“PAG-ASA’’

(A Hope and Life Group)

PROJECT ON NETWORK OF PEOPLE

LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS WITHIN
TUGUEGARAO CITY
ABBREVIATIONS.
AIDS―Acquired immune deficiency Symptoms

HIV―Human immuno deficiency virus

PMTCT―Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS.

ARV―Antiretroviral

NGO―Non Governmental Organization

Project location:
The project will be located in the City of Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley. Health
statistic for June 2017 show the number of HIV infected people has increased to
45,023 in the Philippines. The high incidence of HIV/AIDS is causing havoc within
the local community, resulting in severe economic and social problems.

THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT:

The purpose of this project is to create a network of people living with HIV/AIDS
(PLWHA) in Tuguegarao City. Shame, secrecy and fear of, or actual, social isolation
are commonly experienced by people infected by HIV/AIDS. Men become sickly and
unable to provide for their families. Women are often shunned by a husband’s family
and forced to return to their parents or supported by the mercy of friends. A
supportive group of similar PLWHA can provide a venue for openly discussing their
situation and, with the guidance of a trained facilitator, focusing their efforts on
improved self care and, hopefully, reaching out to others with a message of
HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
It is the rare PLWHA who becomes an HIV/AIDS activist. But there is security and
power in numbers. By promoting local support groups there may emerge a person or
persons to serve as positive examples of PLWHA for their communities. Their good
example may be only the benefits (weight gain, restored energy and ability to care for
children) of faithfully taking antiretroviral medications. Others may be moved to
speak either privately to individuals or publicly at a church or other HIV/AIDS
programs before groups of high-risk adolescents or young adults. Posters and
billboards can help to spread the message about HIV/AIDS, but nothing is so
powerful as a heartfelt message delivered by a PLWHA.
Individual and group counselling to promote HIV testing and the use of affordable
antiretroviral therapy (ART) is a secondary goal, as is the establishment of co-
operative links with other HIV/AIDS-related educational and support services, such as
programs for children orphaned by AIDS and the program to prevent mother to child
transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS just going on at Cagayan Valley Medical
Center.

Target groups
People living with HIV/AIDS all around Tuguegarao City.
Project Description:
(AIDS) in the Philippines has spread through different risk groups during an initial
period, started by wife inheritance, prostitute girls, poverty, sex workers, and clients,
to housewives, women in fertility age and infants. The fast spread of this virus is
contributed mainly by adverse factors of the cultural way of life and belief, especially
a switch of economic and social structure in the country from agricultural based
production to industries and breaches, which are concentrated in urban centres. This
change accelerates massive migration of rural labour into urban areas leaving their
families behind. This situation leads to disintegrations of family and community,
people become ever more individualistic and materialistic. All these factors contribute
to a fast spread of AIDS. Women have a high risk to infect the virus and spread it
further.
We will use information programs as a means of meeting and recruiting community
leaders to join in the network. By creating forums for open, facilitated discussion of
the dangers and depth of the HIV/AIDS crisis, we hope to create a climate wherein
people infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS will feel comfortable to contact one of
our speakers or counsellors about testing, advice, or support. Over time, we hope to
identify a significant number of PLHA who can embrace and profit by the support and
solidarity of participation with others in peer and support groups.
Ours is a real grassroots effort. It requires setting up and developing an effective
resource/information/networking centre. In addition to the project director and key
workers, it requires identifying leaders, elders and other people in target villages/areas
and training them to be effective outreach activists. With training and confidence
gained by speaking frequently about HIV/AIDS, some of them may help us to
establish HIV/AIDS information and networking centres in busy commercial or
religious centres.
There are no effective, comprehensive and ongoing services for PLHA outside of
major medical centres. By raising awareness of the benefits of consistent medical
attention, the use of prophylactic antibiotics, the value of antiretroviral drugs, and the
comfort to be realized by sharing experiences and feelings with similarly affected
people, we hope to create a desire for a wider network of PLHA.
Numerous religious and other NGOs have programs addressing the AIDS crisis.
None have reached effectively into this highly affected area. Thus, collaboration and
cooperation among agencies is a key starting point. Duplication of materials, efforts
and positions is wasteful and time-consuming. It will be our goal to identify and
contact all groups proposing to offer HIV/AIDS services in the target areas. We will
compare agendas and methods, evaluate outcomes achieved, and determine how to
pool resources and personnel most effectively.
Hope and Life has a valuable resource in its well-established HIV counselling
program. Several of our counsellors are accomplished teachers, group facilitators and
public speakers. We can “share” them with other agencies to build their counselling
capacity. They will also be used in individual and group counselling sessions and to
assist PLWHA in forming and facilitating support groups.
Obtaining and using affordable antiretroviral drugs is key to extending the lives of
young adult teachers, farmers and parents infected with HIV/AIDS. We know that,
when people learn of the availability of Antiretroviral drugs, they are more inclined to
be tested. Therefore, a major goal is to secure and make available affordable generic
Antiretroviral drugs, a process that is not yet achieved due to financial constrains.
World AIDS Day is a logical date for PLWHA and HIV/AIDS workers to gather to
acknowledge the reality of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines. We will plan an Annual
Assembly of PLWHA for that date, hopefully including at least one PLWHA speaker
who demonstrates living positively with HIV/AIDS.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES
1. To develop a central information center of Hope and Life located at Cagayan
Valley Medical Center for people living with HIV/aids within Tuguegarao
City
2. To develop satellite HIV/AIDS information and networking centres in towns
and villages around the area.
3. To create and sustain a network of people living with HIV/AIDS
4. To carry out public education and training programs to promote and
disseminate knowledge on HIV/AIDS, its infection, communication skills, and
develop positive attitude on care and support towards AIDS patients.
5. To help reduce pain and impacts of poor and abandoned AIDS patients by
providing medical treatment and care to the selected needy people in within
Tuguegarao City
6. To do outreach and provide counselling service to safeguard the human rights
of HIV/AIDS patients, provide community support, and building up network
of HIV/AIDS people, and cooperate with NGOs in Tuguegarao City

APPROACH.
From the experience in working with the risk groups and people living with
HIV/AIDS, Hope and Life has realized that the most effective way of prevention is an
integrated approach of the work on AIDS. This means that its work incorporates
prevention training, forming peer groups, exposure for visitors, caring of adults and
orphans/children affected by AIDS, networking people living with HIV, home visit,
counselling and co-ordination with Nation agencies and NGOs both local and
national, in a holistic manner. In all its activities, it will promote active participation
of all stakeholders.

GOAL
To reduce morbidity and mortality rate within Tuguegarao and Region 02

PURPOSE
To support and empower the affected and infected people to live positively with
HIV/AIDS and not to be infectious to others.
ACTIVITIES:
1.1― Meeting of network committee
1.2 ―Visit to local associations of people with HIV/AIDS in Tuguegarao City
1.3―Coordination with other regional and national network
1.4―Annual assembly for people with HIV/AIDS within the district to coincide
with the world AIDS Day
1.5―Training of network members on counseling(on HIV/AIDS prevention, care
and support
1.6―Training of network members on home visit.
1.7―Training of network leaders to be TOTs (trainers of trainees)
1.8―Promote income generating activities
1.9―Advocate for the cheaper ARVs availability and use.
1. 10―Care and support to the infected/affected people
1. 11―Monitoring and evaluation
1. 12―Staff development and capacity building

Description of activities
1.1 Meeting of network members
In order to effectively coordinate the network, the network committee of Tuguegarao
City willbe form. This committee meets once a month to follow up progress of all
network members and support activities of these member associations. This
committee meeting will take place not only at CVMC but also in local associations in
rotation depending on common agreement with all committee members. The
committee meeting also reviews information on human rights of people with HIV,
current situation of AIDS infection. The committee also initiates the common
activities of the network.
1.2 Visit to local associations of people with HIV/AIDS in other locations
Staff members of the network will pay two visits every month to local associations of
people with HIV/AIDS in Tuguegarao City. The visit aims at strengthening local
groups and associations giving advice, disseminating latest information, supporting
mutual aid among the members and so on.
1.3 Coordination with other regional and national networks, NGOs and other
agencies
It is very important and necessary to work closely with other agencies and
organizations. Only through this concerted effort that effective prevention will be
possible. The network will therefore work with other regional and national networks
of the people with HIV/AIDS to foster broader mutual aid among their members. This
coordination will as well as empowering them to negotiate with the government to
seek its support on resources and medicines, including its protection of human rights
of the people with HIV/AIDS. Coordination with other NGOs is also important in
sharing experience, drawing lesions and sharing of information.
1.4 Annual assembly of people with HIV/AIDS
The network will organize an annual assembly of people living with HIV/AIDS who
are members of Hope and Life and from other network associations within
Tuguegarao City. This annual assembly will be a platform for these people to share
their experience in their encounter with the deadly disease, relationship with their
family members, relatives, friends and community and to share information on
scientific development of HIV/AIDS medicines and or alternative caring. It also
serves as a platform for these people to deepen their solidarity with one another
1.5 Training of network members on counseling
Members of local associations, especially those who are new members of the Hope
and Life network, need counseling knowledge and skills to help their fellows who
share the same fate and their family members and relatives to cope up with this
reality. This skill will encourage the people with HIV/AIDS to stay home and in their
communities and live their last days with dignity. The network will invite
knowledgeable and experienced resource persons to lead the training.
1.6 Training of network members on Home visits
Hope and Life network realizes that it is important for people living with HIV/AIDS
to stay with their families at home because this is the best place for the ill fated people
to gain affection from their beloved ones. In this regard, it is necessary to promote
home visit and give counseling, mutual aid and support to these people to help them
live happily in their families and community. In the face of this need, the network will
organize training for members of local associations to develop their capacity and
skills on home visit. These home visits training will be organized once a year for
leaders and members of local association of people living with HIV/AIDS. The
training session will provide technique on how to deal with HIV/AIDS people living
at home and their family members and relatives, counseling and caring techniques and
so on.
1.7 Training of network leaders
This activity aims at developing network leaders to gain relevant capacity to operate
network. It will develop leaders with capacity in planning, project writing and report
monitoring, home visit, counseling and caring. These leaders will be the significant
human resources of Tuguegarao City network to carry on the work with people living
with HIV/AIDS.
1.8 Buyers club (Income generating activities)
At the moment, people living with HIV/AIDS become sick often and later remain
poor. We find that it is very important for the people living with HIV/AIDS to have
access to food and even to cheap medicines for opportunistic infection treatment, so
the income generating activity can be used to help in these problems.
 1.9 Project management, monitoring and evaluation
To ensure continuation of experience in the operation and management, the
network will encourage a collective management system in which all
concerned members will be encouraged and supported to take part in planning,
making decision, evaluation, sharing of experience and so on. The network
will seek assistance from a monitoring coordinator of NACC to help
coordinate and monitor the work of all programs, so that it will be able to
provide effective and efficient services, small group discussions will also be
promoted to regularly monitor its work. The annual evaluation will also help
to review its operation in the past year as well as planning for the following
year. The results of these evaluation meeting will be used for improvement of
the work in the following year with new planning. In the evaluation, the
network may invite resource persons from outside to help look at its work.
1.10 Staff development and capacity building
Network members, i.e. full times volunteers and leaders play a very significant
role in the success or failure of the work. Whether target groups will benefit
from the programs offered by the networks depends totally on the network
members. Therefore, they need ongoing development to cope up with new
issues and situations to build their capacities for the work so that their
activities will effectively and fruitfully benefit its target groups and society as
a whole. This is particularly true for other staff members who are people with
HIV. This group of network members has the high rate of turnover. Therefore
it is necessary to provide staff training to equip them with knowledge, skill
and capacity needed for their work.
The network will organise in service training three times a year. The subject
will include techniques and skills needed for their work, such as project
proposals and reporting preparation, documentation, research coordination and
cooperation, network building, monitoring and evaluation, training techniques
and so on.

EXPECTED RESULTS

Community members trained in Home based care more sensitisation to be done, IEC
(Information Education Communication), materials distributed to about 70% of the
population lasting positive behaviour change to a reasonable level. Hence HIV/AIDS
infection rate reduced PLWHA taken well care of stigma and discrimination reduced.
The spread of HIV/AIDS significantly reduced.