Thank you to The Make A Difference Trust for their generous donation
We are delighted to report that we have received a significant grant from the Theatre Make A Difference Trust—aiming to fight HIV and AIDS one stage at a time—which will go towards our Medical Centre, part of our Community Centre building project.
Now… we are nearer our goal of having the funds to build our Community Centre
As well having the Clinic, this Centre will have a community hall and conference centre — a highly adaptable area with meeting rooms and study areas. Also an accommodation block & a cafe. We will then build an Arts & Skills Centre. As well as helping the community, this project will provide us with a hub for our charity’s various activities. The children will have an after-school study space, and a computer centre.
Our Adult Learning Groups will no longer have to meet under a tree! Our Self Help Women’s Micro-finance Groups will have a home and our school leaver students will be able to learn skills and crafts for getting them employment, which is the goal of our Educational Programme.
Joyful Noise Choir is an inclusive, peer support group made up entirely of people living with HIV. It not only serves as a community for HIV-positive individuals, but as an uplifting and inspiring tool to help end the stigma associated with HIV.
Joyful Noise Choir is open to anyone living with HIV and offers multiple opportunities to connect with others and raise awareness, including practices, workshops and public performances. The choir also is open to individuals who wish to keep their HIV status confidential.
Liverpool Community Collaborative: Make a Difference Trust enables the creation of an innovative partnership project in Liverpool.
The Make a Difference Trust has contributed to the funding of an incredibly exciting new project to take collaboration between specialist HIV community nurses and the voluntary sector to a new level. In times of intense pressure on resources this is a new way of working that prioritises the most at risk clients and tailors services to their needs, to help them on the road to a better life with HIV.
The collaborative approach will see specialist nurses and support workers teaming up to deliver services to people in their homes or community settings. It will particularly target those people who fall off the radar of hospital based clinics. Homeless people, those with problematic drug use and those unable to attend clinic for other reasons, such as severe mental health issues, face many more challenges managing their HIV and general health, when compared with peers. The funding from Make a Difference Trust will help the partnership understand their individual needs and take practical steps to make life better from people from these groups.
Sahir House has been providing information and support for people living with HIV in Merseyside and North Cheshire for over 30 years. This year the charity has been shortlisted for a GlaxoSmithKlein Impact Award. The Liverpool HIV Community Nursing Team has been in existence for a similar length of time and has recently been shortlisted for (won?) a Care Innovation Award.
The Ahero Project is helping a minimum of 75 HIV/AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC’s) from poor households, aged between 2-5 years per year to receive structured, age appropriate care, including a nutrition programme where the children will be provided with food every day, which aids with the learning process.
The Early Childhood Development Centre based in Kisumu County, Kenya provides pre-primary level education to 79 HIV/AIDS Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) aged between 2-5 years from the Ahero Ward. It now has 3 operational classrooms which are fully equipped with educational toys and the children attending get 2 wholesome meals a day. In the next 6 months AIDS Orphan will be building a further two classrooms. By May 2019, after more enrollment, the school will be catering for 120 children.
Through this support the children will be better placed to enter government primary school education on an equal footing, thus improving the longer term prospects of remaining in the education system and providing greater life choices into adulthood.
‘Aids Orphan is delighted to have the support of MAD to help us realise our dream of creating a new Early Childhood Development Centre in a place called Ahero in Kenya. We are working with some of the poorest and marginalised children who are infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.’
Ian Govendir CEO and Founder 2018
Early childhood development in Kisumu, Kenya Phyllis is the Mother of Ben
Phyllis, 3-year-old son Ben and his sister are all HIV+ they obtain all their medications from the government hospital every two months. According to his mother, Ben’s life has changed since he started attending the ECD and is a beneficiary of the feeding programme. He is being educated and is able to speak well and identify various body parts and letters. Ben acquired his uniform from one of the mentors from his mother’s hospital support group, his included the uniform, socks and shoes but no sweater. Phyllis has been told a sweater costs 600/- (£5 approx.), which is very challenging for her to save. Phyllis has a total of five children, in addition to, caring for her husband’s first children as a result of their mother dying of cervical cancer in 2008. These children attend the local primary and secondary school. Her second husband died of AIDS as a result from stopping his medication.
Phyllis finds caring for so many children highly demanding, especially, with trying to obtain enough food to feed the whole family. Her income is sourced from working on local rice farms, selling firewood and making charcoal. In addition, her challenges stem from the discrimination she encounters everyday due to her HIV status, as there remains a high level of stigma within the village. Ben, although taking medication, still suffers from severe headaches, convulsions and high fevers. After losing his father, Ben, at only 3 years is aware about the benefits of the medication, that he continues to remind his mother to take his and her medications every night. Ben’s mother was in disbelief when the Early Childhood Development center started and is overjoyed with the support it offers the children. She believes it allows the children to strive to succeed. Ben is fascinated with aeroplanes and aspires to be a pilot when he is older.
Happy children means happy mothers
Angelina is a 30-year-old mother, married at 15, she has seven children aged between 16 and 15 months. Her husband was killed, leaving her solely responsible over the whole family. Angelina and her 3-year-old daughter, Daisy, are both HIV+ Daisy attends the ECD and is doing extremely well. With the responsibility of raising 7 children, which can be economically draining, Angelina is relieved that Daisy is being taken care of and supported educationally.
Peter & Adam
Brothers Peter (9) and Adam (7) were found in the care of their sickly grandfather after their mother died of AIDS and their father was sent to prison. They were living in abject poverty, both of them malnourished and crawling with lice. The boys had never been to school and only spoke their mother tongue (Meru) so they were initially admitted to the reception class. They have progressed in leaps and bounds! They’re receiving medical treatment, eating three decent meals a day and their health is improving dramatically. With AiDS Orphan’s help, they now both attend school and are properly cared for at our Neema Rescue House.
Lulu Lulu (14) was born in the Kibera slum and orphaned at just 6 years old. Due to desperate poverty, she was unable to access HIV medication and continually suffered from Bronchitis, Pneumonia, and TB. Sadly she developed deafness early in life after having contracted meningitis, yet another challenge for this little girl.
With AiDS Orphan’s support, Lulu now lives happily with the other children at Neema Rescue House. We support her school fees, food, access to medication and help with the extra challenges her disability brings about. Lulu excels academically. Not only is she top of her class, she also sits in the top 5% of academic achievers for the whole of Kenya!
Grandmother cares for 7 grandchildren due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Mary who had succumbed to the ravages of HIV/AIDS, is a grandmother of 7 children who she is raising as her own. She has a small holding and a house in the village of Ahero. One of her grandchildren shown below is registered at the newly established ECD. I met Mary on my initial visit to the project 2 years ago and was impressed with how she was coping and providing for all of the children. While she tries her best, it is a real challenge for her to feed the hungry mouths and she is really only a substance farmer. The CBO (Community based organisation) has helped her establish her crops and has installed a water harvesting system which helps her water her crops when the rainy season stops.
Kisumu county is a region where there is either severe drought or flooding. At this particular moment in time the region is beleaguered by flooding and because of this many, crops are ruined.
When the ECD started earlier this year, Jimmy, her 4-year-old grandson who is also HIV + came to the school and was suffering from a distended stomach which is a sign of severe malnutrition.
He was not very attentive at first but with a bit of love and attention he was given 2 meals a day and has been encouraged to interact with other children and is now learning to play with toys and be more vocal.
As a result of the feeding programme at the ECD, Jimmy is no longer malnourished and his life transformed through the rare opportunity of learning at this early age.
“The MAD Trust has really made a difference for the Crescent. It has enabled us to supply a consistent counselling service to people who greatly need that service.”
“Thanks to the MAD Trust, we at the Crescent can guarantee our vital counselling service for the whole of the next year.”
The Crescent Support Group is a registered charity (no. 1003547) providing holistic support both by and for those affected by HIV/AIDS. We are a member-led organisation based in St Albans serving clients in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and sometimes from further afield. The charity has been serving the HIV positive community for nearly 30 years. Many of our volunteers are current or former clients, and several of our trustees are people living with or affected by HIV. Because of this and our long experience as a charity we are able to provide services that are tailored specifically to the needs of the individuals we serve.
In addition to the support we provide to our members and their families, we promote and undertake testing facilities and assist with the delivery of HIV-specific and wider sexual health education in schools and colleges as well as promoting public awareness of HIV-related issues. Since losing our previous contract funding in the local authority spending cuts of 2010/11, the Crescent has survived through the hard work of our two phenomenally committed and indefatigable staff members, our volunteers and the generous financial support of charities and concerned individuals. It is vital that we continue providing support to this disadvantaged and hugely under-represented community.
The Crescent Support Group Extended Counselling Project Summary
A significant proportion of our members (the people living with HIV who depend upon us for support) present with or (sometimes) subsequently develop mental health issues. Our experience is that they benefit greatly from counselling sessions with high quality professional counsellors deeply familiar with this area of work. We also find that counselling can help partners and family supporters who are struggling to come to terms with a loved one’s HIV diagnosis. In some cases, counselling needs to be both intensive and long term. As a general proposition, appropriate counselling of a sufficient quality is rarely available through the NHS or Social Services.
The Crescent has supplied a high quality counselling service for many years. We are, however, an unfunded organisation largely dependent upon the support of private donors and charitable trusts. The extent of the counselling service we have been able to supply has constantly been constrained by budgetary limitations and we have been forced to suspend the service from time to time when funds have been tight. In short, the demand for this vital service has outstripped our financial resources.
The Extended Counselling project made possible by the financial support we are receiving from the Make a Difference Trust and Herts Community Foundation will enable us to supply a sustained and dependable counselling service to all our members who need it and to take in new members in need of support from a counsellor in the certain knowledge that we will be able, for the next 12 months, to supply this key service in a comprehensive manner and without interruption.
If you are living with HIV and working in the theatre industry Make a Difference Trust and Positively UK offer a new peer support service.
If you have just found out that you are HIV positive, you may feel overwhelmed, fearful and alone. We want you to know that you are far from alone.
If you are living with HIV you may need help managing treatments, dealing with sex and relationships, feeling better about yourself, or you may just want someone to talk to – this new service could be for you. And because all our support staff and mentors are living with HIV, we probably know what you’re going through because we’ve been there too.
We are offering one-to-one and group support and the opportunity to take part in social events around central London.
New app created by experts at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
to support people living with HIV
BeYou+ is an innovative new mobile app providing specific, reliable and accessible information for people living with HIV, to support self-management, quality of life and well-being. BeYou+ enables users to focus on being healthy, living well and achieving personal goals.
The app was invented by Darren Brown, a Specialist Physiotherapist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, with content provided by HIV experts from across the HIV service including Kobler Clinic, 56 Dean Street, John Hunter Clinic, 10 Hammersmith Broadway, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. BeYou+ was funded and developed by hospital charity CW+ together with their technology partner Imagineear.
BeYou+ is separated into three sections – body, mind and life. Each section provides helpful advice, guidance and information specific to the user’s requirements. The app also provides practical tools to help users manage their health by setting personalised goals, inputting health and medication information, setting reminders that sync with their calendar and much more. Users are sent daily reminders to support achieving personal goals and receive rewards when achieving these. The app secures patient confidentiality with users creating a personalised four-digit passcode to access the app. All data is stored on the device and not shared with anyone else.
Darren says: “I am delighted that people living with HIV are now able to use this app to focus on being healthy, living well and achieving personalised goals. To have specific, reliable, up-to-date information provided in a convenient and accessible way, means users can access what they need, when they want it, with the aim to improve self-management skills, quality of life and general well-being. I am passionate about my work and the people I work with on a daily basis, so I am really excited that my idea has been transformed into BeYou+”.
BeYou+ was funded through an initiative between CW+ and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, called the Enterprising Health Partnership. This initiative funds and supports innovative ideas from hospital staff which will make a real difference to patients’ lives and which generate revenue or real cost savings for the hospital.
BeYou+ is now available to download on Apple and Android devices.
CW+ is the charity for Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. We exist to make care better for patients and their families.
From our base at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital we bring together pioneering research, innovation, art and design to transform the experience and outcomes for thousands of people every day – in our hospital, in the wider community and internationally.
We do this by:
Raising funds for education, training and ground-breaking research to identify new life saving treatments and illness prevention for babies, children and adults.
Delivering an award-winning art and design programme to transform the hospital environment and experience for patients, families, volunteers and staff.
Investing in financially sustainable innovations, facilities and technologies which improve clinical outcomes for patients.
About Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust runs two main hospitals:
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
West Middlesex University Hospital
We also offer a range of community-based services, including our award-winning sexual health and HIV clinics across London. With 5,000 staff caring for nearly one million people locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, we provide a range a specialist clinical services as well as general hospital services for people living locally, which include A&E and maternity at both our hospital sites.
Our ambition is to lead the NHS with world-class, patient-focused healthcare delivered locally.
Imagineear is a leading provider of multimedia content and technology solutions. We design and produce multilingual content, which we often integrate with existing archive materials, as well as live audio. We publish to smartphones, and to smart devices on-site, working with sports venues, cultural sites and the healthcare sector. In London and Amsterdam, we have experienced content, hardware, software and data solutions teams. Our goal is to help our clients deliver exceptional value and memorable experiences to their visitors, both on- and off-site.
Re:Assure Women’s Project is a specialists programme that is targeted to, and tailored for, HIV positive women who are in crisis and have experienced, or are living in, environments of domestic violence, are survivors of abuse and severe trauma, e.g. rape and forced marriage and those who are refugees or asylum seekers. All of whom are considered at higher risk of poor mental health, lower ART adherence, lower rates of accessing services, severe isolation and are at increased susceptibility to future and continued abuse.
Primary activities include: one-to-one psychological therapy, peer support, group support, and workshops. Through these activities, Re:Assure is able to build women’s independence, self-esteem and confidence to live well with HIV free from violence and abuse. The project provides opportunities to: develop the tools required to overcome past trauma and abuse and addresses fear, stigma and shame; increase understanding of HIV and the practicalities of sexual relationships and their rights under law; increase knowledge regarding domestic violence, the different forms it can take and how it can make someone feel; develop feelings of empowerment to leave abusive relationships and confidence to manage future relationships.
Over a year, 150 women will participate in, and benefit from Re:Assure.
Positive East
We are London’s leading community-based HIV charity, providing better futures for people living with HIV or affected by HIV. We do instant HIV tests in more places than anyone else.
We have a wide range of practical and complementary services for people living with HIV. These include individual counselling and advice sessions, support groups, help getting your correct benefit entitlements as well as courses, information and various free services. Working in partnership with other HIV charities and health care professionals in London, we will always signpost you to who can help you the best.
About Us
Positive East has been on the forefront of HIV service and care for over 25 years; supporting people from point of HIV diagnosis to longer term care. Guided by our mission – to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities affected by HIV – we have developed a holistic range of health and wellbeing programmes from counselling to workshops to HIV testing and prevention.
All activities aim to increase wellbeing, self-esteem, community integration, confidence, medical adherence and optimism and make a direct and tangible impact in the lives of people living with HIV. In total, we provide direct support to 4,000 people through service provision and HIV testing every year.
Living well with HIV
For most people who are diagnosed before the virus has done too much damage to your immune system (and if you think you might have been exposed to HIV but aren’t sure, come and get a free test) your life expectancy will probably not be any less than it would have been anyway. Providing you take your medication when you should (Doctors refer to this as ‘adherence’) you should be able to live well with HIV for the rest of your life.
This in itself presents lots of challenges, not least accepting a new reality and getting others to accept it too.
Over 10,000 people in London don’t know they are HIV positive. Get a free HIV test HERE
Our vision is a society where everyone can make positive choices about their own sexual health and wellbeing.
Every year we answer thousands of questions about sexual health through our website and publications. We help parents talk to their children about growing up, support health professionals, campaign for better sexual health services and fight for the rights of all young people to have high-quality relationships and sex education.
Vision and mission statements
Our mission is to champion people’s right to sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing through advocacy, campaigning, education and information.
Our values:
• FPA values integrity, equality and diversity.
• FPA values open and honest communication.
• FPA values high quality and innovation in everything we do.
Background
FPA was part of an instrumental movement pioneering the rights of women and men to have the freedom to control their fertility through contraception. In 1930 we set up the National Birth Control Council with 20 family planning clinics ‘so that married people may space or limit their families and thus mitigate the evils of ill-health and poverty’.
Since then, FPA has contributed significantly to a social and sexual revolution which has changed and improved the lives of millions, including securing free contraception provision through the NHS since 1974. In 2013, sexual and reproductive health services in England experienced significant change with the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 transferring responsibility for public health to local authorities. We now operate in an environment in which funding has been significantly reduced. Following the success of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy, there is also less of a policy focus on sexual and reproductive health, while the underlying threat to the abortion rights continues. In Northern Ireland, abortion continues to be legal in only very particular circumstances.
Sex and relationships education (SRE) is still not statutory in all schools and we continue to live in a society that can be embarrassed to talk openly about sex. Communicating information is a core aspect of our work. We have worked with the Department of Health, and more recently with Public Health England, to provide a comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information service to the public and professionals. The government digital-first approach has had a significant impact on the way we distribute information. As we embrace digital transformation we aim to continue as the leading provider of sexual and reproductive health information and ensure that no one is excluded from receiving high-quality information. As one of the leading sexual health charities in the UK we work for sexual and reproductive health and rights for people of all ages, encompassing contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), pregnancy choices including abortion, sex and relationships education (SRE), sexuality, sexual wellbeing and pleasure.
This reflects the principles of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) Declaration of Sexual Rights, which states that having sexual rights adds to the freedom, equality and dignity of all people. FPA is the UK Member Association of IPPF.
Our work is underpinned by the principle that all citizens in the UK have the right to access high-quality information, education, and sexual and reproductive health services without prejudice.
NLTSG provides support to people in the UK who have been living with HIV and AIDS for five or more years. Founded in 1992 and incorporated as a charity in 1994, at a time when reaching five years with an HIV diagnosis was a significant milestone, the organisation remains as relevant today as it was back in the early 1990s; people may be living longer and with better health, but issues around stigma, isolation, relationships and many others remain the same.
The main activity of NLTSG is the organising of the “Living Proof” weekend retreats. The weekends provide a safe, relaxed place to meet other people who have also been living with HIV for five or more years. The weekend retreats for long-term survivors are very relaxed and those attending can choose how much, or how little, they take part in the organised activities during the weekend. The “Living Proof” weekend retreats cost £170 per person. This covers the cost of the accommodation and all meals, as well as contributing to the cost of the facilitators, complementary therapists and the running of the organisation. They currently hold funding, including a grant from The Make A Difference Trust, which means that they can subsidise the cost of the weekend so that everyone only needs to pay £95.
At the end of each weekend they ask all who have attended to complete an evaluation form. This allows them to assess what they are doing well, and what they could be better.
The final question on the evaluation form asks people to sum up the weekend in one sentence. Some of the comments include:
A fulfilling weekend of enjoyment and love
Emotional and empowering
Enjoyable, relaxing, informative
Excellent weekend for support and meeting like-minded people
