RFI: HIV/AIDS treatment and support
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Hello,
I am writing from Global ACCTS, AIDS Collaboration for Care, Treat-
ment and Support. We are compiling a treatment resource guide for
southern Africa to be distributed throughout the region. We are in-
terested in any NGOs, STD clinics, hospitals, home based carers, uni-
versities or clinical trials that are offering HIV/AIDS treatment and
support.
We're asking that you please take the time to send information
/contacts on any facilities you know of in your country or region.
Please include name, address, phone number, email and type of ser-
vice. Also, as there may be pre-existing resource guides in your re-
gion or country, we would like to know where and how we may receive
these so that we may incorporate them into our research.
We are expecting to have a completed product by April, and look for-
ward to sharing our results with you. Please see document below for
more details on our projects.
Thank you in advance for any of your efforts.
Sincerely,
Cindra Feuer
Global Accts
495 Washington Ave
Brooklyn, New York, 11238, USA
Tel: +1-718-857-8886
Fax: +1-718-857-8883
mailto:globalaccts2@hotmail.com
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HIV/AIDS Treatment Information Project
Global AIDS Collaborative for Care, Treatment and Support (ACCTS)
PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT
USA-Africa Grassroots Information Project Focuses on HIV Care, Treat-
ment & Wellness in Developing Nations
JOHANNESBURG & NEW YORK
Global ACCTS (AIDS Collaborative for Care, Treatment and Support) is
a new grassroots treatment and care project aimed at supporting indi-
viduals confronting HIV in resource-poor nations, with a priority fo-
cus on southern Africa. Global ACCTS was formed as an American-South
African collaboration in the fall of 2000 by the core organizers of
the recent women's HIV satellite conference, an official event of the
XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa.
Global ACCTS is being launched as an open, community-oriented, public
advocacy forum to focus on and discuss global treatment and care is-
sues and the complex role of international groups in the urgent ef-
fort to expand access to HIV care and medicines in southern Africa
and around the world.
The Global ACCTS project goals and priorities are:
* To produce and distribute a global treatment and care newsletter
that will be distributed free via the Internet and in print and audio
form in southern Africa.
* To publish a contextualized "State of the Movement Report" and a
resource directory of treatment and care projects in Southern Africa
and international partnerships. The report and directory will be a
specialized review of treatment, care and research programs in the
SADC region and is envisaged as a companion piece to existing direc-
tories of regional HIV/AIDS services and programs. Each aspect of
Global ACCTS is being designed and implemented with a commitment to
capacity building and to the inclusion of and empowerment of local
PWA's in all aspects of the project.
* To help reframe and expand the current dialogue around HIV treat-
ment in Southern Africa and other regions hard-hit by HIV. By bring-
ing together the African and American voices of AIDS activists, PWA's
and AIDS professionals from community-based programs, there can be a
new type of inclusive dialogue which brings together history and ex-
perience to examine the overall health needs of individuals with HIV.
This dialogue includes, but is not limited to, palliative care,
treatment for HIV-related illnesses and STDS, alternative care, tra-
ditional healing, home care, nutrition and wellness. All of these,
along with antiretroviral HIV medicines, are critical
components of HIV treatment.
* Through the production and distribution of the newsletter, Global
ACCTS supports an African-wide network of PWA's, ASO's and others
which can share information and resources as well as advocacy strate-
gies. Global ACCTS is dedicated to supporting greater linkages be-
tween existing African and American ASO's, NGO's and PWA organiza-
tions.
* Working closely with partner NGOs in southern Africa, the U.S. and
Europe, the project will serve as a clearinghouse for basic informa-
tion materials relating to HIV care, with a special focus on what
PWAs in resource-poor settings can do to care for themselves to stay
healthy. Global ACCTS will also support the capacity of partner NGOs
to do educational training of individuals on the issues of treatment,
care, and wellness, using the newsletter and basic information pack-
ets as a core curriculum.
WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP
As a collaborative, Global ACCTS is a made up of a network of part-
nership NGOs and individuals including the American and South African
chapters of National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA), the
Center for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE), AIDS
Link, the Tsabatsago Community Development Intiative, members of
Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders), Health Gap, ACT-UP
and Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), among others. The Global ACCTS
staff include established medical journalists, community organizers,
HIV researchers and health professionals in southern Africa and the
U.S. New partnerships are also being initiated.
The most immediate target of our project's attention is Botswana, Mo-
zambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Swaziland, South Africa,
Lesotho, Malawi and Madagascar. Beyond that, we hope to gradually ex-
pand to establish key partnerships around the world. As of January,
groups and interested individuals in Haiti, Brazil, France and India
have also expressed their interest in becoming working partners in
Global ACCTS. At a minimum, these groups propose to help translate
and disseminate information and resources provided by Global ACCTS
relating to HIV care and treatment to their networks and members.
WHO IS DOING WHAT?
COMING: A REGIONAL TREATMENT AND CARE DIRECTORY
The first phase of Global ACCTS work began in December 2000 and con-
sists of an ongoing survey of what groups, agencies and projects cur-
rently provide HIV treatment and care in southern Africa. Post-
Durban, some groups in the region and internationally are expanding
the scope of their projects beyond prevention, outreach and counsel-
ing to address HIV care. Given this explosion, it is hard to keep
track of who is doing what in the arena of HIV treatment, where the
gaps in information remain most critical, and how international part-
nerships can best respond to the needs of people at the grass-roots
level. Some African groups are also concerned that the international
community has just "discovered" the AIDS crisis in Africa and that
new projects will duplicate existing efforts, rather than creatively
support them.
With this awareness in mind, Global ACCTS is completing a regional
Treatment and Care directory of HIV care providers, services and pro-
jects in southern Africa, as well as international (US-southern Af-
rica) partnership projects related to HIV treatment, which includes
hospice and home care, (but will not list HIV prevention or outreach
projects). This selective treatment guide will be distributed to PWA
networks, NGOs and care providers southern Africa, and will be avail-
able free on the Internet. The target audience will be PWAs living in
southern Africa, grass-roots HIV groups, and care providers, as well
as international groups working in southern Africa.
ATTENTION: If you are a care provider, agency, or affiliated with a
group providing HIV treatment or care in southern Africa or represent
an international group with an HIV treatment or care-based project in
southern Africa, please contact us to have your project listed in the
directory. The resource guide will list governmental, non-
governmental, community HIV groups and projects and cover the catego-
ries below:
* Clinical trials
* HIV, STD, TB and infectious disease clinics
* Primary care providers
* Rural HIV health clinics
* Nurse networks
* Midwife networks
* Physician networks
* HIV maternal health projects
* Alternative care
* Traditional healers
* PWA care networks
* HIV health and wellness project
* International HIV research partnerships
* Medical aid projects
REPORT: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
Global ACCTS is also preparing a report that will be published in
tandem with the regional directory. It will examine key challenges
and opportunities in providing care and treatment for individuals in
southern Africa, from both a southern African and U.S. perspective.
The report will discuss the potential role and responsibilities of
the international AIDS community, especially groups working on HIV
treatment, in supporting these efforts. Both documents will be made
available free via the Internet in the Spring; a printed version is
planned for South Africa.
For more information about Global ACCTS, contact:
Anne-Christine d'Adesky, US coordinator
mailto:globalaccts1@hotmail.com
or Betsi Pendry, SA coordinator
mailto:BitPendry@aol.com
Please send any information for inclusion in the Regional Treatment
and Care Directory to (by country):
Medical research (US, regional, international); clinical trials;
medical aid projects; also Namibia & Botswana:
Attn: Kathy Brady
mailto:globalaccts3@hotmail.com
Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola;
alternative, traditional healing providers:
Attn: Amy Linch
mailto:dianbi@easy-pages.com
Malawi
Attn: Chatinkha Nkhoma
mailto:Chatinkha@erols.com
Mozambique, Madagascar, Lesotho, Swaziland; & regional PWA networks:
Attn: Cindra Feuer
mailto:globalaccts2@hotmail.com
South Africa:
Attn: Betsi Pendry
mailto:Bitpendry@aol.com
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