The Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project in the Dominican Republic shared its thoughts on International Women's Day and the work the remains to be done in order to achieve gender equality.
December 03, 2015
Event
On Friday, November 4, The Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project is hosting a dissemination meeting to present to key partners the findings and recommendations from an assessment of the health and social needs of trans persons in the Dominican Republic. The assessment was carried out in collaboration with the Center for Integrated Training and Research (COIN) with academic support from the Iberoamericana University (UNIBE), and the active participation of community-based organizations representing trans communities in the Dominican Republic.
The meeting will include work group sessions to encourage partners to use the assessment findings and begin planning follow up activities. Approximately 75 representatives from government, civil society, and donor agencies are expected to attend the event.
Join us as we work to integrate the needs of trans people into the national agenda.
In the Dominican Republic (DR), transgender (trans) persons experience stigma and discrimination in many different ways and are denied the same opportunities as other Dominicans. In recent years, more efforts have been directed at improving the quality of life for the trans community. However, these initiatives focus mainly on HIV prevention and treatment, ignoring the multiple socioeconomic and health needs of these marginalized individuals.
Key populations in the Dominican Republic have HIV prevalence rates that are six to twelve times higher than the national average of 0.8 percent. Although there are multiple players committed to tackling the concentrated HIV epidemic, large gaps in coverage and access to HIV prevention, care and treatment services remain.
Through a grant awarded under Advancing Partners & Communities (APC), to improve access to clinical services, retention in HIV care and treatment, and improve quality of life for people living with HIV from key populations in Santo Domingo (and other zones TBD) with a focus on FSW, TG and MSM populations based on the Abriendo Puertas pilot intervention model for female sex workers.
Patient navigators community leaders and peers are (members of key population groups and most on treatment themselves) who support linkage to care and follow up for newly diagnosed HIV individuals and provide essential counseling to strengthen treatment adherence.
At the end of March 2018, there was a 71 percent data discrepancy between pre-ART patients reported in the government’s FAPPS database (a component of the national HIV services information system) and the pre-ART patients reported after reviewing medical records at the six clinical sites supported by APC in the Dominican Republic.
Since initiation of Test and START at six APC-supported clinical sites in FY17, the average number of days from diagnosis to initiation of treatment for newly diagnosed patients dropped from 30 days to seven days by September 2017, and was further reduced to an average 3.9 days by September 2018.
March 23, 2016
Announcement
The Eastern Regional Health Services Department celebrated the reopening of the HIV Comprehensive Care Clinic at the Dr. Teófilo Hernández Hospital in El Seibo Province, Dominican Republic, on Tuesday, March 15th, 2016. Claudia Allers, Director of the Advancing Partners and Communities (APC) project in the Dominican Republic, led the ceremony with the Regional Director of Health, Dr. José Rodriguéz.
USAID implementing partners voluntarily submitted over 145 cases to this Global Call for HSS Cases website. Eligible activities included those funded by USAID Global Health Bureau, bilateral mission, or regional operating unit budgets for programs in USAID's 24 priority countries for Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths (EPCMD) countries and the PEPFAR AIDS-Free Generation (AFG) priority countries.
The Advancing Partners & Communities (APC) project in the Dominican Republic shared its thoughts on International Women's Day and the work the remains to be done in order to achieve gender equality.