In the Uganda Cares model, the Ugandan Ministry of Health provides the physical clinic sites on the grounds of district hospitals, as well as some staffing, laboratory and sub-specialty support. AHF then operates the programs, including all clinical management and staffing, provides significant operational support and also hires and mentors medical providers like the HIV medics who then take on some of the clinical, counselling and administrative responsibilities from nurses and doctors making it possible for the clinic team to care for and treat larger numbers of patients within a short time.
AHF Uganda Cares partnered with Development Initiatives International (DII) to provide care in urban markets in Kampala thus forming The Market Vendors Project clinic which allows market vendors and their families to access care without losing important, productive work hours; and for its HIV Routine Counselling and Testing project, AHF Uganda Cares partners with RTI and runs an HIV Mass Testing program in partnership with districts, NGOs, the Ministry of Health and the Uganda AIDS Commission.
It has also developed the Socio-Economic Empowerment Project (SEEP) to provide financial training and micro-loans to people living with HIV/AIDS since the progam has seen hundreds of its patients become well enough to work but their productivity being limited by a lack of resources.
AHF developed the “HIV Medic” program, where a practical training course is offered to lay people to gain the skills to become paraprofessional extenders of treatment who provide basic triage and intensive adherence support, and assist in the provision of ART. This is done to address the shortage of healthcare workers in resource-constrained settings.
Patients' health progress is monitored where those on ARVs are initially seen weekly for the first 4 weeks, then fortnightly for another 4 weeks, and then monthly if clinically stable and responding to the ARV regimen.
Back then when there was hardly any interest and funding for the project, 100 patients received free treatment and today Uganda Cares serves 50,000 adult and pediatric patients. In 2010, AHF distributed 3.6 million condoms countrywide, tested about 206,000 clients and identified 9,400 positive people that were referred to care.
