Tebelopele and LVCT marriage improved services
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday December 20, 2013 14:28
Tebelopele executive director, Spana Motsisi, said this last week at Tlotlo Conference Centre Gaborone when the two organisations ended the partnership they entered into in 2007.
The Kenya organisation provided technical assistance to Tebelopele to strengthen its (Tebelopele) capacity to provide quality HIV-related intervention programmes targeting key populations.
Motsisi said that even though the partnership was ending the two sister organisations underwent a fulfilling journey to improve the quality of services for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS in their respective countries.
She said that even though their mission was to provide confidential counselling, testing and referral services throughout the country, they had continued to support Botswana’s efforts in the fight against the pandemic by contributing to about 40 percent of HIV tests performed annually in the country.
Motsisi said that counselling and testing remained the gateway to other HIV-related services such as treatment and prevention.
The two organisations will continue to mobilise other stakeholders, including the government, to encourage Batswana to test and know their status through their network of 18 voluntary testing centres and outreach campaigns.
She said that their relationship with LVCT had challenged them to come out of their comfort zone and reassess their programmes in line with international trends. She said that they had developed their strategies through lessons from the partnership.
LVCT Plus introduced a tool kit called ‘Mabogo Dinku’ that ensures that clients who test at Tebelopele centres are also screened for other conditions such as excessive alcohol intake, Tuberculosis and cervical cancer. The kit also provides information on Gender-Based Violence.
“We have developed referral networks to link the clients to other service providers for appropriate examinations and treatment to improve the quality of care and support in order to prevent further transmissions of HIV infections,” Motsisi added.
Motsisi said that even though the twinning partnership is officially coming to an end, their relationship would remain solid.
According to Tebelopele marketing and communications manager, Lame Ramokate, through this partnership the Ministry of Health developed a standardised manual for counsellor supervision that enhances counselling and checks stress on counsellors that may arise from issues presented to them by clients.
The director of the Department of AIDS Prevention and Care in the Ministry of Health, Refeletswe Lebelonyane, said the HIV/AIDS twinning centres is a model of the American International Health Alliance that builds peer-to-peer relationships between organisations working to improve services for people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.
He said that with the support from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), these partnerships established an effective framework for building institutional and human resource capacity through the open exchange of knowledge, information and professional experience.
The partnership model draws on more than 20 years of proven success of the American International Health Alliance worldwide in healthcare and supporting health systems.