Helen Keller International Provides Nutrition Expertise to Support People Living with HIV/AIDS in Senegal

July, 2006 – - Helen Keller International (HKI) is providing overall technical support and guidance for the nutritional support and training components of the Nutritional Support Project to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The overall project is funded by USAID’s Office for Food for Peace, and HKI’s participation is made possible through a sub-grant from Catholic Relief Services.

Malnutrition is a common complication of HIV infection and plays a significant and independent role in HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality. The goal of the Nutritional Support Project (NSP) is to establish that nutrition interventions for PLWHA can promote positive responses to medical treatment, help manage symptoms, and may delay the progression of the disease.

HKI is working closely with a Nutrition/HIV Task Force whose members include representatives from the Ministry of Health, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Counterpart International, Family Health International (FHI), OPALS/Centres de Traitement Ambulatoire, and other NGO and partner associations involved in project implementation.

HKI’s goals included establishing a baseline assessment of the current knowledge and practices of health workers, counselors, other care-givers and PLWHA. The assessment uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. Among the issues addressed are nutrition counseling in relation to helping manage symptoms; side effects and drug-food interactions; the availability and use of micronutrient supplements; the availability, access and consumption of foods by PLWHA; and potential income- generating activities for PLWHA, particularly those related to food production.

In collaboration with the Task Force, HKI is developing training manuals for health workers, counselors, PLWHA and other care-givers to teach them about an integrated package of nutrition services they can provide. Senegal has adopted this approach as their national strategy for nutritional support for PLWHA. In order to help health workers monitor and evaluate the impact of the nutritional support given to PLWHA, HKI developed data collection forms as well as posters to aid counseling. Based on the data collection form, a system for monitoring nutritional services provided to PLWHA has also been developed.