CAF: Global Initiatives

Children's AIDS Fund
P.O. Box 16433
Washington DC 20041

Toll-free:
(866) 829-1560
(800) 557-8529 FAX

Global Initiatives: Malawi

The Children's AIDS Fund (CAF) has been involved in both domestic and global programs since the late 1980s. CAF’s global strategy is to build the capacity of in-country grassroots organizations to meet the needs of their communities. CAF builds partnerships by identifying in-country groups already involved in effective activities and initiatives consistent with CAF’s program priorities.

Program Focus:

1.	HIV/AIDS Care & Treatment
	St. Gabriel’s Hospital is a Catholic mission hospital founded in 1959, located in the Lilongwe district approximately 60 kilometers from the Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city. The hospital provides both inpatient and outpatient care for a rural population serving a catchment area of 700 villages and approximately 200,000 people. In 2002 CAF provided seed funds for a multi-phased project focused on community education and outreach, preventing mother to child transmission through perinatal HIV screening, a post-partum antiretroviral treatment program using mother’s helpers as adherence monitors, in addition the program focuses on HIV screening and treatment for spouses of the new mothers. This is a collaborative project between St. Gabriel’s Hospital, the University of Maryland’s Institute for Human Virology in Baltimore (a team led by Dr. Robert R. Redfield) and CAF. Since providing seed funds for the project, CAF has identified private sector support to fund the subsequent project phases. At the end of 2004, the infection rate in children born to HIV-positive mothers had dropped by 15 to 25% and adherence rate among those enrolled in the ART program is more than 95%.

2.	HIV/AIDS Prevention
	Through its community education and mobilization efforts, St. Gabriel’s Hospital has transformed a population where stigma was the norm into a compassionate supporting and caring community. Approximately 600 volunteers actively participate in 20 Village AIDS Committees that actively work to educate those in the 700 villages in St. Gabriel’s catchment area to HIV/AIDS prevention and the importance of diagnosis. The effort started in 2002 has resulted in HIV infected and affected families openly organizing themselves in associations of people living with HIV/AIDS with the support of community leaders. As a result of this educational effort, St. Gabriel’s has seen a high uptake (90.3%) of mothers attending antenatal clinics volunteering for HIV counseling and testing. In 2004, of the 4,721 women who attended perinatal clinics, 4,267 were tested. Of those, 156 tested HIV-positive, a prevalence rate of 3.9%.

CAF Global Initiatives

Malawi Facts:

At the end of 2003, UNAIDS estimates that 900,000 adults and children were HIV positive, approximately 460,000 of them women and 83,000 of them children. This represents an increase from the 2001 numbers of approximately 50,000 individuals.

UNAIDS estimates that in 2003, 500,000 living children from birth through age 17 were orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This represents an increase of more than 100,000 children since 2001.

Estimates on the prevalence of HIV in Malawi vary from 15% to 25% of the general population.

Nearly one-fourth of the children in Malawi will die before their 5th birthday with HIV/AIDS claiming nearly 50% of this burden.
Life expectancy has fallen to 37 years and by the year 2010 the life expectancy has been projected to drop to 29.5 years, the lowest in the world.

Children's AIDS Fund

P.O. Box 16433

Washington D.C. 20041