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PATA

About our Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa project

What is Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA) project?

The Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa - or PATA for short - is a network of medical teams across Africa who work with children that have HIV/AIDS.

The network allows knowledge-sharing and has lead to the development of ground-breaking new models of treating and raising awareness of HIV.

105 clinics from 21 countries have joined the PATA network. These PATA-affiliated clinics are treating 60,000 children who have HIV.

The medical teams include all healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of HIV including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and counsellors.

What is PATA's aim?

At present, more than 2.5 million children in Africa are infected with HIV. Of those, PATA estimates that fewer than 15% are being treated with life-saving ARVs. 30% of those receiving treatment are being treated by  PATA-affiliated clinics.

Last year alone, 420,000 new paediatric HIV infections were diagnosed and 330,000 children died from HIV related diseases in Africa. 

The PATA project's overall objective is that all HIV-infected children and young people in Africa have access to comprehensive health and social care by 2015.

What does PATA do?

PATA has two main streams of work:

1) PATA Forum

The PATA Forum is an annual conference where teams from PATA-affiliated clinics meet up to measure their progress, share experiences and come up with new solutions.

The conference enables teams to learn from each other, and has led to the development of ground-breaking new models of treating and raising awareness of HIV.

For example, attendees at the 2006 PATA Forum in Nairobi came up with the idea and blueprint for the Expert Patient programme, as a solution to the increased pressure on clinic teams due to the growing number of patients.

This year's PATA forum will be held in Rwanda in November 2008. Previous PATA forums have been held in South Africa (2005), Kenya (2006) and Swaziland (2007).

2) PATA initiatives

PATA also develops and provides resources for initiatives that test and put into practice new ways of treating and raising awareness of HIV/AIDS.

PATA initiatives include:

• Expert Patient Programme

This programme offers a solution to the problem of chronic staff shortages in HIV clinics. HIV/AIDS patients are given training to enable them to support healthcare professionals in clinics. PATA provides the patients with a modest stipend to support their work.

The Expert Patient Programme has the following benefits:

• Eases the work load of clinic teams, freeing doctors and nurses to concentrate on complex procedures
• Expands the capacity of small clinics to reach more patients
• Uses the knowledge and expertise of HIV/AIDS patients in a positive and affirming way
• Builds the self-esteem and confidence of the Expert Patients
• Contributes to the household income of the Expert Patients

"I give HIV education, adherence counselling and HIV health talks. I encourage families to work together and to bring their children in for HIV testing and care,"  says Christine Adhiambo Ochieng, 23, describing her job as an Expert Patient in Kenya.

"[Working as an expert patient] has empowered me to take steps ahead. I have completed guidance and counselling [training] ... to polish my counselling career. I am also planning to do child counselling so that I can attend to both infected and affected children physically and psychologically," says Christine.

• Kick AIDS

This programme tackles the stigma around HIV by raising awareness and offering tests or counselling at football tournaments and events.

For example, a weekly football league is run in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. 180 children take part in this league and are taught about AIDS. All players and their families are offered testing, counselling and referral as part of the project.

What countries are involved in PATA?

105 clinic teams from 23 countries have joined the PATA network.

The following countries are members of the network: Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Who runs PATA?

One to One Children's Fund is the main sponsor and co-founder of the project. Various organisations are represented on the steering committee of PATA including co-founder KidsPositive, Unicef

(http://www.unicef.org.uk/), the Clinton Foundation (http://www.clintonfoundation.org) and Partners in Health

(http://www.pih.org).

History of PATA

The PATA initiative has its roots in Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, where One to One Children's Fund funded a pilot project for treating HIV-infected families using multi-disciplinary teams (a doctor, nurse, psychologist/ counsellor and pharmacist).

The project showed extraordinary success down to its holistic, rather than rigidly clinical, approach. The success of the pilot project contributed to the South African government's decision to start providing anti-retroviral treatment to all HIV positive children.

One to One Children's Fund, in co-operation with its local partner Kidzpositive Family Fund, was keen to share the knowledge it had learnt from the pilot project with other HIV clinics in Africa.

Initially, teams from other countries were invited to Cape Town to see the Groote Schuur model in action. In 2005, the first PATA conference took place, bringing together 23 teams from 12 African countries. Now, 105 clinics from 23 countries are members of the PATA network.

PATA 2008

Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA) is a One to One Children's Fund initiative that links some 80 child HIV clinic teams from over 20 countries to develop professional capacity to cope with the epidemic in a ripple across Africa. 

The Fourth PATA Forum will be held in Rwanda from 25 to 29 November 2008. The conference themes this year are "care of the very young children" and "nutrition". For more information, contact Melanie (melanie@teampata.org).

Our 2007 forum was held in Swaziland, one of the countries worst hit by AIDS. 
 
We are also providing child medical treatment in South Africa through initiatives in the Western Cape and  Eastern Cape

Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa at a glance

PATA's Mission and Goals

PATA 2006

PATA 2005

Participants' quotes

Expert Patients
The Expert Patient programme is a programme for hiring people living with HIV and community members as 'Expert Patients' to enhance the work of clinics in tackling a variety of challenges. 

South Africa

Western Cape

Since May 2002, One to One Children's Fund has ensured the roll-out of Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) from 250 to more than 2500 affected children at Groote Schuur Hospital and a number of orphanages in Cape Town. 

Eastern Cape
Starting in late 2004, One to One Children's Fund launched its Anti Retroviral Support Programme in the Eastern Cape and oversaw the setting up of two fully-equipped HIV/AIDS treatment units for children, at Dora Nginza (Port Elizabeth) and Uitenhage hospitals. 

Vrygrond Squatter Camp
Since 1996, One to One Children's Fund has supported the transition of the Vrygrond squatter camp to a township by supporting a local community trust to set up a crèche, a pre-school centre, an outdoor playground and an award-winning library. Since 2006, One to One Children's Fund has contributed to raising the funds enabling the construction of a primary school scheduled to open its doors in 2008.

Phelophepa Health Train
One to One Children’s Fund in innovative collaboration with the Phelophepa Health Train to provide AIDS outreach programmes to rural communities in South Africa’s Eastern Cape.

Baphumelele Children's Home

AIDS victim children have been given the best Christmas present of all - the gift of life. Details of a One to One Children's Fund project from an article in the Sun Newspaper. 
 

Kick AIDS