Our flagship assignment, under SAM’s public health banner, is the uMhlathuze Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW), a multi-year global fund program that we are implementing as a sub-
recipient under the AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA).
As Sub-Recipient, we lead the implementation of a wide range of interventions and support our four community partner organisations in planning, managing, evaluating and quality improving the program. The principal objective of the programme is to reach 35,000 young women with effective HIV combination prevention services including HIV and TB prevention education, HIV testing services, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), HIV treatment and care and a wide range of biomedical and social support interventions.
Engaging in highly impactful work
It is often said that the youth are our future, but that is only true as long as they are healthy, educated, and empowered. SAM is proud to be at the forefront of a project that ensures that the young women of uMhlathuze municipality can make educated choices about their health and lives. The uMhlathuze AGYW project's aim is to play a major role in contributing to this critical mission as it works with national and multi-lateral partners to help shape the next generation of young women.
Working with our four community partners; LYD, Isibani, EDI and Phumelela, our program supports 16 Department of Health clinics and 30 uMhlathuze schools, as well as various stakeholders working across the 34 wards to ensure improved access to health and social services by AGYW. We work closely with other implementers such as Higher Health to ensure that young women in universities and TVET colleges are supported to access essential health and social services based on their individual needs.
Over the first two years of the program, our consortium reached over 32,000 AGYWs with services including over 19,000 young women provided with HIV testing services in the second year of the program. Through our ZAZI (know your status) campaign, we aim to continue contributing to the achievement of UNAIDS ambitious targets aiming to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 by achieving 95% diagnosed among all people living with HIV (PLHIV), 95% on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among diagnosed, and 95% virally suppressed (VS) among treated.
The uMhlathuze AGYW project is an integral part of achieving positive health outcomes in the municipality and helping to end AIDS through addressing inequalities, in line with the UNAIDS Global strategy-End Inequalities, End AIDS 2021-2026.
Comments