Bwafwano (Let's help each other)

Specific project goals include increasing the number of people accessing TB and HIV testing, increasing the number of people on TB and/or anti-retroviral treatment, and improving beneficiaries’ welfare through a comprehensive home-based care programme.

In order to achieve this, the organisation provides direct support to people affected by TB and HIV, including home-based care and support services, basic medicines, nutritional supplements, transport to medical facilities, and opportunities for income generating activities.

Bwafwano has also trained community volunteers and peer educators to help inform the community about TB and HIV. The peer educators go out into the community, singing songs, conducting street dramas, and holding quizzes and debates to raise awareness of TB and HIV. Bwafwano’s peer educators also visit clubs, pubs, bars, barbers and hairdressers – anywhere that young, sexually active, people might congregate - and recruit staff to talk to their clients about HIV and STI prevention. They also distribute information leaflets and free condoms.

In addition, Bwafwana holds workshops for local community leaders, such as local chiefs, church leaders, police, and prominent business people in order to raise awareness and help these local “opinion formers” understand the importance of their role in fighting stigma and discrimination in their community. These workshops also function to recruit more volunteers for the project.

In order to better respond to the needs of people affected by TB and/or HIV, the organisation has established sustainable community networks and collaborates with government health staff, other non-governmental and community-based organisations, as well as community representatives.

Children, Youth, Health, HIV/AIDS

Zambia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Africa. It is land-locked and shares its borders with eight countries. The country has a population of approximately 11 million people, of which 64% live on less than a US$1 a day. TB represents a major health problem in Zambia: In the last 20 years, the number of reported cases of TB has increased more than five-fold, mainly as a result of the HIV epidemic and the increasing levels of poverty. 70% of newly diagnosed TB sufferers are co-infected with HIV.

Bwafwano is supported by Target Tuberculosis and TB Alert, two UK-based non-governmental organisations.