Success Story: Sowing the Seeds of Health in Agricultural Communities
Kwesi comes from the village of Aboaboso in the Mpohor Wassa East District in the Western Region of Ghana. Most people in his district are farmers. They grow mainly cocoa and other local foodstuffs on a subsistence basis.
Even though HIV is treatable, Kwesi says he never had the courage to walk to a voluntary counseling and testing center to find out his HIV status.
“I previously believed that HIV is a killer disease that has no remedy,” he says. “Besides contracting the virus through unprotected sex with an infected person, I also thought that one could get the disease from eating with an HIV infected person and sharing a plate and spoon.”
One day, Kwesi heard that a mobile health team would visit his village to provide HIV counseling and testing. With financial support from the National Confectioners Association through the World Cocoa Foundation and technical assistance from Family Health International (FHI), the mobile health team is being deployed by a malaria and HIV integration project implemented by the Sustainable Tree Crops Program (STCP) in four cocoa-growing communities in Ghana.
The project aims to improve the overall health status of rural cocoa farmers by carrying out intensive community education and mobilization activities related to HIV/AIDS and malaria. It also seeks to leverage resources from other FHI projects and national stakeholder institutions to respond to the needs identified in the situational analysis conducted.
Before the mobile voluntary counseling and testing unit arrived, Kwesi says he and his neighbors learned about HIV/AIDS and voluntary counseling and testing (VCT). He learned that although there is no cure, treatment is available. “This motivated a lot of people—including me—to go for an HIV test,” he says. “Thanks to the FHI mobile VCT team that came to my village, I now know my HIV status. I tested negative for HIV!”
The Mpohor Wassa East District Health Management Team and a local NGO called SCMPP collaborated with FHI and STCP to carry out intensive community education and mobilization activities for a successful Mobile VCT program at Aboaboso. Given that voluntary counseling and testing can serve as an effective entry point for crucial care and treatment as well as prevention, this is just one way of contributing to improving the overall health status of rural cocoa farmers.
According to the 2000 Population and Housing Census, there are about 800 people living in this village. Out of this number, 204 (25.5 %) voluntarily tested for HIV with two testing positive. The two HIV-positive individuals have been referred for follow-up care and treatment at the district hospital. Kwesi says his lifestyle has changed noting, “I am careful of the things that could easily expose me to the HIV virus.”