Kitovu Mobile and Guernsey's Overseas Aid & Development Commission

Yesterday (Monday 17 October 2016), I visited a HIV/AIDS project in Masaka (a sprawling town about 2.5 hours drive south of Kampala) which Guernsey's Overseas Aid & Development Commission (OA&DC) had supported in 2014 with a grant of £40,000.
 
Kitovu Mobile has been working with people with HIV/Aids for nearly 30 years and throughout this time have been supported by the Catholic development agency, CAFOD (www.cafod.org.uk).  Masaka is located on the main route from East African ports in Kenya to Kampala and beyond to Northern Tanzania, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  As a result Masaka was what has been termed an "AIDS hotspot" and initially the medical authorities and NGOs providing health care in the area were seeing many people becoming ill with a previously unknown disease in the mid to late 1980s for which they could find no treatment and lead to 1,000s dying an protracted and painful death.  Many more children were left orphaned as their parents dies of AIDS and it was the "fortunate" ones who had a grandparent able to care for them or an older female sibling who took over her late mother's role.
 
Kitovu Mobile's work was initially focused on supporting those dying from AIDS at the time when the source and nature of the infection was still unknown and appeared unresponsive to the drugs available.  Overtime, Kitovu Mobile has adapted and developed its work as the scale and knowledge of HIV/AIDS has become better understood and effective treatments have been discovered.
 

 
The OA&DC was asked to support a project which was at the core of Kitovu Mobile's and
enhanced its comprehensive Care & Treatment Program (CCTP) to increase access to quality HIV prevention, treatment and care services to the targeted beneficiaries. The primary purpose of the grant was to help Kitovu Mobile to meet the demand of the changing HIV epidemic and the need to increase universal access to care. The project enabled Kitovu Mobile to initiate the adaptation of the ‘’system strengthening approach’’ through the establishment of three satellite clinics.  
 
In addition, CAFOD had advised the OA&DCC that grant had increased the capacity of Kitovu Mobile's community volunteers in responding effectively to HIV prevention strategies and nearly 200 "expert clients" had attained adequate skills in basic HIV care, treatment and support and act as ambassadors for positive living and HIV prevention in their communities.
 
The purpose of my visit was to meet with staff from Kitovu Mobile and see how the grant from Guernsey was continuing to ensure that the outcomes achieved during the funding period were continuing today and would do so for many years to come.

Members of the Kitovu Mobile team

Meeting with the staff, it was clear that they were committed to the organisation and very proud of the work they were undertaking and the lasting and positive impact it was having on the lives of so many people in this area.  I also visited one of the clinics the funding from Guernsey had supported,

 Whilst it was great to meet the team and hear first hand how Kitovu Mobile has responded to the AIDS epidemic and adapted its services and role as the disease has become better understood and new effective treatments identified, what I found most moving was the testimonies from three of the "expert clients" I met and who spoke on behalf of over 60 other clients (of all ages from babies with their mothers to elderly men and women) about how the services through Kitovu Mobile had given them hope and life. 

One of the "expert clients" said the only thing he could parallel his experience with was the passage of St. Matthew's Gospel where the man is carried to Christ on a stretched and is cured and walks away his life and health restored.  He said that in the early days, he and others had been carried to Kitovu Mobile's clinic but today they walked by themselves and brought their children and grandchildren.  He said he had tested positive for HIV in 1991 but today, with the medicines he receved he was well and able to work and support his family.  The two other "expert clients" who spoke gave similar testimonies and it was clear from their body language and the reactions of the others crammed into the clinics waiting area that these three people spoken on behalf of them all.  I was left swallowing hard and fighting back the tears.  I saw with my own eyes how Kitovu Mobile's mission statement based on St. John's Gospel "I come that they may have life and life in its fullness" (ch. 10 v .10) is being achieved day after day.

One of the three "expert clients" who spoke on
behalf of the many others gathered to meet me

Some of the many clients who came to greet me

 

 

The packed waiting room

One of the several mothers who came with her baby girl

To summarise all I heard and saw yesterday, I would highlight three points that I believe demonstrate the importance of the work Kitovu Mobile is undertaking and that Guernsey has supported: 

• In the last 4 years, no babies of women with HIV?AIDS receiving support from Kitovu Mobile have delivered babies with the infection because of the antenatal and delivery care received;
• Many of the clients have had the HIV/AIDS infection for over 20 years but remain healthy and able to support and care for their families; and
• Kitovu Mobile continues to respond to the challenges HIV/AIDS presents; e.g. the incidence of cancer amongst those living with HIV/AIDS is very high and so Kitovu Mobile is working hard to introduce cancer screening to enable earlier detection and so offer better treatment outcomes alongside offering palliative care for those with cancer.

 It was a long day and I am still reviewing my notes and reflecting on all I heard and saw but first and fore most I saw how £40,000 from Guernsey had not only helped transformed lives but had saved lives and continues to do so and will continue to do so in the years to come.
 





 Finally the