Kenya

KENYA - AIDS Population Health Integrated Assistance Program

Project Highlights APHIA II health outreach event in Maua, Kenya More than 2,000 community members mobilized by CLUSA community animators queued up to take advantage of a variety of free health services during an APHIA II health outreach event in Maua, Kenya.

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History
In-country presence since 2000. Previously active as an implementing agency under the AMKENI project.

Current Project
AIDS Population Health Integrated Assistance Program - APHIA II (July 2006 - June 2011)

Funding
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Partners
CLUSA is a subcontractor to Family Health International (FHI) in the Coast and Rift Valley Provinces. In Western and Eastern provinces, CLUSA is a subcontractor to the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

Goal
Reduce the spread of HIV, improve the quality of life of those infected and affected, and mitigate the socio-economic impact of the epidemic in Kenya.

Clusa Objective
To encourage healthier behaviors and increased use of high quality services for HIV/AIDS, reproductive health/family planning (RH/FP) and maternal and child health (MCH).

Strategies
CLUSA is applying the same successful principles validated during the AMKENI project to mobilize and strengthen communities' responses to HIV/AIDS in the Coast, Western and Eastern provinces.

CLUSA's trained facilitators use a tested method of community entry to stimulate interest in the program and generate local energy for sustained behavior change. The approach is two-pronged:
(1) strengthen the capacity of community volunteers and community structures to lead health-related activities in the community; and (2) simultaneously work with health providers to enhance their ability to work hand-in-hand with the communities they serve to realize the desired behavior changes and improved health outcomes.
As a part of its approach, CLUSA is strengthening the capacity of local community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations both programmatically and organizationally. CLUSA's work also focuses on forming and strengthening referrals networks, a key element in establishing strong community-facility linkages and increasing demand for and use of services-HIV/AIDS, family planning, reproductive health, malaria, tuberculosis, child survival, antenatal care, and support for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and orphans and vulnerable children.

One of the most important aspects of CLUSA's unique strategy is supporting village health committees (VHC) to articulate and develop plans for tackling the health problems expressed by community members. With assistance from CLUSA facilitators, VHCs are guided in a participatory and action-oriented process for identifying local health problems and developing concrete plans for addressing those problems. VHCs' capacity to collaborate with health providers in the management of local health facilities is also enhanced through training in general management skills (including functional literacy), basic financial skills, leadership, and roles and responsibilities of VHC vis-à-vis designated health providers and vice versa.

Impact Summary (as of June 2008)
Coast Province - Start July 1, 2006

• 860 community members were trained to deliver health messages, on health education and community organizing strategies.
• 353 community gatekeepers were trained on gender based violence and 323 women leaders were trained on resource mobilization to strengthen community based prevention and care activities.
• Community Health Workers continued conducting group and one-to-one community health dialogues, reaching 18,748 (9,786 male and 9,220 female) during outreaches and making 45,966 contacts (18,703 male and 27,263 female). A total of 54,206 (54,064 male and 142 female) condoms and 1,105 nets were distributed.
• New youth clubs were formed, reaching approximately 18,357 youths.

Eastern Province - Start September 2006

• 24,832 community members were reached with health messages through health education targeting various community groups, and a total of 4,642 clients were referred for various health services.
• Over 3,500 condoms were distributed.
• Hundreds of Village Health Committees received training, over 1,200 new community members received orientation, and 5 new sites were identified for new activities.

Rift Valley Province - Start September 2007

• 127 new Village Health Committees were formed in the province, and 1,453 community members were elected by their peers to serve on these committees.
• 663 new people were trained as Community Health Workers and given basic health training.
• Over 10,000 people represented 285 villages at a large village awareness meeting, where the communities voted to continue their community health activities and many new volunteers were identified.