Clinical Services ProjectsUSAID/Rwanda awarded FHI a one-year project titled Providing HIV Clinical Services for HIV/AIDS Emergency Plan in Rwanda through a sole-source cooperative agreement. The project continues the clinical care activities initiated under the FHI-led IMPACT Project and serves as a bridge to a five-year project, HIV/AIDS Clinical Services Program in Rwanda, awarded to FHI by USAID/Rwanda in June 2007 to be implemented in five districts in the Southern Province: Kamonyi, Muhana, Nyaruguru, Nyamagabe, and Ruhango.
The five-year project builds on a long history of success in providing quality care to Rwandans and profound understanding of the Rwandan context and its needs. To achieve the expected outcome—sustainable, universal access to HIV care in targeted districts—FHI will expand HIV/AIDS clinical services and patient-care capacity in district health networks and build the capacity of national and district institutions to support and manage Rwanda's health networks.
FHI's approach is built on four cornerstones:
- increasing the availability of services by expanding them to health facilities that do not offer them and diversifying services at all facilities
- norming (or making routine) the systematic integration of standard and advanced HIV care into Rwanda's primary healthcare system
- strengthening health systems by enhancing technical competencies and organizational capacity at all levels
- ensuring knowledge currency to identify capacity gaps, emerging trends, and meet changing needs in HIV care in Rwanda
These cornerstones are the foundation for FHI's district care network model, which comprises network centers, nurse-initiated treatment centers, and human and technical resources that provide a continuum of sustainable, quality HIV care.
FHI expects to achieve the following key results from the five-year project:
- diagnostic services for HIV established in 100 percent of primary health centers in targeted districts
- enhanced package of services that prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV offered as part of standard HIV care in 100 percent of primary health centers in targeted districts
- treatment and palliative care offered at 100 percent of primary health centers and district hospitals in targeted districts
- prevention for positives plan implemented at 100 percent of primary health centers and hospitals in targeted districts
- district systems developed and strengthened to plan, coordinate, and supervise district-wide HIV care
- national guidelines and service delivery tools disseminated and implemented at all care and treatment sites
- quality assurance/quality improvement plans developed and implemented at all care and treatment sites and in the district network of HIV care.
Currently, FHI supports HIV services at 60 health facilities in five districts. Of these, 27 offer antiretroviral treatment.
Destination Nyungwe
Destination Nyungwe is a USAID-funded project, managed by International Resource Group, that brings ecotourism development, biodiversity conservation, and public health programs to Nyungwe Forest National Park and surrounding areas. FHI is a subcontractor, and is implementing community-based healthcare activities to improve family planning and mother and child health and reduce the rate of sexually transmitted infections. FHI provides financial and technical assistance to health centers in Rangiro, Gisakura, and Kitabi located near the park. These community-based health activities help to raise public awareness of the links between population, health, and the environment.
Building Capacity for HIV/AIDS Data Analysis and Use
Through the CDC GAP Task Order 5 Project, FHI is collaborating with the National Treatment and Research Center (TRAC) and CDC to build TRAC's capacity to analyze and use HIV/AIDS data in Rwanda. FHI is helping TRAC to analyze and disseminate the 2000 and 2006 Behavior Surveillance Surveys and will help carry out the next round of BSS in 2008.
IMPACT Project
In 1998, USAID made its first obligation under the FHI-managed Implementing AIDS Prevention and Care (IMPACT) Project to support technical and programmatic assistance to regional health authorities in Rwanda.
Over time, IMPACT obligations supported the development of a comprehensive response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Rwanda. By 2006, IMPACT-supported partners implemented programs in counseling and testing, behavior change communication for youth and higher-risk groups, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, management of sexually transmitted infections, preventive therapy for opportunistic infections, community- and home-based care for persons living with HIV/AIDS, and antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected patients.
The project started phasing out in Rwanda in June 2006 and officially closed in September 2007.
Read the FHI/Rwanda IMPACT Project Final Report.
