U.S. Embassy
Avenida Kenneth Kaunda, 193
Caixa Postal, 783
Maputo
MOZAMBIQUE
PRESS RELEASE
Strengthening Community and Health Facility Based HIV/AIDS Services in Zambezia – USG Celebrates Successes and Achievements
May 2, 2019 – Quelimane – The governments of Mozambique and the United States held a ceremony this week celebrating ten years of partnership leading to stronger, more effective HIV/AIDS services in communities and health facilities in Zambézia Province. The partnership was developed through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Strengthening Community Integrated Program (SCIP) in Zambézia Province, implemented by World Vision Inc. in collaboration with local organizations Associação Moçambicana Mulher e Educação (AMME), Núcleo das Associações Femininas da Zambezia (NAFEZA), and Kukumbi. By linking people living with HIV to the formal Mozambican health system, the USAID-SCIP partnership improves the health and livelihoods of children, women, and families in Zambézia Province.
Zambezia Province has the highest prevalence rate of HIV in Mozambique, averaging 12%, 500 new HIV cases registered daily, according to the Ministry of Health. Many people living with HIV still do not know their status. Ensuring that people with HIV are tested and stay on treatment remains a challenge for Mozambique to realize its goal of an AIDS-free generation.
Through SCIP, USAID partnered with the Ministry of Health to create a cadre of trained professional community workers that not only helped get more HIV positive individuals on treatment, but also ensured that those individuals and their families received critical support services and participated in community savings and loans programs and support groups. Through this comprehensive HIV case identification and community outreach program, partners worked together to help people living with HIV and their families live healthy and productive lives.
At the ceremony, USAID Supervisory Program Officer Kristin Ray said “As critical HIV support services improve, we believe Mozambicans living with HIV will be better informed about the lifelong nature of treatment. They will realize the importance of treatment not just to their own health, but also to their community’s health, and that having HIV is not a death sentence. With constant treatment, you can live a long and healthy life.”
For more information about this press release, please contact the U.S. Embassy Maputo Press Office at MaputoPress@state.gov.
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