SIDA-ENTREPRISES supports four different training projects which all have as common goal to improve overall care provided to people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. These training sessions target medical staff in Africa from the public sector, associations and the private sector in order to provide capacity building in the fields of prevention, screening, as well as medical and psychosocial care.
Interuniversities diplomas (IUD)
In order to respond to training needs of actors in the field of health-care provided to PLHIV, a number of training courses for French-speaking countries, degree courses or not, have been developed recently in various countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these training courses target doctors as well as nurses, chemists and psychosocial personnel providing care to PLHIV.
The fist course is the Interuniversities diploma for the « Overall health-care provided to people infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa », which was developed in 2003-2004 at the University of Ouagadougou with the support of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and of the WHO.
Other training courses were recently developed for the French-speaking countries of the sub-continent, using formats which are similar to that of the ICD of Ouagadougou (Ouidah course), sometimes using specific training procedures (ICD HIV of Bujumbura) or even on specific themes (ICD on retrovirology of Dakar).
SIDA-ENTREPRISES provides support to ICDs of Ougadougou and of Bujumbura.
Two ad hoc training sessions
Following a number of years spent fighting AIDS in the workplace and a vast experience with a number of enterprises and countries, SIDA-ENTREPRISES made a few findings :
- enterprises need expertise in order to be able to implement long-term programmes;
- occupational medicine is not used to its full capacity on this issue while there is insufficient medical staff in general;
- the importance of confidentiality remains a major component of the issue of AIDS in the workplace;
- AIDS being a chronic disease, this issue should more than ever be tackled in the workplace.
Updated: April 17th 2009.
SIDA-ENTREPRISES therefore decided to develop the role played by medical staff and social workers operating within enterprises or having a direct link with them in the fields of prevention, treatment and monitoring. Beyond the « traditional » theoretical training methods, SIDA-ENTREPRISES stresses the need to develop capacity to listen to patients, to develop quality communication and mediation, to observe ethics… Following a call for proposals, two bodies were selected to carry-out training sessions in Burkina Faso (ICI) and in Senegal (OPALS). Both projects will be held between July 2008 and June 2011.
Updated: May 11th 2009.
