Abstract:

As the lead agency, the Health International Education and Policy Partners, Inc. of Baltimore/Washington, DC USA entered into a consultative community health service agreement initiative to design, develop and implement a Community-based Prevention and Care Policy Development model project with special emphasis on HIV education, prevention and care. The purpose of this model project in the placed-based setting of Tunisia Africa was to provide oversight to capacity-building and educational activities for an multinational organization, the African Development Bank (AfDB). Their Health and Human Resource Services Division served as gatekeeper agents to highlight the AfDB’s commitment to combating HIV through routine and scheduled prevention education seminars, workshops, community forums, and conferences. These activities were to be designed and tailored to increase the awareness of top-level administrators, employees and their immediate family members and the community. The Organization’s Human Resource clinical staff as agency is able to request HIV site based screening, testing and counseling services from the AfDB’s international network based on the needs of employees in country specific locations. Within the designed framework, the AfDB’s workplace environment and community-based service managers and Wellness Clinic outreach staff workers will provide information, within the employee health and wellness programs, on the (1) purpose and limitations of testing, (2) prevention of HIV transmission, and the consequences of the test result, and (3) emphasis on the value of appropriate early primary medical care if the test is positive. This approach aims to decrease the stigma of HIV/AIDS, as non-traditional points of entry are used for services, including prevention, counseling and care. A HIV prevention counselor is to be available to the employees, supervisors and management, as well as to their family members for culturally responsive advisement and support, also facilitating professional assistant if required. Additionally, the AfDB would provide the environment for establishment of self-help groups and health education forums specific to the African country or region of the continent’s contemporary infectious disease issues of concern within the specific working environment and general community. As designed, the AfDB’s Health and Wellness staff's role as gatekeeper represents support as in-reach to those employees in the organization who continue to deal with various health concerns, especially the denial of the crisis of HIV infection in general, as well as their family members who are living with HIV/AIDS in fearful silence in Northern Africa. The model project articulates the elements necessary for designing a continuum of care for HIV infected persons in a variety of settings, including multinational community settings

Keywords:

hiv policy, employee, africa, capacity building, awareness.