Reaching everyone through training
An important Training Course has just been completed in the DREAM Center in Kinshasa. The strategy in fighting AIDS constantly requires more and more commitment, in view of the WHO’s goal to reach by 2020 “90, 90, 90” (90% of the population tested, 90% treated with antiretrovirals, 90% with a viral load under control). In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (data from 2014) 78% of women and 85% of men do not have access to the test: the screening of HIV is therefore an absolute priority. Hence the strategic choice of the DREAM Program of the Community of Sant’Egidio: giving 25 health workers “au pair” (patients who chose to testify on how to face the disease living a normal and peaceful life) the ability to test and give counseling to many other people, in the health centers, at school, in workplaces. Activists of the Program originating from Kinshasa and Mbandaka, but also from other organizations currently involved in the fight against the stigma, participated with great interest in three days of intense work. The course included theory, practice and roleplaying, but also the sharing of experience with other centers such as the DREAM Center in Conakry where the coordinator, Fatoumata Sylla, faces very complicated situations on a daily basis. With this “pilot” course in mind, the first of its kind, the added Director of the PNLS (National Plan for the Fight against AIDS) wanted to personally deliver the certificates. After visiting the Center and meeting the Course’s participants, he congratulated DREAM for its humanity, combined with quality, that make it a model for the country. Managing to “dominate” the disease in just a few years is a difficult thing to achieve. Also thanks to DREAM, and to this new training model, it is already possible.