Chez Rosalie

Our Chez Rosalie program provides counseling, HIV testing, and treatment to all pregnant women visiting Hope Center Clinic in the neighborhood of Sikoro in Bamako, Mali to ensure that HIV is not transmitted from mothers to newborns. In 2023, 1,370 women received these services, 7 HIV+ women received comprehensive prenatal and HIV care, 5 newborns received follow-up care, and 0 babies in the program began their lives with HIV.
 

Free, anonymous hiv testing & community-level care

Anonymous HIV testing and care is crucial to reaching stigmatized groups who are most at risk to contract HIV. GAIA VF offers free, anonymous testing at two clinics in Bamako, and was crucial in the decentralization of HIV care throughout Mali. Hope Center Clinic in Sikoro remains a model for community-level HIV care. In 2023, testing was provided to 251 people and more than 200 people living with HIV received care.

teen peer education

The Chez Rosalie MTCTP Program revealed that most of the new HIV infections being reported were for teen mothers. This suggested that not only were teenagers at risk of pregnancy, but they were also at risk of acquiring HIV infection with their first pregnancy. The Teen Peer Education Program actively recruits the next generation of Malians, 14 to 18-year-old adolescents and young adults, in an engaging, co-ed, teen health education program that aims to address health issues faced by youth in Mali. In 2023, this program reached about 18 teens per week.

nutrition & Support program

Improving access to nutritional foods is especially important for HIV+ pregnant women who require additional nutritional support during their pregnancies while taking HIV medication. The Nutritional Support program is managed by members of the Sikoro Hope Association, an organization formed by HIV+ women who participated in the early years of the Chez Rosalie program. The mission of the association is to reduce the social stigmatization that people living with HIV face in Mali and provide a critical support system for new patients. In 2023, this program provided 2,018 meals to adults and 1,498 meals to children in Sikoro.

HPV and Cervical Cancer

GAIA VF has completed 3 separate research projects on HPV and cervical cancer in Bamako, Mali. Most recently, working with 5 community clinics and the district health center, GAIA VF helped provide cervical cancer screenings to 5,971 mothers while vaccinating 749 girls against HPV. Partnering with national health authorities, we were able to target our program towards reaching out-of-school girls who would be missed by the national vaccination campaign that focused on vaccinating in schools.

GAIA VF continues to provide cervical cancer screening resources to our partner clinics in Mali with funding through individual donations.