No, this post isn’t about a contest to get as many condoms as you want for the next 365 days, but it is about winners: the people of Malawi. Red Hot recently showed it’s support for the safe sex education and treatment efforts being offered through Partners in Health/Abwenzi Pa Zu Umoyo by donating 200,000 chisango condoms and the funds for baseline and confirmation HIV testing kits. The condoms will be sent to PIH/ABZU clinics around the country for free distribution, and both the condoms and testing kits will supply the communities of Malawi for a full year.
Community members gather around for distribution.
PIH/APZU is on the forefront of medical care in Malawi. The APZU project history on the PIH website demonstrates that between 2008 and 2009 alone APZU trained 300 full-time community health workers, worked with six different community-based organizations to tackle the conditions of poverty that lead to disease and to provide support to patients with HIV, opened the Lisungwi Community Hospital complete with 50 beds and a full laboratory capable of CD4 count testing for HIV testing, partnered with the Malawi Ministry of Health to pilot an innovative touch screen system for collecting HIV/AIDS treatment data, and doubled the amount of clinics providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV patients from two to four. If I had read that aloud I would be out of breath, and that was only an excerpt of their efforts and accomplishments!
Searching through supplies during distribution in Malawi.
In an email correspondence Partners in Health wrote, “We are so grateful for this donation, which is providing the basic tools of HIV prevention and testing for people in our catchment area, and leveraging our comprehensive HIV treatment program and anti-stigma efforts, making sure protecting and treatment reaches those who need it most.”
The people of Malawi are determined to win in the fight against HIV, and the Red Hot Organization is proud to say we’re in their corner.
