Improving Health Through
Programs That Work
Tree of Lives offers treatment to patients with HIV/AIDS through Patient and Hospital Medical Support. Through our donors’ generosity, we are able to provide programs that reach individuals with medical treatment through the Holy Family Centre, Nazareth Hospital or in the patient’s home. Some of our specific programs include:
Patient Medical Support
I. 1. Combating Infection with Information
The AIDS epidemic in Africa is primarily a heterosexual phenomenon. Ninety percent of AIDS cases occur through heterosexual transmission. Forty percent occur between husbands and wives. Cultural community problems such as promiscuity and prostitution facilitate the spread of HIV. Tree of Lives is dedicated to promoting positive cultural changes in the community through educational programs for men and women.
2. HIV Testing
Community education focuses on providing extensive communication and motivating individuals to be tested for HIV. Tree of Lives funds a vigorous HIV testing program through the Holy Family Centre, whose staff members visit farms, churches and other community centers. The tests are provided free of charge.
3. Improving the lives of those with HIV
For people who are HIV-positive, Tree of Lives supports programs specifically designed to help maintain optimal health as the individual copes with the infection. We assist with the administration of antiretroviral medication, which is provided by the Global Fund through the Kenyan government and the United States government. Antiretroviral medication enables HIV-positive individuals to keep the virus under control and continue working and caring for their families. Tree of Lives also provides funding to assist people who are too poor to purchase medications to combat opportunistic infections.
4. Small Dispensaries – Greater access to medicines
Tree of Lives supports the Holy Family Centre’s program that provides medication refills to HIV patients at various locations. Many people cannot afford to travel to Nazareth Hospital to receive medications, and a small monthly allowance of basic foods, since without nutrition the medication themselves are poorly tolerated. These packages are delivered through eight small dispensaries throughout the Nairobi area.
II. Improving Health
Since 2005, Dr. Bill Rawls, an American urologist, has traveled to Kenya to help train Dr. James Nyabanda and other doctors at Nazareth Hospital to perform prostate surgeries and treat other urological disorders that affect older men. In his three visits, Dr. Rawls has performed 80 surgeries. He and Tree of Lives have furnished Nazareth with the surgical equipment and training to continue performing these important procedures.
In 2007, Tree of Lives raised funds sufficient to create an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Nazareth Hospital. It is now possible for Nazareth to treat patients who are seriously ill and need constant care, as well as treating AIDS patients who often need a more sterile environment for surgeries. Additionally, the ICU
functions much as an recovery or emergency room does in the United States.
In 2009 and 2010, Tree of Lives underwrote two medical mission trips by US physicians and nurses to South Sudan. They provided supplies, infrastructure construction and ongoing medical training to Sudanese physicians who practice in refugee areas many miles from hospitals and basic services.
In January, 2010, Holy Family Center at Nazareth Hospital began a cervical cancer screening program. In Africa, cervical cancer is the deadliest cancer-related killer of women. HIV+ women are 10 times more likely to develop cervical cancer. A simple biopsy is now available through a gift of $12,000.00 to allow testing of women who are patients of Holy Family Centre.
III Future Projects
We continue to pray for volunteer teams within General Surgery, Ob/GYN and Pediatrics at both a newborn nursery and clinic follow up programs, to travel and fellowship with us each year
