Through PEPFAR, MHRP supports both the military through the Tanzania People's Defence Force and civilian populations through local communities and partners in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands region to fight HIV/AIDS. The program’s integrated approach to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment allows MHRP in Tanzania to offer a range of services to address transmission, co-infections and overall health and nutrition.
The military program is executed in tandem with the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF), which oversees operations in military health facilities throughout Tanzania, including eight zonal hospitals.
The civilian prevention, care and treatment program was developed with local partners in the Southern Highlands, including the regions of Mbeya, Rukwa, Katavi and Songwe. The program is conducted in collaboration with the Mbeya Zonal Referral Hospital (MZRH) and the Mbeya, Katavi, Songwe and Rukwa Regional Administrative Secretariats (RAS) and Regional Medical Offices (RMO). The program, referred to locally as the Walter Reed Program-Tanzania, also works in close coordination with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and the President’s Office - Regional Administration and Local Government (PORALG).
Program Highlights
Human Resources for Health in HIV Prevention and Care
MHRP provides technical assistance and training to build capacity of clinicians in HIV patient care and treatment, using the National AIDS Control Programme curriculum. This technical support has been integral to expanding facility-based care at MZRH and treatment throughout the zone. In addition to strengthening capacity at the facility level, MHRP’s program works with local partners to expand outreach and education in HIV care and treatment through village health care workers, home-based care volunteers and orphans and vulnerable children caregivers in the community.
The TPDF program has successfully trained a cadre of TPDF service providers and supports them with customized data collection tools for enhanced performance. The program also supports the Tanzanian government in implementing and scaling-up TB preventive therapy in line with national guidelines.
Cervical Cancer Screenings
MHRP implements screening programs in four regions of the Southern Highlands Zone (Mbeya, Songwe, Rukwa, and Katavi) in the collaboration of Ministry of Health to strengthen cervical cancer detection and prevention.
Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS)
In September 2020, MHRP’s DREAMS program in Mbeya Region celebrated the first ever DREAMS graduation saluting 1,804 adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) who completed their core training program.
The DREAMS program includes a core package of interventions at the community and clinical levels that address key factors that make AGYW particularly vulnerable to HIV including gender-based violence, exclusion from economic opportunities and lack of access to secondary school for AGYW, their children and their sexual partners. Graduates of the DREAMS program are putting their new-found entrepreneurial skills to good use with jobs in tailoring, engineering, soap making and more.
Health Care Providers First Response Training for Gender Based Violence (GBV)
Staff are participating in a series of virtual GBV training of trainer events so that they are better informed on intimate partner violence (IPV) and can train health care providers to identify IPV, offer risk assessments and psychological support to GBV survivors in line with safe and ethical index testing standards. The training is an interagency collaboration and was originally developed by WHO.