USAID Uganda HIV & Health Initiatives in Workplaces Activity (HIWA)

The USAID/Uganda HIV/AIDS and Health Initiatives in the Workplaces Activity (HIWA) is a 5 year program funded by USAID. The program is a national program implemented in 50 districts by World Vision Inc in partnership with RTI International (RTI), Uganda Health Marketing Group (UHMG), The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST) and The Medical Concierge Group (TMCG).

Scaling up access to HIV/Health services

The overall goal of the project is to improve the health of;

The new global 90-90-90 target strategy calls for 90% of all people with HIV to be diagnosed, 90% of people with HIV diagnosed to receive ART and 90% of those on ART to have a suppressed viral load by 2020.

The work place program will also implement combination HIV prevention approach. Comprehensive HIV prevention hinges on the fact that no one method can successfully eliminate HIV transmission, but when different approaches are implemented, the results outperform the single approach. The combination HIV prevention includes;

ECOTRUST’s efforts are geared towards the HIV prevention interventions of the HIWA project through implementation of demand creation activities targeting priority populations at the Conservation Area workplaces with key focus on the employees of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), that generate demand and increase uptake and utilization of the services offered.

HIWA Programme

2015 - 2019

In order to empower a priority population of Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) rangers and communities surrounding conservation areas (CA’s) in Uganda to respond to HIV and other health challenges, The USAID Uganda HIV & Health Initiatives in Workplaces Activity (HIWA) is supporting Uganda’s efforts to provide comprehensive health care not only to UWA rangers and CA communities but also members of the Uganda Police Force (UPF) and their families, Private security guards (PSG), staff in selected hotels under Uganda Hotels Owners Association (UHOA) and the vulnerable populations in Kotido and Moroto districts.

This is being done by ensuring accessibility of quality prevention, care and treatment services within the institutional health facilities, respective workplaces and surrounding communities in order to achieve specific programme results of; Increased availability and access to comprehensive HIV/AIDS and other health services, Improved quality of HIV and AIDS and other health services, Increased uptake and utilization of HIV and AIDS and other health services.

ECOTRUST’s role is to implement demand creation activities for the HIWA programme in all the Conservation areas namely; Queen Elizabeth (QECA), Murchison Falls (MFCA), Mt. Elgon (MECA), Bwindi-Mgahinga (BMCA), Kibale-Semuliki (KSCA), L.Mburo (LMCA) and Kidepo Valley (KVCA). This programme is funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), under the leadership of World Vision (WV).