.C.

To register, visit http://continuumofcareforum.eventbrite.com/.

When I think of people living with HIV, it’s almost always an adult that comes to mind. But through my visits to East African countries, I’ve learned there is a growing number of children living with the virus.

Fortunately many programs now implement “prevention of mother-to-child transmission” initiatives to reduce the likelihood of newborns contracting the virus from their HIV-positive mothers during birth. But for those children who do become infected, treatment can be complicated for a number of reasons:
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CRS photojournalist and communications officer Sara Fajardo reports from her visit to Guyana:

Patients at the CRS sponsored St. Vincent de Paul Hospice Center measure health in belt notches.

“When I arrived two weeks ago I had to wear a belt to keep my pants up,” says new hospice resident Terrenc, 32, “But with the good food they feed us I no longer need one.”
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