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Today on World AIDS Day, we’re nearing the one year mark of operations at our HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis clinic in the capital city of Bangui. Many challenges remain in controlling the spread of HIV and compassionately treating people living with AIDS in the Central African Republic, but this past year has shown that it is possible with hard work and by building partnerships.
We treat over 1,200 people living with AIDS at our Bangui clinic, and what sets us apart is the quality of care we provide. With dedicated doctors, nurses, and social workers to our HIV/AIDS patients, we make sure that if a patient misses a checkup that they are contacted and found so as to not suffer a relapse and risk becoming infectious again. We also provide free consultations and medication to our HIV/AIDS patients for other illnesses they may have so that were treating the whole patient not just HIV/AIDS.
All this is possible with the partnerships we’ve developed this past year which have provided I the clinic with state of the art clinic management and electronic medical records software and in-kind donations of the medication we provide to our patients.
Why are programs like this so important? Because of people like Melchi, one of our star patients, who was orphaned by HIV/AIDS as a child and has now become a patient counselor for our pediatric HIV/AIDS patients. Now in high school, she wants to study journalism in college and lives a perfectly normal teenager life. All possible because of the care we provide and her passion to live her life to the fullest.
This first year is just the beginning as we work to eliminate the spread of HIV in CAR and ensure people living with AIDS can live long and happy lives!
#worldaidsday
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We are thrilled to announce the opening of a new maternity ward! Even more excited are the thousands of women this new maternity will serve - women who up until now were unable to deliver their babies in a safe and hygienic clinic.
As the construction was being completed and equipment being brought in, we were greeted by women singing and dancing as they walked by the new maternity ward. They know that this project will save some of their lives. Unfortunately, all of them know friends and family members who have been victims of the extremely high maternal mortality rate that persists in places in CAR without maternal health care.
This new maternity is situated about 10 miles south of our first rural clinic in a town called Mbata, which is about a four hour drive from the capital city, Bangui. Opening this maternity became a priority for us when we realized that many women from Mbata and the surrounding villages were coming to our first rural clinic for prenatal consultations but then delivering at home in unsanitary and unsafe conditions. The reason for this was simple - when these women went into labor, there was no way for them to get to our clinic besides walking ten miles on foot!
This maternity will serve a population of about 15,000 people and will be even more frequented than our first maternity. During the night of the grand opening, we had five women deliver - with all women and babies leaving happy and healthy!
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#maternalhealth #maternity #centralafricanrepublic #santématernelle #republiquecentrafricaine #rca #maternité