Zingatia Maisha

The Zingatia Maisha programme was designed to encourage people living with HIV/AIDS and the wider community to access treatment (especially those in remote areas) and to adhere to this treatment once started. The programme focused on establishing support systems to help people living with HIV cope with the day-to-day realties of HIV and enhance effective treatment. By strengthening links between community support groups and government health facilities, the programme worked to improve patient referrals and follow-ups. Health Facility and Community Linkage Committees (HCLCs) were initiated in 38 project sites and were involved in tracking referrals and monitoring support group activities.

Support groups were formed within the communities linked to facility-based support groups, which were separated into the categories of adult, prevention of mother to child transmissions, paediatric, and caregivers, for focused attention. The community groups were based within communities where people live and were designed to provide a forum where people living with HIV meet, share experiences, learn from and encourage each other. They also engaged in income generating activities to supplement their nutrition and income. Facility support group leaders mentored the community-based support groups, who also helped trace people who default on their treatment.

Zingatia Maisha was also designed to help health care workers understand and follow national guidelines on the appropriate and sensitive delivery of HIV treatment services. The organisers state that health care professionals gained greater knowledge about treatment of HIV/AIDS and more sensitivity when dealing with people living with HIV/AIDS as a result of guidelines and training sessions. In particular, project staff were trained in Paediatrics Psychosocial Support and initiated paediatric support groups in some of the sites.

HIV/AIDS

Approximately 6.7% of the population in Kenya (over 1.1 million productive adults and 100,000 children) are living with HIV. Millions more have been in many ways affected by the virus. In the health sector, the impact of HIV has led to an estimated 60% of medical ward beds being occupied by HIV infected patients. The health system has been stretched, with health care workers overburdened with provision of care and treatment for PLHIVs. About half of Kenya's government health centres now offer PMTCT, but demand remains relatively low, mainly because about 56% of women still give birth at home. Community mobilisation, especially at the grassroots level, is one of the key strategies the government is now using to improve uptake. According to Zingatia Maisha, the project has helped link more than 15,000 people living with HIV to support groups in Kenya's Eastern and Western Provinces.