Travellers and people living near the border lines of the five East Africa Community and other regional states are set to benefit from a multi-million dollar intervention aimed at stemming the onslaught of HIV/Aids in the region.
Dubbed the Cross-Border Health Integrated Partnership, the five-year intervention is to be coordinated by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in sustained efforts ‘to achieve an Aids-free generation’.
During the launch of the programme on May 27 at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, the Secretary General Dr. Richard Sezibera noted that the EAC and the United States enjoy cordial relations aimed at strengthening cooperation over shared priorities.
“Our partnership with the U.S. Government will continue to be expanded and strengthened through mutual development and U.S. donor funding for our programs,” Amb. Dr. Sezibera, was quoted as saying in a release issued May 28.
“CB-HIPP also provides an opportunity for the EAC to conduct strategic discussions on joint priorities, which will inform the upcoming 5th EAC Strategy (2017-2021) and the USAID Regional Strategy (2015-2020) under development,” he added.
At the same function the USAID/Kenya and East Africa Mission Director Karen Freeman noted that cross-border communities and travellers, if not given the necessary social attention, were vulnerable to Aids and other infectious diseases.
“As populations in cross-border towns increasingly move across the region, they become vulnerable to infectious diseases, which, without proper treatment, can easily be spread along the transport corridors,” Ms Freeman was quoted as saying.
She added: “CB-HIPP will encourage civil society, governments and Regional Economic Communities to expand health services to restrict the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases, as well as bring together social structures and grass root organizations to implement HIV-prevention activities.”
According to the release, the CB-HIPP is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Trade Africa, and will complement the more-than-$1 billion U.S Government investment in the region ‘and efforts led by the EAC to safeguard the health of people living, working and traveling along the transport corridors and cross-border sites.’
Among others the programme targets female sex workers, gays, drug users, truck drivers, migrant workers, people living with HIV and other vulnerable community members.
