Only 75 percent of the 36.9 million people living with HIV are aware of their status. Every week, around 7000 young women aged 15–24 years become infected with HIV, and approximately 9.2 million people remain undiagnosed and at risk of not receiving prevention and quality care services. In Cameroon, the HIV prevalence is as high as 4.1 percent.
Increased access to screening remains a high priority as the world accelerates actions toward an AIDS-free generation. It’s against this backdrop that World AIDS Day 2018 focused on HIV testing. Timely knowledge of status allows the infected to seek early treatment and the uninfected to prioritize preventive options to stay negative. If all adolescent girls get tested for HIV, and the HIV negatives stay negative while the HIV positives make informed choices about their SRH; new pediatric HIV infections might be eliminated and an HIV-free generation born.
Plentiful barriers limit access to HIV testing services, especially in sub-Saharan Africa where a greater burden of the disease lies. These include community stigma and discrimination, lack of confidentiality and privacy, distance to health facilities and long waiting times, and limited adolescent-unfriendly services. For over five years, CASD has invested in finding and testing solutions to these barriers to HIV testing. Its signature HIV-free Generation Ice-cream Project launched in 2015 has proven successful, granting access to over 15,000 adolescent girls in the marginalized Anglophone community in the North West Region of Cameroon. By designing an adolescent-friendly space for sexual and reproductive health services in the likeness of an ice cream truck, adolescents freely access HIV testing the same way they would access a cup of ice cream.
In collaboration with the Cameroon Ministry of Public Health, the project moves around the community daily to bring access to stigma-free, adolescent-friendly, and quality HIV education and screening to doorsteps at the last mile.
Despite the enormous success, the project is still at risk of underachieving. The ongoing civil war in the targeted community has changed the dynamics of the terrain, demanding more resources to reach adolescents in humanitarian settings. An additional $10,000 is needed to reach this goal in 2019. Your donation can make a difference. The project has truly guaranteed confidentiality, privacy, and stigma-free services for all clients but some potential beneficiaries are held back by the fear of stigma. Since CASD cannot influence every beneficiary’s attitude, it is currently researching HIV-self-testing services to further eliminate the fear of stigma for those that need it. The ViiV Healthcare, Global Force for Healing, and individuals have generously supported this progress.
