PLHIV SHORT STAY CENTER

Positive Women Network, Mizoram and FXB Mizoram

Short stay center will be within the premises of FXB main building, where the clients can easily access the ART centre and CD4 count which is located at Civil Hospital. The centre initially will provide 4 beds for HIV infected and affected children and their family members who are PLHIV, who come to the city for treatment and investigation for HIV and related illness. The centre will also serve as a hub for disseminating HIV/AIDS information, promoting health and hygiene, and counselling will be provided during their stay. Once the centre is open, community leaders, Church elders and youth groups will be our stake holders and create management committee so that they will gradually take up the centre to be owned by the community.

Short stay care centre is not a mere lodging and fooding centre for rural OVC. It is HIV Education and training centre, where HIV infected Children and their caretaker from the rural areas learn positive living, basic health and hygiene practices, and even train them to become an ambassador for OVC and HIV in the villages. It also encourage the community to come up for care and support to HIV infected, affected children and their families by building the community capacity to own the program at the end of the project The main problems of the HIV infected from the rural areas are:

80% of the rural HIV detected cases are living below poverty line. There is only one CD4 count machine which is located at Aizawl. There is no provision for mobility support from the Government for rural HIV infected individuals. When they come from rural areas to the centre, they need to stay in the city for 2-5 days during investigation (CD4 count etc.), which they could not afford.

 Once they are on ART they need to continuously come to the centre to collect drugs and investigation, this refrain them from registering at the centre. The mortality rate at Hospice in Aizawl is extremely high among rural individuals, because they are admitted ultimately after very long unattended Opportunistic Infection. Adherence to ART among the rural areas is relatively poor since they cannot go to the city every month to obtain drugs, due to financial constrain.

Approach & Strategy Providing 10 beded short stay care center for rural HIV infected and affected children and their family members who are PLHIV, who come to the city for treatment and investigation for HIV and related illness. Promotion of maintaining Health, nutrition and hygine in low resource setting and home base care by providing practical work education and counselling during stay at the centre. Increase awareness level in the villages by recruiting peer educator from individuals who stay in the center. and train them during their stay to snowball the information in their respective villages. Creating solidarity among the rural HIV infected and affected families to stand out for their rights and empower them even to form network in the villages by extensive training and encouragement in their free time of stay in the centre.