Uganda’s First Lady to Dedicate AHF’s New AIDS Healthcare Centre in Lukaya Jan. 18th

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) adds a new state-of-the-art care facility providing much-needed treatment, HIV testing and counseling opportunities to high-risk populations in Uganda through their newest clinic in the town of Lukaya

LUKAYA, Uganda - Saturday, January 19th 2013 [ME NewsWire]

New UGANDA CARES facility includes an adjacent commercial and residential complex that will financially support medical services of the Lukaya clinic and also promote socio-economic empowerment and business development in the greater community

(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

What:
 

Grand opening—Lukaya Healthcare Centre and Commercial Complex


When:
 

FRIDAY, January 18, 2013                9:00am
   

Where:
 

Kampala-Masaka Highway, Lukaya, Kalungu District, Uganda


Who:
 

Mrs. Janet Kataha Museveni, First Lady of Uganda, (Guest of Honor)
   

Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President
   

His Worship Gerald Majera Ssenyondo, Mayor of the Lukaya Town Council
   

Dr. Penninah Iutung Amor, AHF Africa Bureau Chief, Kampala
   

Diana Hoorzuk, AHF Board Member, South Africa
   

UGANDA CARES Management Team
   

Kalungu district officials, partners and Ugandan HIV/AIDS patients and the general public


PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES:
 

March through Lukaya to grand opening ceremony at centre; commissioning of the buildings by the First Lady of Uganda; speeches, patient testimonies, and entertainment; football match between Uganda Cares team and Kalungu district officials


CONTACTS:
 

UGANDA:
   

Dr. Nakawuka Mina, Director Advocacy and Public Relations East/West Africa Region
   

AIDS Healthcare Foundation Office:+ 256 414 346 311 Cell : + 256 772 754334,
   

+1.323 229 9358                                   Mina.Nakawuka@aidshealth.org
   

UNITED STATES
   

Ged Kenslea, +1.323.791.5526 cell      ged.kenslea@aidshealth.org
   

Kyveli Diener, +310.779.4796 cell        kyveli.diener@aidshealth.org
   

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been providing lifesaving treatment and testing for HIV/AIDS to nearly 40,000 patients in eight districts in Uganda for more than ten years through its respected UGANDA CARES program, including at Healthcare Centres in Kampala, Masaka, Soroti, Rakai, Lyantonde, Gomba, Tororo, Lwengo, Bukomansimbi, Kalungu, and Butambala.

But when its newest healthcare centre opens this week in Lukaya, about 115 kilometres (70 miles) south of Kampala and just south of the Equator, with a march and gala dedication ceremony Friday, January 18th featuring Mrs. Janet Kataha Museveni, First Lady of Uganda as Guest of Honor, AHF turns a new page in the care and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda: The new Lukaya facility also includes an adjacent commercial and residential complex that will financially support medical endeavors at the clinic and also promote socio-economic empowerment and business development in the greater community of Kalungu District. The site, on the heavily travelled Masaka-Kampala Highway, also affords the world’s largest AIDS service organization an innovative location to fight the spread of the virus among commercial sex workers and their clients, including long-distance truck drivers, two of the most at-risk and difficult-to-reach demographics in Uganda’s population.

“Opening day ceremonies will begin with a march through Lukaya to the clinic site which will be flagged off by His Worship Gerald Majera Ssenyondo, Mayor of the Lukaya Town Council,” said Dr. Penninah Iutung Amor, Africa Bureau Chief for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, who is based in Kampala. “AHF President Michael Weinstein, AHF board members, the UGANDA CARES management team members, Kalungu district officials, partners, and patients will all join in the march, and the event’s guest of honor, the Mrs. Janet Kataha Museveni, First Lady of Uganda, will then formally dedicate and commission the two buildings. It promises to be an uplifting day in our fight against AIDS in Uganda.”

Events following the commissioning include speeches, patient testimonies, and entertainment performed by patients and AHF partner groups. The day will close with friendly soccer matches between the UGANDA CARES team and Kalungu district officials.

“The two buildings, financed by AHF and which took eleven months to build, are situated on two acres of private land right alongside the Kampala-Masaka Highway,” said Michael Weinstein, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President. “This convenient location allows commercial sex workers and long-distance truck drivers, who are often marginalized from accessing medical care—and often HIV positive without knowing it, and as a result, may pass their HIV infections on due to having multiple concurrent sexual partners in the various towns they pass through—easy access to testing and lifesaving treatment.”

The single-story clinic will accommodate up to 300 patients on a daily basis and boasts a large waiting area that can hold up to 100 people at a time; six consultation rooms; three counseling rooms; three isolation rooms for those being treated for commutable diseases like tuberculosis; a ten-bed observation room for seriously ill patients awaiting transfer to a hospital; a pharmacy with a dispensary; a main laboratory and an additional mini lab; sluice and sterilization rooms; conference rooms; eight offices; 18 washrooms for staff and patients; and data, records, and archives rooms.

The starter staff for the medical center will include one doctor, one clinical officer, three nurses, one lab technician, one counselor, and one pharmacy dispenser. Friday’s grand opening has been preceded by weeklong testing events, including moonlight testing events in Lukaya. The center is operated by UGANDA CARES, AHF’s local service branch formed in conjunction with the Ugandan Ministry of Health.

“As in India, the trucker route is a roadmap for HIV transmission,” said Terri Ford, AHF’s Chief of Global Policy and Advocacy. “Truck drivers may have time to test, but until now, not to get treatment. This will be the first clinic right on the highway where truckers can be regular patients at a clinic – they can stop there every two months for their medication and condoms. It is really an example of making antiretroviral treatment accessible and convenient.”

In addition to reaching some of the highest risk demographics in Lukaya, the new clinic will also take pressure off AHF UGANDA CARES’ Masaka clinic 34 kilometres (21 miles) to the south and make treatment much more accessible and convenient for existing AHF clients in Lukaya, including Mariam Nazzawe, 9, who recently rode on AHF’s award-winning 2013 Tournament of Roses float “The Global Face of AIDS” in Pasadena, Calif. on New Year’s Day. Mariam previously had to commute an hour to Masaka for treatment, but now has to merely walk out of her front door and across the street to the new healthcare center.

Also notable and important to the community is the economic growth that will be generated by the center’s Commercial Complex. This two-story building with disabled access – which stands in front of the smaller medical treatment center in order to afford patients a level of privacy when they go for treatment – has space for a restaurant, six single-bedroom apartments, and rental space for banking halls, conference halls, and retail stores. The revenue from these businesses will ensure program sustainability through locally generated income, and also provide socio-economic empowerment to the people of Lukaya through business skills development, promotion of a savings culture, and provision of micro business loans.

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 187,000 individuals in 28 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.

Contacts

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

UGANDA:

Dr. Nakawuka Mina, Director Advocacy and Public Relations East/West Africa Region

AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Office: + 256 414 346 311

Mina.Nakawuka@aidshealth.org



or

UNITED STATES

Ged Kenslea, +1.323.791.5526 cell

ged.kenslea@aidshealth.org



or

Kyveli Diener, +310.779.4796 cell

kyveli.diener@aidshealth.org





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