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For more information please contact: Hazel Plunkett Country Director, HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Tel. +255 0754894357 hazel@aiha.co.tz

PEPFAR-funded Partnership Concludes Master Trainer Program Geared to Enhance HIV/AIDS Education in Nursing Schools throughout Tanzania WASHINGTON, DC, and DAR es SALAAM, TANZANIA, May 9, 2007—Dr. Fatma Hafidhi Mrisho, executive chairman of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), will award certificates to 18 nurse tutors who have completed a two-week HIV/AIDS master trainer program this Friday, May 11, at the Tanzania Episcopal Centre in Kurasini, Dar es Salaam. Selected by Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, these nurse tutors are the first to be trained using a new curriculum and materials developed and implemented through the Tanzania HIV/AIDS Nursing Education (THANE) Program, which is funded by the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center in support of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Nursing faculty at Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) have been collaborating with their counterparts at the University of California in San Francisco on the THANE Program with the dual objectives of designing new HIV/AIDS teaching materials for use in all 58 of Tanzania’s nursing schools and training a core group of master trainers capable of implementing the expanded curriculum. As the primary care providers for most of the population, nurses must play a leading role in scaling up health services for the more than 2.2 million people in Tanzania who are living with HIV or AIDS. While HIV/AIDS in-service training courses are increasingly being held for practicing nurses, care for people living with the virus has not yet been fully integrated into the pre-service curriculum for nursing students. Partners are working to change this through the THANE Program. “This collaboration between the United States and Tanzania provides nurse tutors with a vital opportunity to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills they need to better support and prepare nursing students to care for people affected by HIV/AIDS in their future workplaces,” stresses Dr. Thecla Kohi, dean of the nursing faculty at MUCHS. With support from the Twinning Center—which is a project of the American International Health Alliance—partners have developed 12 modules on HIV/AIDS covering topics such as the role of nurses in HIV prevention, care, and treatment services; HIV-related stigma and discrimination; occupational safety; and life skills for healthcare providers. It is anticipated that these modules will eventually be integrated into the curricula of nursing programs throughout the country and that all nursing students in Tanzania will acquire improved skills to support people living with, or affected by, HIV/AIDS.