January 10, 2011

Jhpiego awarded $100 mill project to improve health in Kenya

Building on four years of success in improving health services in eastern Kenya, Jhpiego has been asked to continue its work by leading a $100 million U.S.-funded effort to bring quality health care to impoverished, underserved communities in both the eastern and central provinces.

Chosen for the highly competitive award, Jhpiego will lead the APHIAplus Health Service Delivery project over the next five years, working with a consortium of Kenyan partners to integrate a range of health services, products and information at all health facility levels, from community clinics to local hospitals. Integration of services helps ensure that patients can more easily access care and that all of their health needs are met.

Funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development will enable Jhpiego to increase availability of an integrated package of high-quality, high-impact interventions, including HIV and family-planning services, at the community and facility levels; improve the health status of communities, focusing on marginalized, poor and underserved populations; and strengthen health service delivery through a variety of innovative approaches.

“Jhpiego is thrilled to be chosen for this project and join our Kenyan partners in providing innovative health strategies to improve health care services for those most in need and support Kenyans in carrying out this most important, life-changing work,” said Leslie Mancuso, president and CEO of Jhpiego.

Jhpiego will be joined in its work by the African Medical and Research Foundation; Liverpool VCT, Care and Treatment; Kenya Red Cross Society; and the National Organization of Peer Educators. The consortium is supported by the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, PATH and Land O’Lakes Inc.

For the past four years, Jhpiego has led the $33.9 million USAID-funded AIDS, Population and Health Integrated Assistance project in Eastern Kenya—APHIA II Eastern—a landmark initiative for Kenya and Jhpiego. The initiative, which ended last month, focused on improving the quality of health services, with an emphasis on integrated care and building the capacity of local nongovernmental organizations to provide palliative care and support to people living with HIV.

Since 2006, APHIA II Eastern has counseled and tested more than 1.1 million Kenyans. In the past two years alone, more than 8,000 of those who tested positive have begun lifesaving antiretroviral treatment.