Youth with HIV in Rwanda: Medicines, Food, School, Disclosure, &Testimony

Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment(WE-ACTx) provides comprehensive medical and psychosocial HIV care for women and children and their families in 3 clinics in Kigali, Rwanda. Over 500 children receive care from a multidisciplinary team including peers, trauma counselors, psychologist, nurses and doctors. Sites of car include the clinic, home visits, and different support groups. Youth specific services include child friendly clinic visits supervised by peer advocate, sosoma food supplement for children on antiretroviral therapy (ART), a weekly support group for over 250 youth age 5-24, weekly youth classes on computer skills, and weekly specialized support groups for young women who have experienced sexual abuse, older youth living and working in the homes of others, and those who are parents themselves. The session will provide a description of the program and describe the lessons learned. Most important lessons include: the need for food in addition to ART, the medical and psychological issues facing children with HIV, the importance of play and safe spaces, the difficulty disclosing due to continued stigma, the importance of education and obstacles of school fees, issues of sexual abuse, discrimination in employment and housing, and the desire to have intimate and meaningful relationships. The creative methods of testimony used by HIV infected youth for HIV prevention messages will be presented.