DAI Presents at 19th International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C.

July 30, 2012

DAI’s Health Sector helped lead discussions at this year’s International AIDS Conference, AIDS2012, in Washington, D.C. The weeklong event, July 22-27, attracted an estimated 25,000 people who are joined in the ongoing battle against AIDS.

One of the stars of the event was the DAI-led Economic Strengthening for Households Affected by AIDS (IMARISHA) project, which assists PEPFAR-funded service providers and the Government in Tanzania to improve economic strengthening activities for people impacted by HIV. Specifically, DAI is helping these organizations—including FHI360, Africare, Pathfinder, Pact, Walter Reed, and more than 50 Tanzanian organizations—to better prioritize and deliver appropriate interventions for HIV-affected households.

Posters presented by DAI at AIDS2012 included:

• An overview of IMARISHA, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID);
• An assessment of PEPFAR and Government of Tanzania economic strengthening initiatives in seven regions;
• Data that showed Tanzanian households with basic savings are less vulnerable to hunger and food insecurity;
• A call to improve economic strengthening measurement as well as graduation criteria for HIV-affected people receiving assistance; and
• Results from the highly successful USAID Urban Gardens Program that describe how microgardening is addressing the nutrition and income needs of Ethiopia’s urban poor, particularly HIV orphans, women with the virus, and caregivers.

On July 26, nearby at USAID headquarters, DAI’s Colleen Green, the IMARISHA chief of party, and Africare’s Herbert Mugumya led a presentation. Green described how DAI is providing survey data to better understand the economic vulnerabilities of HIV-affected households, while Mugumya provided results on how Africare has incorporated these findings to improve services for orphans and vulnerable children.

This week’s event marked the first time the conference has been held in the United States in more than 20 years, and first since 2010 when the U.S. government lifted its travel ban on people living with HIV.