Turkana County, Aids Healthcare Foundation sign MoU to increase access to HIV prevention, promoting early access to antiretroviral treatment

The County Government of Turkana has entered into a strategic partnership with Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Kenya, after signing a memorandum of understanding at the County Headquarters.

The three-year MoU steered with AHF seeks to collaborate with the County to increase access to HIV testing, and prevention and promote early access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) for the residents of Turkana.

Signing on behalf of the Turkana County Government, the County Secretary, Peter Eripete said, “I assure AHF management that the County Government will advocate for strong collaborations among the national and county governments, AHF, donors, and development partners in ensuring a synergistic approach without duplication of effort and high transaction costs.”

He said the county government together with the Foundation, will oversee and monitor the prevention, care, treatment, and advocacy activities of partnership projects.

The CS hinted that for smooth implementation of projects to ensure the quality of care, the county and AHF team will jointly conduct quality assurance activities at all AHF-supported sites. This will include, he continued to say, won’t be limited to, patient file audits, commodities, and annual asset verification.

On his part, AHF-Kenya Country Program Director Dr. Sam Kinyanjui, who represented the organization at the signing event, singled out its priority; “AHF will promote care and access to HIV/AIDS treatment services by supporting the provision of free comprehensive and integrated HIV/AIDS care and treatment, including ART, Tuberculosis (TB) screening, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), Opportunistic Infections (OIs) managements and Family Planning.

While calling for the need to address retention in the health facilities, Dr Kinyanjui,
said the Foundation will work in collaboration with the County Department of Health and other stakeholders to ensure proper and regular monitoring and evaluation to improve performance and maintain high quality of services.

Present during the signing event included; Joseph Nyang’a (Deputy County Secretary), Dr Gilchrist Lokoel (Chief Officer, Medical Services), and Cathra Abdi (Chief Officer, Preventive and Promotive Health Services).

Ms. Honest Kinyua (Operations Manager), and Dr. Oliver Mito (Regional Medical Manager, all working for AHF-Kenya accompanied the Country Director