What is a DHMT office? Last week, both of our supervisors travelled up to meet us in Serowe for a two day conference. Stompie is the head nurse overseeing several clinics in the Ramotswa District. She will oversee Owen's work. Ellen is Becky's supervisor at the DHMT (District Health Management Team) office, where she will help to develop the capacity of the office in Monitoring and Evaluation. It feels like half of our recent training has been learning to negotiate the various government offices that respond to HIV/Aids, and how they relate to each other. It is still more complex than we understand, but here is the basics of the Health side of things:
1. Hospitals, Clinics, and Mobile Health Posts operate at the client intake level. These become more and more sub-divided to reach the most remote populations, who need testing, TB treatment, HIV care and support, access to ARVs (supplied for free at an expense of more than 75% of the Botswana government's budget), etc.
2. The DHMT coordinates each of these health facilities for each district in the areas of education, supplies, funding, and reporting.
3. The Ministry of Health collects data from each DHMT, and coordinates with the National Aids Coordinating Agency (NACA).
Since Gender-Based Violence is one of the key drivers of HIV in Botswana, we are also likely to work on gender-related research and education along with our offices. Last year, Peace Corps Botswana won a PEPFAR (Presidents Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief) grant to support this work.
Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions or advice!
What are ARVs? Some kind of medication? Thanks for the explanations in this post! Love you guys, Mom
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ReplyDeleteAnti-retro-viral therapy. There are three lines of this medication, and is so far, the only treatment for HIV other than good nutrition. It is an expensive drug, but the government of Botswana, in cooperation with the Gates foundation and others provide it for free, and are constantly working to make it more accessible to people in remote areas, since it requires some infrastructure and counselling. The good news is that ARVs have recently been proven to prevent transmission of HIV also. So, for example, Botswana has been able to significantly reduce the rate of mother to child transmission by getting HIV positive pregnant women on ARVS (and providing formula to prevent breast milk transmission, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that there are drugs that can prevent the transmission of HIV! That's wonderful! I've heard about the Gates foundation doing various work but it's interesting to hear that it's directly impacting people you interact with. I hope your jobs are going so well.
DeleteHi B&O,
ReplyDeleteInteresting information about Botswana, HIV and their policy to provide free ARV drug therapy. You mention that Botswana allocates 75% of its budget for this. Do you know what the cost is per-person for ARV drug therapy. I'll be discussing retro-viruses in my Biology class next week and would like to tell the students about Botswana. Thanks,
Love, Dad
I'm not sure if the reporting infrastructure is advanced enough to know that. We have heard conflicting stories about whether a national database even exists that keeps track of the number of HIV positive people on ARVs in the whole country. It's also fairly complex since the government of Botswana and Debswana are not the only contributors. I will have to look into that when I get site. There is a lot for us to learn. I do know that they are expensive, and since they are only a couple of decades into development, the long term effects are unknown. Sounds like an interesting class.
ReplyDeleteWow, blessings for your much needed work!
ReplyDeleteUncle Jim
P.S. - Have you received snail mail letters from your cousins Nick & Tate yet?
Not yet. What an exciting thing to anticipate!
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