Leaders and Media urged to campaign on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission PMTCT- ICAP & WAMA Foundation - Kagera May 8, 2010

By Philomena Marijani

Leaders and Media houses in Kagera Region have been urged to campaign more on PMTCT so as to create awareness for the people on using the Counselling Test Centre (CTC) and other service available so as to reduce infant and maternal death.

This was said during two days sensitization meetings of leaders and media people on introducing the PMTCT project that was conducted by WAMA Foundation. The meetings were officially opened by Mr. Edom Anyonyise, Assistant Regional Secetary (RAS) and Mr. Charles Mafimbo, Head of Community Development and Welfare both from the office of Regional Commissioner in Kagera. They were facilitated by Neema Mhada, WAMA Health Promotion Officer and Philomena Marijani WAMA Advocacy Officer. The project is funded by ICAP (International Care for Aids and Treatment Programs) in partnership with WAMA Foundation.

The project has an objective of increasing knowledge of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) issues and challenges among community leadership and strengthen leadership advocacy in promoting uptake of PMTCT services and support for PMTCT clients through PMTCT interventions, use of available services, improve access through referral processes, dissemination of key messages and materials for the implementation of this program among district, community and local media leadership.

The project will be implemented in three regions Kagera, Kigoma and Pwani. In Kagera the project will be implemented in two disticts: Bukoba and Muleba. In each district they will be selected six (6) wards in which project will be implemented.
Both the media and leadership meetings aimed at introduce the project to the stakeholders including the activities to be done, deciding on which wards to work on and identify health promoters in each district

The activities to be implemented will be: conduct meetings after each three month, conduct meetings with media and arts groups, advocate during national and community events, Tracking of changes in the hospitals due to PMTCT services available and performing of different theatre arts to communicate the project messages.