Stephanie Chen is CARE USA’s Policy and Communications Manager traveling in Uganda on a CARE Learning Tour - a comprehensive, multi-day tour for policymakers and those who can influence policy to gain firsthand knowledge of the core issues poor communities face. To learn more about the Learning Tours Program, please visit: www.care.org/learningtours.

During the first morning of our Learning Tour, the delegation, including Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) pictured below, visited Nsambya Home Care, a faith-based health care organization with funding from the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The delegation met Possy, a shy young mother with two children coping with HIV in the slums of Kampala. Several times a month, a volunteer from Nsambya Home Care will travel to Possy’s home to give counseling and make sure she is properly taking her medication.

Senator Isakson at Nsambya Home Care
Photo Credit Josh Estey

The HIV/AIDS rate in Uganda is just less than seven percent, a sharp decline from 21 percent in 1990. But the infection rates are often higher in poorer areas like Possy’s neighborhood, and still remain a major challenge for the country.

While testing for HIV and handing out drugs is a vital component of HIV treatment and prevention, one very significant part of the process that is often overlooked is ensuring that patients are taking their medications.

That’s where Nsambya’s volunteers come in. With an average of 60 patients each, Nsambya’s volunteers make rounds to each home to teach their patients what drugs to take and when to make health clinic visits for check-ups. Many of the patients, who are often impoverished and struggling to feed their families, have trouble remembering when to take their medication or they may have other counseling needs but don’t have immediate access to health clinics.

In Uganda, the stigma against HIV is still very pervasive, particularly in the community the Learning Tour visited. That is why the home-based care provided by Nsambya’s volunteers is so critical, to ensure privacy and allow patients to feel secure asking questions about their condition.

Home visits are just one of the many services Nsambya provides for more than 8,900 people in Kampala. Other services at Nsambya include: pediatric counseling, provision of food and income-generating activities.

Next, the delegation headed to Reach Out Mbuya, a comprehensive faith-based organization in Kampala with funding and support from CDC and PEPFAR. The delegation was greeted with a vibrant and dynamic traditional dance from a local youth group:

Reach Our Mbuya Youth Group

Photo Credit Josh Estey

Senator Isakson meeting Reach Out Mbuya Youth Group

Photo Credit Josh Estey

Reach Out Mbuya has enrolled over 8,400 clients in care. The group has counseled and tested over 50,000 individuals and provided medication to 700 mothers to prevent the transmission of HIV to their newborns.

The delegation stopped by the clinic where the organization tests and provides antiretroviral treatments, where we met John Roberts, one of the first recipients of antiretroviral drugs with PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funds in Uganda.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) with John Roberts, one of the first patients to receive ARV treatment

Photo Credit Josh Estey

Standing tall, John Roberts, a teacher in Uganda, shared with us his tremendous story: at the time he received ARV treatment, he was close to death. Today, after receiving treatment and counseling from PEPFAR funding, he leads a healthy normal life as a teacher in Uganda.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif) was especially touched by the presentation. She was one of the policy makers to help write the PEPFAR bill, and she was thrilled to see “the face” of what she and her colleagues in Congress had been working so hard on.

“It was quite humbling to get to meet the first recipient of PEPFAR,” Representative Lee said.

About three years ago, CARE partnered with Reach Out Mbuya to add a financial literacy service to their HIV/AIDS programming in addition to CARE’s Village Savings and Loans Associations, which teach the participants how to form savings groups. The participants of these associations, who are typically women in groups of 20 to 30 members, learn to pool their extra change together and lend the money to each other. They invest their money in small scale businesses that can generate income such as a poultry farms or gardens.

On this sunny day, two VSLA groups sat in a circle and conducted a typical meeting. The delegation watched each woman put money in the tin box and stamp their papers. Afterwards, the women shared their stories on how the VSLA program had enabled them to become more confident and economically secure.