Giving of Psychosocial Support

OVC Programme

Income Generating Activities

During a session

SJT AMKA HEALTH PROJECT
P.O. Box 4254 00200 Nairobi +254722152199

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The SJT Amka Health Project is a Home Based Care programme, run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes, Nairobi, Kenya. The project is offering medical care, social support, counseling and education for Behavior change to the community and the people living with HIV/AIDS. The project also supports orphans and vulnerable children to continue with their education.

The SJT Amka Heath Project was initiated by MMM Riara Health Project who were offering the services in the area since 1990. Over a period of years the needs grew to a capacity they couldn’t hold. They therefore decided to hand over Dagoretti corner part of their project and concentrate their services in Kibera slums. Dagoretti Corner was handed over to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Tarbes in March 2005 to be developed as a separate project.
 
AMKA is a Swahili word meaning “wake up”. It was coined to mean the HIV/AIDS patients need not just sleep of stay in their worse conditions of the sickness, they can do something better with their lives.
 
The center is located in Dagoretti Division, about 10Kms to the west of Nairobi city along Wanyee Road. The project provides holistic care to the people living with HIV/AIDS in the three villages of the parish namely, Sacred Heart Ngando, St. Vincent Palloti Dagoretti Corner, and St. Francis of Assisi Gatina.

Our goal is to help the infected and affected members of the community cope better with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and its effects. We do this through our home-based care programme by providing treatment for the opportunistic infections to the already infected persons, pre and post test counseling for HIV blood test, and social support to the patients’ according to their needs. This may include providing food supplements to the very weak patients, transport to the hospital and support to other medical requirements as necessary.

We also provide care and support for holistic development of the orphans and vulnerable child left behind by our clients. We assist them in education through provision of stationeries, uniforms and school fees.

The education for life program within the project offers Behavior change processes to community groups, which are youth groups in and out of schools and to churches. They also offer education for positive living to the people living with HIV/AIDS.

PLWAS are helped to initiate income-generating activities for a sustained family income. A number of them are doing small business of selling vegetables, knitting and sewing.

We refer our patient for ARV’S to Liverpool, KEMRI, MSF or COPTIC Hospital. However the patients have to incur a lot of costs in terms of transport each time they have to access this medication. It becomes even more costly when they are bedridden and have to hire a private vehicle to take them to the hospital. Our future plans therefore are to develop to a capacity we can deliver the Antiretroviral therapy to the patients in the area and increase the nutrient supplement support. We also want to increase support to the orphaned and vulnerable children as the numbers continue to grow.

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