Namibia: Improve access to Treatment Care & Support in Henties Bay

There is Leadership Commitment in realising a healthy community; The Henties Bay Town has now an Ambulance officially handed over by the Chairperson of the Erongo Regional Council Hon. Hafeni Ndemula. The fact that our leaders are involved from the regional, constituency and local level shows that this is a good practice in terms of bringing services closer to the remote community. Having an Ambulance has strengthened the underspecified Treatment, Care and  Support services. As guided by the National Strategic Framework and the National Coordination Framework on HIV and AIDS in Namibia, the Family Care Centre strive to increase access to services and to build the capacity of support services for treatment and care within the town of Henties Bay.

The Henties Bay Family Care Centre/ District AIDS Committee have made commendable progress in the area of access to treatment, care and support. Integration of HIV treatment into primary health care and the decentralisation of services through having Constituency.  Development Training on the decentralisation policies involving the larger stakeholders; Involving the community in decision making processes through the Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations; Improving access to nutritional and psychosocial services.

The project has also done formative research and behaviour analysis especially on the use of the females condom. Target Group segmentation, formulation of behavioural objectives, Communication planning & implementation and most importantly Monitoring and evaluation; The committee has also started with awareness on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision and having an ambulance will ease the situation of transporting clients to Swakopmund.

Consistent condom use is an effective way to prevent the spread of HIV; therefore the project focuses on giving knowledge on how to use condoms or in some cases social support to access condoms. The available data shows that more than half of all reported cases of HIV infection can be linked to unprotected sexual intercourse. Therefore the project implemented conversations related to sexual health.

The main activities are:

• Counselling and psychosocial support.
• Prevention of further transmission.
• Nutritional support.
• Treatment and prophylaxis of Opportunistic infections (OIs).
• Palliative care, Home-based care, end of life support.
• Laboratory support for monitoring and diagnosis

The Henties Bay Family Care Centre allocated $743 to this project. In kind contributions amounted to $1 885. The total budget for the project is $2 628.

The overall aim of this Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework is to ensure that the Funds for Gender Equality (FGE) is fully equipped to systematically generate, capture and disseminate knowledge through increased investments in monitoring and evaluation as a way to strengthen the impact and effectiveness of the Henties Bay Town programmes. The Framework’s primary functions are to: Community-Level Program Information Reporting for HIV/AIDS Programs Supports harmonized monitoring and reporting systems that capture indicator data from programs for effective program management and decision-making at all levels.

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Prevention Projects: for Community Organizations The purpose of this intervention is to demystify the evaluation process, especially for staff who are not specialized in evaluation techniques.

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Prevention Projects: for Community Organizations The purpose of this intervention is to demystify the evaluation process, especially for staff who are not specialized in evaluation techniques.

The residents of Henties Bay often experience barriers to healthcare that limit their ability to get the care they need. In order for residents to have sufficient healthcare access, necessary and appropriate services must be available which can be accessed in a timely manner. In addition to having an adequate supply of healthcare services in the community, there are other factors which play a significant role in healthcare access.

This provides an overview of challenges to healthcare access in Henties Bay and ways the community and policymakers can address these community needs. The challenges are barriers to care such as workforce shortages at the Henties Bay Health Centre, health insurance status, distance and transportation, poor health literacy, and the stigma of certain conditions such as HIV, mental health or substance abuse issues.

However,  lack of staff can inhibit access to services by limiting the supply of available services. Individuals who do not have insurance have reduced access to healthcare services. People in Henties Bay are likely to have to travel long distances to Swakopmund to access healthcare services, particularly specialist services. In Henties Bay, there is little anonymity, social stigma and privacy concerns.

The Henties Bay District AIDS Committee has lobbied the Project Hope Namibia to establish village saving loans especially for People Living with HIV; and so far 3 groups has been established only few man are involved in this projects. The Family Care Centre provides reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health programs improve the quality of care and the continuum of care from facility to community. Our strategies strengthen the capacity of communities and the health workforce for both prevention and treatment. Our programs improve the systems for teaching mothers, families, and caregivers about reproductive health, prenatal care, how to keep infants and children healthy, and when to seek care at a health facility.

We are very pleased with the Gender Mainstreaming work in Henties Bay. There has been a lot of improvement ever since e.g. the opening of the Henties Bay Tourism Centre with business stalls that is now occupied by women. The efforts by the Office of the Mayor to bring services closer to the community was vital; it has help a lot in terms of company registrations, acquiring good standing certificates and all requisition for tender purposes. The registration for  vulnerable children by the Ministry of Gender was also empowering to women. And Should be applauded. Mrs. Jeannete De Klerk, Women Entrepreneur.

Leave-taking fathers in Henties Bay as motivated by gender programming gained a broader understanding of parenting than fathers who did not take leave. The findings considered the specific role played by extended time off immediately after the birth of a child in structuring that experience. By drawing fathers into the daily realities of child care, free of workplace constraints, extended time off provides the space necessary for fathers to develop the parenting skills and sense of responsibility that then allows them to be active co-parents rather than helpers to their female partners. This also demonstrates the promising ways government supported paternal leave-taking can lead to men becoming active and responsible co-parents.

Please note that “in order to improve the status of women and promote gender equality, more attention should be paid to how men are involved in the achievement of gender equality, as well as to the positive impact of gender equality for men and for the well-being of society as a whole.”In order to achieve equality for women, men need to be part of the solution. Equality is only achievable if we work together.”Gender equality needs the active contribution, support and participation of men. During the post SADC Protocol, men involvement has increased. Hermanus Conrad GoamubLocal Youth Forum Member.

Three significant changes were recorded at household level from 2015-2016; the specifications are “Men and Care” – men are involved in domestic duties and care-giving; “Men at Work” – men are involved in gender equality at work: for example the inclusion of men in female-dominated sectors and occupations, in part-time employment etc. “Men and Gender Equality”– how to address men’s issues in gender equality: relevant topics and strategies such as politics, health and violence. Men’s benefits from gender equality. One of the most pressing issues contributing to the persistence of gender inequality is the gendered division of domestic labour.

Our Findings in Henties bay indicates that integrating gender into programming can be the key to catalysing transformation in our community. Overall in Henties Bay there is no problem with female achievement. Women have caught up with men in terms of education. The community is willing and eager to participate in Community Conversations and in reality the Community Change approach depends on creating opportunities for open communication amongst local residents and at different levels of society, including people of different ages, sexes, minority groups, disabled and vulnerable groups. The focus is on mobilizing different community groups to create positive changes in the community and in society.

All social and family policies should contribute to creating an environment in which men, and women, have family time and the opportunity to care for and engage with their children, and the support needed to do so. Family policies on HIV and AIDS that relate to men should, essentially, seek to promote and support men’s positive engagement with and involvement in families, and to initiate, improve efforts to increase men’s engagement with health services targeted at addressing their own health concerns as well as those of their partners, children and other family members.

The programmes should have specific focal persons assigned for representation for consistency from all related stakeholders, and there should be delegation if the focal persons are not present. Most importantly, the representatives from various organizations should provide feedback sessions after attending to gender mainstreaming activities. The Henties Bay District Aids Committee and Family Care Centre will work towards an realizing an organization which adopts gender perspective as the starting point of its internal and external policy; If men are to be helped, it seems there must first be an acknowledgement of guilt.