Background
Cases of children being infected with HIV/AIDS were first observed in the East African region in the early to mid-1980’s. Out of the 2.1 million children under the age of 15 years living with HIV worldwide, at least 90% live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Tanzania, about 12% of all child infections are HIV-related.

About the project
This project was created to improve accessibility of children born by HIV positive women to high quality care, treatment and support. The project team targeted Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College (KCMC) to understand the social factors possibly preventing these children from accessing the specialized services. In order to do this, the team trained the nurses at KCMC on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and pediatric care. Discussions were also held with the clinic’s staff members to refer children born by HIV positive women to specialized clinics. Lastly, questionnaires were handed out to HIV positive women attending the clinic.

Results
By the end of the project, 29 nurses had been trained on prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and pediatric care. The mothers who were HIV positive also received information about the existing services and their children are now registered in the specialized clinic. In addition to this, another six health centres were opened to help increase the accessibility of child health care services even further.

The project team discovered that part of the reasons why many children did not access the appropriate services before the project was because their mothers weren’t informed about the specialized clinics before giving birth. Poverty and stigma were also identified as important factors preventing mothers from seeking care.

Year: 2006