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The West Africa AIDS Foundation is a registered NGO and a recognised member of the Ghanaian Network of HIV/AIDS based NGO's (GHANET). It was founded in 1998 and governed by a Board of Directors. We believe in providing education, counselling, care and support for the purpose of inducing behavioural change in the sexual norms of the populace that are known to have a high incidence of HIV/AIDS in Ghana. By respecting human dignity and diversity, the West Africa AIDS Foundation creates an atmosphere of trust, which enables people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS to make informed choices. We welcome everyone rich or poor: women, men and children; people of all sexual orientation and gender identities; and physically challenged people.

The organisation’s field of expertise is Research, Advocacy, Care and Support, The Foundation concerns itself with prevention and intervention schemes, community outreach programs, counseling and placement of HIV/AIDS clients. WAAF educates, supports and advocates for those infected, affected by and vulnerable to HIV and related conditions. We are located at 14 Continental Road, Roman Ridge, Accra, Ghana and working in partnership with Barclays Bank, Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CIDA, World Education, Ghana AIDS Commission and other development partners in Ghana and around the world.

WAAF’s corporate mission is to establish comprehensive reproductive sexual health care and outreach centers in all of the regions of Ghana, which will provide high quality health care and outreach services to identified target groups, by collaborating with our international and local partners. These centres of excellence will incorporate and utilize the very best international practice and models and serve as examples for others in the sub-region and indeed the world.

WAAF provides a wide range of services, including:

Care and support services

• Capacity building of Welfare Officers, medical personnel and peer educators.
• Free Consultation/Counselling
• Treatment of Opportunistic Infections
• Patient File Progress Monitoring
• CD4 Count Monitoring and Assessment
• Viral Load Count Monitoring and Assessment
• Infusions
• STD’s Treatment
• Pain Management
• Home Visits
• Hospice Care (At the Roman Ridge Clinic)
• Immune Booster Treatment
• Bereavement Counseling
• Referrals to a range of supportive professionals and agencies
• HIV/AIDS related workshops
• Food assistance program
• Information on healthy living
• Opportunities to socialize

HIV/AIDS education & information:

• Document and audio visual centre
• Information dissemination
• Condom promotion and distribution
• Printed documents and leaflets
• Audio Visual materials
• Posters
• Workshops and seminars
• Peer education training
• Brochure distribution

We also provide services to all individuals, organizations or businesses seeking information on HIV/AIDS and related issues, as well as an HIV/AIDS for workplace program.

WAAF specializes in voluntary counselling and testing (VCT).

Voluntary Counseling and Testing is the process whereby an individual undergoes counseling to enable him/her make an informed choice about being tested for HIV. It comprises the following:

• Individual Counseling
• Individual Counseling and HIV Testing
• STD counseling, diagnosis and treatment

Community Outreach:

• Community mobilization
• Capacity Building and Training Workshops for Teachers, Opinion Leaders in the community and women’s groups.
• Monthly prevention and awareness workshops for the community.
• Research into identifying the culture specific factors and resources that play a role in determining the peculiar needs of disadvantaged groups such as refugees and even indeed sub-groups within the group such as women and children, commercial sex workers, youth etc. The findings from this research will be extremely useful in promoting participatory processes, sustainable community support and care to PLWHA’s, peer education programmes and in promoting cultural and behavioural change through enhancing awareness, sense of responsibility, mutual respect, attachment and compassion, updating of cultural traditions and references, and mobilizing traditional knowledge and spiritual resources in response to the AIDS crisis.

Institutional Experience

Care and Support

1. WAAF has established a well-equipped Reproductive Sexual Health Clinic and Information Centre in Accra which has offered care and support and counselling services to over 1287 PLWHA’s and their families and treatment for STI’s to the general public for over 3 years.
2. On June 8 th, 2000, West Africa AIDS Foundation and International Health Care Centre hosted thirteen HIV/AIDS medical personnel from California who came to assist our Clinical Policies and procedures and in-serve to Doctor’s and Nurses. This program was televised on TV3 and published in Graphic and Times.
3. WAAF has directly supported some PLWHA’s by donating Antiretroviral medication such as Viracept, Combivir, Zirit, Epivir, Crixivan and nutritional supplements such as Life oil.
4. WAAF organized eleven- (11) sensitisation workshops on HIV/AIDS universal precautions, pain management and symptomatic care for doctors, nurses and social workers from many health care institution and social support groups.
5. Currently WAAF is treating on an out patient basis over 604 patients at its facility in Roman Ridge, of which 156 patients have been treated since November 2002, and 22 have been admitted on an in-patient basis. The evidence from the medical reports indicate that female patients outnumber male patients by 2:1, with a high proportion of them being teenagers.

Education and Prevention

WAAF organized eleven- (11) sensitisation workshops on HIV/AIDS universal precautions, pain management and symptomatic care for doctors, nurses and social workers from many health care institution and social support groups.

Since its inception, WAAF including personnel from the United States e.g. (Charles Drew University Medical Centre, Aid for AIDS Africa, Project Africa and City of Refuge have successfully organized an In-service Training program for some medical personnel in Ghana as well as social nights for People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA). Apart from assuring the PLWAs that there is life after AIDS’, the social nights also enabled Resource Persons from the US (Maurice Graham being one of them) to interact with the PLWHA’s and update them on diet, care and general living conditions.

WAAF is currently undertaking research into the landscape of HIV/AIDS trends in the country, and conducting periodic investigations into the general prevalence rates. This has led to recent discoveries of increasing numbers of HIV/AIDS infected children in the orphanages. An example being the Osu Children’s Home where 4 children were found; three infants and one three year old boy all HIV positive. The orphanage was ill equipped to handle the special needs of these children. Upsurge in the numbers of babies born at birth with HIV in some of the capital’s major Hospitals e.g. a recent discovery of 46 of 90 babies in 2001 was made at the Princess Marie Louise Hospital in Accra. These discoveries point to the recent phenomenon of Mother to Child Transmission (MTCT) in the nation, especially concentrated in high prevalence areas. WAAF is currently mobilizing resources to donate and assist such institutions with medication and its technical expertise for MTCT cases.

Preliminary research studies has been conducted by WAAF on the most recent phenomenon of Child Sex Tourism which understudies child and youth exposure to HIV/AIDS through labour participation (i.e. Child Prostitution) in the Tourism industry. Findings confirmed our suspicions that STI’s are a common occurrence among sexually active children. Continuous research will be undertaken to ascertain the underlying causes, in order to find tangible solutions to protect the health interest of children exposed to early commercial sexual exploitation.

WAAF currently has ongoing education programmes in tertiary institutions, a program dubbed “ PASSION FOR LIFE” which is a youth program specifically designed to blend the basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS with youth culture, in order to achieve effective behavioural change. The concept of “Peer educators” makes information on HIV/AIDS more mobile among youth populations. It promotes positive mindedness about life and provides guidance and the optimism that the youth need to make informative decisions and meaningful goals: hence safeguarding the health of Ghana’s future leaders. The response so far has been overwhelming. The “Passion for Life, hope for our generation….” slogan has become a fad, which has caught on like fire; and as a result WAAF receives many volunteers to be peer educators.

WAAF within the year has been hosted on various talk shows in the capital’s FM stations on issues of gender development and related issues of reproductive health, youth health, and children’s rights to health with regards to its findings on Pedo-Tourism. To that effect it generated public concern on the plight of Child prostitutes and as well generated the interest of policy-makers on issues concerning the “convention of the rights of the Child”.

WAAF advocates for Women, child and youth issues at numerous informal and formal discussions with the nation’s policy makers regarding the legalities surrounding these various social concerns.

WAAF believes that VCT is the best model for behaviour change

• April 2004, WAAF organized an HIV/AIDS Testing program in collaboration with Vital International during the Easter Soup Kitchen organized by JOY FM, as well as regular testing programmes in collaboration with the Ghana AIDS Commission.
• April 2004, school of administration , University of Ghana. WAAF was invited to participate in the Business Response to HIV/AIDS in Ghana
• Issues debated include sexual behaviour among the youth. WAAf tested around 176 students. No positive cases were registered.
• May 2004, WAAF organized the republic day VCT programme at 5 sites; Kumasi, Techiman, Sunyani, Takoradi, and Ashiaman. The programme aimed at reaching 100 people at each site as well as raising awareness of HIV/AIDS issues among the groups reached. It also encouraged people to undergo HIV testing by providing a convenient confidential service free of charge directly at their doorsteps. Issues debated included: managing HIV in the workplace, condom use, care and support, treatment for HIV/AIDS SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG THE YOUTH. Number of clients tested 432 (Men 281, women 151): 19 positive cases.
• July 2004, Aviation Center, ACCRA. VCT programmes for hairdressers and beauticians in the greater Accra region under the TOOLGUARD project. The aim was to create awareness and educate the workforce about the basics of HIV/AIDS and to keep to risk less behaviours. In all 198 people tested (Males 20, women 178). 1 positive case was registered.
• August 2004, Creat Royale,Hotel, Accra. World Bank, Ministry of Education, youth and sports sponsored workshop: Accelerating the education sectors response to HIV/AIDS. WAAF was invited by the organizers of the West Africa Sub-Regional HIV/AIDS Workshop to set up a VCT stand and to give practical demonstration to the participants and the general public. Number of clients tested 100 (56 males, 44 women). Number of positive cases 1.
• July 2004, Voluntary testing and counselling for members of St Dominic Catholic Church in Taifa ( Accra) . WAAF organized educational sessions for the church members so as to encourage more people to go through the VCT. VCT is a powerful tool to reach out to the church and is an effective behaviour change model in preventing HIV. IMPORTANTLY the church serves as an epicenter for the youth.

WAAF has ongoing HIV/AIDS Testing programmes at its facility and within the Greater Accra Region. To date WAAF has undertaken over 314 voluntary counseling and testing sessions around the Country.

Thanks to new treatments, people living with HIV/AIDS are living longer. However, this presents new challenges and costs for people living with the disease, their families and development agencies and NGOs that are working tirelessly to care for them.

• The number of Ghanaians living with HIV/AIDS is currently estimated to be not less than 4 million (HIV prevalence is 3.4%)
• According to the sentinel survey more than half of all new infections are within the eastern region.
• HIV infections have more than doubled in the last two years, whilst funding remains a problem.

WAAF’s work makes a difference in the lives of those living with HIV and AIDS. We challenge the barriers related to HIV/AIDS that individuals and groups face by providing support in instances of discrimination, informing policymakers and HIV/AIDS issues, preparing statements on HIV/AIDS related issues and building a caring community. We actively build community partnerships to enhance our work. WAAF has approximately 604 client contacts and currently maintains a caseload of around 147 clients monthly and also provides voluntary counseling and testing services for around 700 clients monthly.

Annually more than 5000 people attend presentations given by WAAF on HIV/AIDS.