Time has come for government to consider doing more to financially assist Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) fighting HIV in the country because they do much work, an HIV Activist, Bonosi Bino Kgotlaetsile, has suggested.
Kgotlaetsile works as a community HIV testing services Counsellor at Botswana Christian Health & AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCHAIP). She contends that their workload is too much.
Their work involves tracking down those who tested positive and fail to show up for doctor’s appointments in clinics and hospitals. They get information from the clinic and do follow-ups to locate them, upon which they advise them to get back into treatment.
They also track down partners who got exposed to HIV without knowing. This happens when one partner tests positive at the clinic and the other partner is not comfortable with their status being revealed to the next person. With such cases, they get contact details and find ways of getting the other partner to test.
“It is not an easy job because the one being tracked can get offended and ask where we got their contacts. This is a job that most health workers are unable to do because they are already overwhelmed in clinics but this requires time to complete,” Kgotlaetsile said.
They also take HIV treatment, antiretroviral therapy to patients in instances where patients are unable to go to the clinic to collect medications themselves.
All the work that NGOs do is what has made it possible for the country to be among the few to hit the "95-95-95" target on HIV diagnosis, treatment and viral suppression.
“It boggles the mind that government does not see the need to fund NGOs. Why is it that funding is coming in the form of donations from Americans most of the time and our government does not provide help yet we are talking about fighting HIV?” Kgotlaetsile wondered.
Chief Executive Officer at BOCHAIP, Loato Mphusu agrees with Kgotlaetsile that there is need to do more. She explained that NGOs help in bridging the gap. They reach communities on behalf of health facilities.
"We currently have two streams in which we get funding through the National AIDS & Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA) where they apply for programmes or when there is money from the Alcohol Levy and NGOs get called to apply.
What it means is that an NGO can go for years without getting any funding if they get rejected and this crumbles them. their integrity and governance. 95% of NGOs funding, she said, comes from external funders and working with external funders is not easy because they target mostly populated areas of Gaborone and other towns.
Mphusu said because of this, government should be intervening because Batswana are highly mobile, those residing in rural areas should not be left behind when designing programmes meant to curb the spread of HIV in the country.
Kgosietsile added that because of the workload, nurses sometimes snap at patients when they miss appointments without listening to the challenges that patients face. This is how some patients abandon coming back to the clinic.
“Health workers deal with many patients and cannot spend hours or days speaking to one patient, they deal with long queues daily, but we are able to get into people’s homes and talk to them.
“Sometimes we do get insulted, patients have anger issues caused by the treatment they have received in health care facilities. I believe that if government can fund NGOs, they will be able to retain staff in order to effectively eradicate HIV.”
Commenting on the matter, Youth representative Gaafele Otukile at Botswana Family Welfare Association (BOFWA) said it is not like government is not doing anything, as organisations such as NAPHA do work with NGOs. Perhaps what they can push for is for more to be done.
She observed that there are many NGOs in the country competing for funds but all doing the same thing. She advocates for NGO collaboration instead of competition.
Kgotlaetsile works as a community HIV testing services Counsellor at Botswana Christian Health & AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCHAIP). She contends that their workload is too much.
Their work involves tracking down those who tested positive and fail to show up for doctor’s appointments in clinics and hospitals. They get information from the clinic and do follow-ups to locate them, upon which they advise them to get back into treatment.
They also track down partners who got exposed to HIV without knowing. This happens when one partner tests positive at the clinic and the other partner is not comfortable with their status being revealed to the next person. With such cases, they get contact details and find ways of getting the other partner to test.
“It is not an easy job because the one being tracked can get offended and ask where we got their contacts. This is a job that most health workers are unable to do because they are already overwhelmed in clinics but this requires time to complete,” Kgotlaetsile said.
They also take HIV treatment, antiretroviral therapy to patients in instances where patients are unable to go to the clinic to collect medications themselves.
All the work that NGOs do is what has made it possible for the country to be among the few to hit the "95-95-95" target on HIV diagnosis, treatment and viral suppression.
“It boggles the mind that government does not see the need to fund NGOs. Why is it that funding is coming in the form of donations from Americans most of the time and our government does not provide help yet we are talking about fighting HIV?” Kgotlaetsile wondered.
Chief Executive Officer at BOCHAIP, Loato Mphusu agrees with Kgotlaetsile that there is need to do more. She explained that NGOs help in bridging the gap. They reach communities on behalf of health facilities.
"We currently have two streams in which we get funding through the National AIDS & Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA) where they apply for programmes or when there is money from the Alcohol Levy and NGOs get called to apply.
What it means is that an NGO can go for years without getting any funding if they get rejected and this crumbles them. their integrity and governance. 95% of NGOs funding, she said, comes from external funders and working with external funders is not easy because they target mostly populated areas of Gaborone and other towns.
Mphusu said because of this, government should be intervening because Batswana are highly mobile, those residing in rural areas should not be left behind when designing programmes meant to curb the spread of HIV in the country.
Kgosietsile added that because of the workload, nurses sometimes snap at patients when they miss appointments without listening to the challenges that patients face. This is how some patients abandon coming back to the clinic.
“Health workers deal with many patients and cannot spend hours or days speaking to one patient, they deal with long queues daily, but we are able to get into people’s homes and talk to them.
“Sometimes we do get insulted, patients have anger issues caused by the treatment they have received in health care facilities. I believe that if government can fund NGOs, they will be able to retain staff in order to effectively eradicate HIV.”
Commenting on the matter, Youth representative Gaafele Otukile at Botswana Family Welfare Association (BOFWA) said it is not like government is not doing anything, as organisations such as NAPHA do work with NGOs. Perhaps what they can push for is for more to be done.
She observed that there are many NGOs in the country competing for funds but all doing the same thing. She advocates for NGO collaboration instead of competition.
