The President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was begun by President George W Bush in 2008 and sent billions to different countries and organizations to combat HIV. Swaziland has received over $130 million since 2009. This year an opportunity was advertised for small/nascent organizations to apply for 15 months of funding. We fit those requirements perfectly! We submitted a letter of Expression of Interest which was accepted and then a full proposal, which we just received notification this week, that was accepted.
This grant will allow us to expand geographically and demographically: we will be able to expand into additional communities as well as remove the child/caregiver constraint on who is eligible to participate in the CHIPS program. We included two specific pieces of lab equipment in the proposal for point of care blood work analysis. Speeding up the turn around time for blood work will speed up the process for initiating new patients on HIV drugs as well as reduce the dependency on the local hospital lab.
A number of additional staff will be required: a qualified nurse, counselors, monitoring & evaluation staff and lab technicians.
This is a tremendous answer to prayer as our official funding for this program is exhausted this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment