What difference is the Global Fund making in people’s lives? at La Vie de Laurie

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What difference is the Global Fund making in people’s lives?

By Laurie | July 29, 2007

So I’ve been talking about The Global Fund for over 22 hours now. Are you convinced we can make a difference? If not, read on (from their site):

Examples of approved programs include a voucher program in Tanzania, which allows pregnant women to obtain locally-produced malaria bed nets from nearby village vendors.

A TB grant given to Sierra Leone is helping to rebuild 70% of the country’s DOTS clinics, which were destroyed during its civil war.

In India, a prevention program has been started and is greatly reducing mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV/AIDS. Moreover, India is now training more than two thousand health care workers to provide counseling, testing, and treatment for people with sexually transmitted infections.

Throughout Ghana, grant money is being used to build 16 voluntary testing and counseling centers, as well as MTCT prevention services, which are being provided to 600 mothers per year. Ghana’s grant money has also given 2,000 people living with AIDS to opportunity to begin antiretroviral treatment. In addition to this 20,000 TB patients are now being afforded the opportunity to begin DOTS treatment. A quarter of these patients are being treated in private health clinics in order to strengthen the countries overall capacity to fight TB.

In many cases, effective disease-specific strategies depend on simultaneous efforts to strengthen underlying health systems in recipient countries.
For example, a Global Fund grant awarded to Haiti in 2002 has enabled that country to re-open a public health clinic and operating room, stock five public clinics with essential medicines, and provide basic laboratory services in four clinics. More than 600 individuals have received antiretroviral treatment, and over 300 new TB cases have been detected. In such cases, Global Fund resources not only add to Haiti’s efforts to prevent and treat HIV and TB; they also contribute to overall health improvement for 250,000 area residents.

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