Challenge of HIV and AIDS

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), AIDS has become the most devastating disease humankind has ever faced.

In the area where we work in Uganda, this disease was first observed in the early 1980s. Since then we have been engaged in developing programs and materials to educate for the prevention of the spread of HIV, in outreach village programmes, involving hundreds of local health volunteers.

We have established many orphan support and guardian support programs in different countries. One of the most innovative responses involved the creation of Farm Schools for teenage orphans in Uganda, a model which has been replicated by WHO in other countries.

Testing for the virus and peer education are a major part of our response to the challenge - as are counselling, street education using puppets and street drama, and providing home-based care for the terminally ill and support for their families.

The impact of AIDS on an organization like MMM that was established to heal and cure, has made it necessary for us to arrange a series of Workshops to ensure Care of the Carers as we adapt to a professional service where death is, all too often, a daily companion.

Last modified: Sunday, June 20th, 2010