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News/Event Item
Choose to Care Best Practice
Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and its partners will launch "A Faith-Based Response to HIV in Southern Africa: the Choose to Care Initiative," a study published as part of the UNAIDS Best Practice Collection, on World AIDS Day 2006. Choose to Care is an HIV and AIDS prevention, care and support program developed in collaboration between CMMB, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (SACBC), and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. Since 2000, the program has supported 100 projects in five countries: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. The study describes the work of this groundbreaking collaboration that was the first to include faith-based partners to increase healthcare services to those hardest hit by the pandemic in southern Africa.
The study highlights that the effective scaling-up of programs in response to the virus does not always lead to the expansion of single central services. Choose to Care is a best practice because it is implemented through the diocesan and parish system. The Catholic Church scaled up HIV programs by the replication of smaller scale programs rooted in and responsive to the needs expressed by local communities in the five countries Choose to Care was implemented. The study demonstrates that this type of approach is effective when undertaken within common guidelines and given central support.
The study demonstrates that Choose to Care projects are valued both for their compassion and practical effectiveness; through personal testimony from healthcare professionals, volunteers, academic evaluations, and by those infected and affected by HIV. In 2006, the strength of the Choose to Care model continues in southern Africa as many of the projects inaugurated during the initial five-year development period are continuing and being sustained by new sources of support.
To view a PDF of the report please visit the CMMB organizational website:
http://www.cmmb.org
category: Member Organization News : Announcements
contributed by Andrea Welch on 22 November 2006
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