Background
In 2004, there were approximately 140,000 children aged 0-14 living with HIV in Tanzania. Many of these are orphans, who face difficulties due to both financial hardship and mental distress. The city of Dar es Salaam has no system to direct exposed and HIV infected children to specialised treatment and support. There are general pediatric clinics, but most of them lack the right resources to diagnose and care for these children. In order to improve this, the Dar Dar Pediatric Program was designed as a collaboration between Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Tanzania and Dartmouth Medical School in the US. This programme offers specialized care and treatment for children infected with HIV/AIDS and is located in Dar es Salaam.

About the project
This project was created to improve the accessibility for children born by HIV positive women, to high quality pediatric care, treatment and support. The project team distributed information and leaflets describing the location of the Dar Dar Pediatric Program’s clinic and the services offered. They also visited a number of orphanages, HIV/AIDS groups and religious leaders in Dar es Salaam, in order to raise awareness about the clinic and increase the number of children referred there.

Results
By the end of the project, 21 children had been referred to the clinic. Out of these 11 were HIV positive. Among this group, six of the children were on antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and the rest were not eligible for ARV treatment.

Year: 2006