Health Program

Women and children are an indispensable part of BIDCAF's community-led efforts to increase access to quality health care, reduce vulnerability to hunger and malnutrition

Contact Us
What we do

We engage in a variety of health-related initiatives that are adapted to the needs of the communities we work with. Our health programs are meant to alleviate inequities, enable universal access to services and achieve long lasting outcomes. Our strategy builds local partnerships, creates local solutions, and works in rural places that are frequently overlooked by established health and social care systems. The following are some of BIDCAF's primary health programing areas: 

  Elimination of mother-to-child transmission 

Our HIV programs address areas of programing, including home-based care, Elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV, stigma reduction, Positive prevention, and Nutritional Care and Support services.

 

For the first time the elimination of transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies is considered a realistic goal, and an important component of the campaign to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4, 5, and 6. The prevention of HIV transmission from mother to child (PMTCT) has played a critical role in this effort and in increasing maternal and child survival rates.

 

Several countries, including Uganda, have made significant progress toward eliminating vertical HIV transmission. However, some barriers to broader access and utilization of services across the PMTCT cascade remain. Poor uptake of HIV PMTCT services, loss to follow-up (LTFU), and poor drug adherence remain major challenges to achieving virtual elimination of HIV MTCT, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Reducing LTFU among mothers started on lifelong ART for PMTCT is thus a critical step toward HIV MTCT elimination.

 

With communities at the centre, BIDCAF is working to strengthen linkages between communities and health facilities to address loss to follow up of HIV positive and lactating women across the EMTCT continuum care. We know local communities are experts on their own situations and working together is the best way to build strong, self-sustaining, and equitable health systems.

OUR APPROACH

• BIDCAF HIV programs place special emphasis on eliminating new infections in babies and children. We work to prevent HIV infection among women of reproductive age, while promoting adherence counselling, tracking lost to follow up and promote disclosure of HIV status among clients. We promote option B+, the provision of lifelong antiretroviral therapy to all pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV. BIDCAF also provides HIV care, treatment and support for women and children living with HIV and their families.
• BIDCAF strengthens linkages between communities and health facilities to address loss to follow up of HIV positive and lactating women across the EMTCT continuum care. Build the capacity of Expert Clients who are HIV positive to Strengthening of community systems to eliminate loss to follow up in eMTCT has emerged as a priority.
• BIDCAF trainsExpert Clients who in turn take up the challenge to trace, educate and bring back to the facility, all HIV positive pregnant and lactation women lost to follow up on eMTCT.
• By educating their peers to do the same, Expert clients use the Family focused eMTCT education approach to contribute significantly towards reducing the rate of lost to follow up to HIV prevention and lactating women across the eMTCT cascade through a sustainable family support system among peers and the general public in their immediate communities

1.   Adolescent and young adult health

Adolescent girls, in particular, face multiple vulnerabilities. Adolescent girls are severely and unevenly at risk of HIV infection – two thirds of all new HIV infections are contracted by adolescent girls. Many girls also drop out of school as a result of unwanted teenage pregnancy and early marriage. Youth comprise nearly 40% of people living with HIV, and prevalence among young women is nearly twice that of young men. 8.9 million girls aged 10–19, especially those that live in the rural areas, and among the less educated and low-income households are at risk of harmful practices, including child marriage. 34% of women aged 25- 49 were married before the age of 18, according to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016. According to Uganda's RMNCAH sharpened plan 2016/17 – 2019/20, young women aged 15 – 24 years account for nearly 28% of maternal deaths. Overall, the adolescent birth rate in the age group 15-19 years is 135 per 1000 live births, which is among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, driving both total fertility and population growth rates. Adolescents aged 15 to 19 accounts for 17.6% of all pregnancy-related deaths. Stillbirths and child deaths are 50% more likely in babies born to mothers under the age of 20 than in those between the ages of 20 and 29.

Reproductive health services provided by BIDCAF assist in educating youth about sexual and reproductive well-being, raising awareness among adolescents about safe sexual practices, protecting both the mother and the child from infectious diseases, delivering a healthy baby, and assisting in the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.

OUR APPROACH

• Increase Adolescent-Friendly Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights Education and Services in both public and private health institutions, with a focus on youth in vocational schools and in the community.
• Provide integrated and youth-responsive health information, care and support to adolescents at risk of, and living with, HIV and AIDS.
• Improve access to HIV testing and TB diagnoses, preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV from adolescent mothers to their babies, and also address gender-based violence, teenage pregnancy and child marriage.
• Empower adolescents and youth to make their own decisions about their bodies and futures by changing community norms about gender, adolescent sexuality, early marriage, and childbearing.
• Improve health services so that young people can receive the sexual and reproductive health care they require without judgment or bias, including access to long-acting contraceptive methods.

1  NUTRITION

Nutrition is crucial for a child's growth and development during the first 1,000 days of his or her life (from conception to age two). Children can be stunted as a result of poor feeding practices and sickness exposure, which is linked to grownup poverty, worse cognitive skills, and a higher chance of maternal death for women.
Through the use of effective, low-cost interventions, BIDCAFs’ nutrition programs engage families and communities in addressing the factors that contribute to childhood malnutrition. Our nutrition programming increases food security, empowers women, and promotes social and behavioural change for better nutrition by providing community members with the practical knowledge and skills required to produce nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, and animal source foods at the household level, as well as promote improved hygiene practices.

OUR APPROACH

BIDCAF collaborates with community health providers to strengthen services that promote good nutrition for families. Some of these services include breastfeeding support for mothers, growth monitoring for children, training on proper food preparation and storage, and management of chronic illnesses.
BIDCAF works with communities to empower them to take responsibility for the nutrition of their children, mothers, and pregnant women. We assist them in addressing the root causes of chronic malnutrition and advocating for better behaviours and services through the Farmer nutrition schools.
The nutrition programs of BIDCAF employ highly effective social and behaviour change communications strategies to encourage family members to adopt improved nutrition and hygiene practices.

1.   Positive Prevention

Traditionally, prevention programs have primarily targeted HIV-negative people and promoted a wide range of behaviour change strategies. While this is critical, they have largely ignored the needs and important role of HIV-positive people.
The assumption that knowing one's HIV status alone will ensure continued safer sex practice is being called into question. The key to long-term behavioural change remains elusive. With the increasing availability and uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART) becoming a reality, and the potential for ART to act as an effective means of HIV prevention, the global HIV prevention agenda must keep up with the ever-changing demands of the day by responding to the specific prevention needs of people living with HIV. The growing number of sero-discordant and concordant relationships emphasizes the importance of responding to a diverse group of people's sexual and reproductive health needs and fertility choices.
Although this approach has been successful, it largely ignores the needs and vulnerabilities PLHIV. BIDCAF recognizes that continued reliance on general HIV prevention messages may limit the effectiveness and sophistication of prevention strategies. It may be more efficient to change behaviour among fewer HIV positive individuals than many HIV negative individuals.
BIDCAF is addressing HIV/AIDS prevention by employing a Positive Prevention approach that is specifically designed to target PLHIV. This approach recognizes the critical role that people living with HIV/AIDS can play in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Positive Prevention is dedicated to bringing PLHIV to the forefront of prevention and education in an effort to decrease rates of infection in HIV negative people, decrease incidences of super-infection and opportunistic infection in HIV positive people, raise awareness, reduce stigma and discrimination, and improve the social and psychological well-being of PLHIV.

OUR APPROACH

• Equip People Living with HIV with knowledge and skills necessary to promote positive prevention at personal, community and public level as a contribution to the broader HIV Prevention strategies.
• To enhance skills and knowledge of the peer educators in promoting Positive Prevention at community level by placing PLHIV at the fore front in reducing the transmission risk of HIV/ STIs.
• To empower PLHIV to make and sustain effective choices that contribute to the reduction of HIV transmission and those that promote their wellbeing.