Angola: Our Impact

Peer Navigators Promote Positive Living for Key Populations with HIV

December 06, 2019
A provincial antiretroviral therapy nurse, peer educator, and MWENHO peer navigator gather after a training. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

Until LINKAGES Angola developed an instrument to assess a person’s risk for contracting HIV and identify key populations, the Associação de Mulheres Vivendo com o VIH e SIDA, or MWENHO, did not have a way of indicating with certainty if they worked with key populations or not.Through LINKAGES, MWENHO hired peer navigators—persons living with HIV who could mentor others on how to overcome the challenges of starting and adhering to treatment for HIV.

A Motivated HIV Counselor Never Gives up on Her Clients

December 02, 2019
Counselors from Cuidados da Infancia accompany clients to a health facility. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

While civil society organizations in Angola have improved their ability to reach key populations (KPs) through the cascade of HIV prevention and testing services, they faced challenges linking those who test positive to care and treatment. The rate of initiation of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the first seven months of the LINKAGES Project was only 19 percent (11/53).To improve this rate, LINKAGES began investing in strategies to strengthen the bond between HIV counselors and clients.

Ensuring the Safety of Community Outreach Workers is Critical to HIV Programs

December 02, 2019
Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

In September 2016, peer educator Sonia* was detained along with sex workers at a hot spot where she was conducting outreach on prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. After a long wait at the police station where she and the others were being held, Sonia was finally able to provide proof of her work to the police chief.

Addressing Gender-Based Violence Included in Minimum Package of HIV Services for Female Sex Workers in Luanda

December 02, 2019
Role playing activity at a violence prevention and response workshop. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

Gender-based violence (GBV) prevention services have been integrated with HIV prevention and testing services under the LINKAGES Project in Angola since 2017. Outreach workers from the Associação de Solidariedade & Ajuda Mútua (ASCAM), as part of their HIV-prevention messaging, now provide GBV awareness and support to those who experienced such attacks.Today, ASCAM’s teams no longer conduct HIV work without discussing violence prevention.

Police Become Allies in Protecting Key Populations

December 02, 2019
Participants gather at a violence prevention and response action planning workshop with representatives of the government, health facilities, and local partner organization, ASCAM, in Luanda, Angola. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

In 2017, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a principal recipient of Global Fund (GF) funding for HIV at the request of the Government of Angola, approached MSH, the implementer of LINKAGES, with an offer to complement the minimum service package for female sex workers (FSW) in Luanda Province.

Peer Educators Sensitize Police to Improve HIV and Gender-Based Violence Services for Sex Workers

December 02, 2019
Police leaders at a LINKAGES training. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

At the beginning of LINKAGES, peer educator Maria* was training female sex workers (FSW) on HIV prevention in a busy nightclub in downtown Luanda when police detained her. Maria spent several hours at the police station before she was able to explain that she was an outreach worker with the Associação Beneficente Cristã (ABC) under the LINKAGES Project.

Changing Hearts and Minds: Fighting Discrimination and HIV

November 30, 2019
A FOJASSIDA peer educator and lay counselor. Photo credit: LINKAGES/MSH

Working for the LINKAGES Project has been transformative for Majestade* and Rogério Vaduca in very different ways.As a homosexual, Majestade, 30, was suffering discrimination within his own strongly religious family.

Living Positively in Angola

June 13, 2018

Linking Mothers and Couples to HIV Testing and CareShortly after the birth of her second child, Manuela dos Santos learned that she was HIV positive. Fearing how her family and friends might react to her diagnosis, she kept her status a secret for weeks. Fortunately, her child was born HIV negative, but Manuela’s health quickly deteriorated. At just 25 years old, she was losing weight, sleep, and the ability to care for her newborn child.Every year in Angola, an estimated 12,000 women aged 15 and over and 3,600 children under 14 years of age are newly infected with HIV.

GeneXpert Training Strengthens Angola’s Capacity to Diagnose and Treat Tuberculosis

February 12, 2018
{Photo Credit: Health for All Project Staff}Photo Credit: Health for All Project Staff

From January 30 to February 7, 2018, Angola’s Health for All (HFA) Project, supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), welcomed global health expert, Dr. Alaine Nyaruhirira, for a week-long training on the use of GeneXpert – technology that has become a game-changer in the fight against tuberculosis (TB).

Tracing HIV Contacts, Saving Lives.

January 18, 2018
{Photo Credit: Health for All Project Staff/USAID Angola} Eva Hadi Dos Santos, Community Counselor, and Suzeth de Moráis António, Patient Assistant Facilitator, from Viana Health Center, Luanda, Angola.Photo Credit: Health for All Project Staff/USAID Angola

It happened on July 10, 2017, at the Viana Health Center, one of the nine health facilities supported by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Luanda, Angola. Maria, a young mother, brought in her 15 month-old child, seeking care for severe malnutrition. In accordance with clinical guidelines, the child was tested for HIV by the Counseling and Testing Service and was identified as HIV positive. Immediately, Maria was also tested and was found to be HIV positive as well.

Pages