TG 01 - AIDS PATIENT ASSISTANCE
Project Location
Our community is located in the parish of Marie Mère du Rédenteur in Adidogome and has 13 secondary stations with a population of over 250,000 inhabitants. The social situation in this part of the capital is truly deplorable: the lack of work that particularly affects young people and exposes them to all social ills.
The health situation that we are experiencing at this time Post Pandemic, does not make the situation of anguish that the relatives of HIV patients are experiencing easier. AIDS continues to devastate the populations around us. Indeed, despite numerous awareness campaigns, the number of HIV-positive people continues to increase. As a result, treatment centers in our area are often overwhelmed by requests from HIV/AIDS victims. The latter, not knowing who to trust, come knocking on our door.
Project description
HIV/AIDS continues to spread in our environment, despite the efforts made to orient the population through awareness campaigns, the number of people infected with the virus continues to increase.
Through this project we provide psychosocial assistance to people living with HIV, widows and orphans of those who have died of AIDS. The activities that we already carry out in the field include support and listening, medical care, awareness raising, organization of exchange meetings between HIV-positive people, educational support, payment for schooling. The center to which we send several patients is the SPROFEN center in Awatamé.
The project of support and assistance to HIV/AIDS patients in the community of Lomé has been ongoing for a long time, because the situations of people living with this disease, present in our parish and in the surrounding areas, put a great strain on the community. Helping and accompanying these patients has become a priority for the sisters of the community. Reflection has led to the provision of certain care and support to these patients. To help these vulnerable people, we have put in place a program of activities for them, based on the needs of the moment. We have designed a program that includes personal development classes, practical workshops, film screenings (followed by debates) and testimonies of people with the disease who live an almost normal life in society.
In detail, the following activities will be carried out:
- Talks and debates on general topics (How to manage AGR, how to educate children, how to help children prepare for the return and succeed in their studies, etc.) and specific topics related to HIV (how to take ARVs, secondary diseases related to HIV, how to live positively with HIV, self-esteem and self-confidence, the effects of alcohol consumption on one's health, precautions to take to avoid contaminating others, etc.)
- Testimony sessions of people with PV/HIV to their peers
- Awareness trips to schools, churches, youth associations
- Medical assistance to patients with PV/HIV and their sick children. Visits to the homes and hospitals of those entrusted to our care
- Projection of films on AIDS (modes of transmission, how to avoid transmitting the disease and how to raise awareness among others).
- Practical training sessions: manual work (sewing, knitting, making soap and ointment, etc.)
- Educational support, payment of school fees for children and orphans of HIV-positive people
- Various types of assistance: accommodation, roof repairs, etc.
Objectives
- Improve the living and health conditions of HIV-positive people and their families, as well as widows and orphans of HIV-positive people.
- Raise awareness, especially among young people, in schools, institutes and high schools.
- Provide a framework of psychosocial support for people living with HIV, widows and orphans, and people who have died of AIDS.
- Allow this vulnerable group to take charge of themselves, thanks to various training courses.
- Offer them quality, competent and humane assistance where they can be listened to and accompanied in difficult times.
Beneficiaries
Direct: At this moment we are following a group of 52 people, 40 women, 10 minors and 2 men.
Indirect: families and society
Referent sister of the project: Sr. Magdalena Ribas Perelló
Project's costs