WASHINGTON, DC, January 5, 2005—A three-member consortium led by the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) has been awarded a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to create an HIV/AIDS Twinning Center in support of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. HRSA is a leading provider of HIV/AIDS care and treatment services to underserved populations in resource-poor settings in the United States and, more recently, throughout the world.

 

The President's Emergency Plan commits $15 billion over the course of five years to the global battle against HIV/AIDS. Key goals of the Plan include treating at least two million HIV-infected persons with anti-retroviral therapy, preventing seven million new infections, and providing care and support for 10 million people infected with, or affected by, HIV in the 15 target nations.

 

The HIV/AIDS Twinning Center will mobilize and coordinate the resources of the US health sector—as well as tap into the HIV/AIDS-related expertise that already exists in the Emergency Plan's focus countries—to effectively reduce HIV infection rates and provide care to those infected with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS. Through the program, AIHA—along with the International Training and Education Center on HIV (I-TECH) and the Futures Group—will establish as many as 160 capacity-building twinning partnerships. These partnerships will link US or regional medical institutions, practitioners, and community- and faith-based organizations working in HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment with their counterparts in 15 African, Asian, and Caribbean nations targeted for assistance under the President's Emergency Plan.

 

In a concerted effort to rapidly expand the pool of trained healthcare providers, managers, and allied care-givers capable of delivering quality services to people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, the Twinning Center will also administer the Volunteer Healthcare Corps (VHC)—a program designed to coordinate the recruitment, placement, and support of medium to long-term volunteers who will work through the twinning partnerships themselves, or in individual projects that support the President's Emergency Plan, as the need arises.

 

Through the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center programs, the twinning partnerships and VHC will assist the focus countries of Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zambia to significantly increase human and organizational capacity in a manner that supports the strategies and goals of the President's Emergency Plan by:

By developing and institutionalizing model programs for the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS, the Twinning Center will facilitate the rapid scale-up and expansion of life-saving care, including the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART), treatment of opportunistic infections, and support of orphans and others made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

 

“AIHA's experience with launching volunteer-driven twinning partnerships in 22 countries spanning Central Europe and Eurasia—including several successful projects that address HIV/AIDS-related care and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the virus, which is a leading cause of new infections in many countries where the epidemic is skyrocketing—has clearly illustrated the willingness of America's healthcare sector to actively contribute to the global battle against the AIDS pandemic,” says AIHA Executive Director James P. Smith. “We are delighted to be partnering with I-TECH and the Futures Group and honored to be part of the US government's unprecedented efforts to treat two million people living with HIV/AIDS, prevent seven million new infections, and provide care and support for 10 million men, women, and children infected with, or affected by, HIV as outlined by the President's Emergency Plan.”