By Lemuella Tarawallie
The AIDS Health Care Foundation has celebrated its achievement of two million lives in care with a media tour of AHF’s Wellness Clinic at Wilkinson Road, its Health Clinic at the Connaught Hospital, and its Jenner Wright Cline in Freetown. The tours were climaxed with a media dinner.
During the media tour, AHF’s Country Programme Director Sierra Leone, Miata Jambawai Kai-Samba in an interview at her Wilkinson Road Wellness Clinic, told journalists that AHF was a United States’ based organization which had been working in Sierra Leone since 2012.
She added that, “AHF as an organization prides itself that it has reached a very key milestone in providing care for two million people across 47 countries in the world”. She noted that because of that achievement, “AHF wants to celebrate it in this country [Sierra Leone]. So, we are starting it with interaction of media visits in some AHF’s facilities”.
Madam Kai-Samba continued that the AIDS Health Care Foundation was headquartered in Los Angeles in the United States of America but had bureaux in Asia and Africa. She noted further that AHF-SL was working in about 36 facilities in the Western Area, North-East, East, and South, and that they were working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health through the National AIDS Control Programme and the National AIDS Secretariat to provide free quality HIV/AIDS care.
She stated that in terms of service delivery, AHF could be mostly found in Government facilities whether they were hospitals, tertiary, or secondary hospitals. She added that AHF could also be found in some private facilities but that in those private facilities, “AHF ensures that these are facilities that are actually working with a lot of people”.
Highlighting some of their challenges as service providers, she stated that in terms of service delivery and psychosocial support; it was difficult to talk to “clients until they give us the permission to do so”.
Madam Kai-Samba said that it had been a wonderful journey for AHF-SL because when they started their operations in 2012 at the Jenner Wright Clinic at Cline Town; they started with zero clients but that by the end of 2012, they had about 23 clients which had now grown to over 33,000 countrywide.
The Community Health Officer at AHF’s Wellness Clinic at Wilkinson Road, Maigore Christian Kallon Jr., stated that at their clinic they provide free HIV screening, testing, treatment, and family planning.
Mr Kallon Jr. added that in terms of service delivery and psychosocial support, they provide confidentiality. “Here at AHF, we care more about our clients’ privacy, AHF service providers do listen to their clients, interact with them, and give them that space to make them feel much more confident to express themselves to AHF’s service providers.
In an interview with an AHF beneficiary during the media visit at the Wilkinson Road Wellness Clinic in Freetown, she stated that AHF had done a lot for her, and that by extension she was very grateful to the AHF’s Country Director.
Another person living with HIV who is also a beneficiary of AHF Wellness Clinic, disclosed that prior to her receiving care at the AHF Wellness Clinic at Wilkinson Road, her life was unbearable. “By then, I looked like a very old woman and I was losing weight but now that I have started treatment at the AHF Wellness Health Facility in Freetown; I have been gradually recovering from my weight loss”. She added that AHF Wellness Clinic had been giving her drugs and service delivery free of charge.
The Medical Officer in Charge of the AHF at the Connaught Hospital, Dr Abubakarr Kallon, told journalists that the HIV Unit at Connaught Hospital was offering counseling to clients at a very early stage of medical care as part of their psychosocial support in terms of service delivery.
A person living with HIV at the AHF Connaught Hospital stated that she had been living with HIV since 2002, adding that at the AFH Connaught Hospital Unit the psychosocial counselors were very friendly and encouraging.
A mother, who has a child living with HIV, stated that she had been receiving care at the AHF’s Jenner Wright Hospital at Cline Town, disclosed that her child had been receiving HIV care at the AHF’s Jenner Wright Clinic since 2013. She added that she was grateful to AHF because her child was now receiving a lot of benefits from AHF.