Pregnant women who don’t know their HIV status or who don’t have access to treatment and care can pass the virus on to their babies during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. Approximately 390,000 babies are infected with HIV annually – the majority live in sub-Saharan Africa, where health workers often struggle to meet the health care needs of the population.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

At Dignitas International, we are training and mentoring health workers in Malawi to ensure all pregnant women are tested and offered HIV treatment for life. Known as Option B+, this treatment protocol not only prevents transmission, it also ensures mothers remain healthy so that they can care for and raise their children. As we all know, motherhood requires strength and support.

Your mother gave you the gift of life. Now you can honour her by giving another mother the chance to protect her baby from HIV.

Your donation will help mothers like 34 year-old Elita Masese and her young daughter Shaeri. Elita is an HIV-positive mother and a role model who encourages other women to seek testing.  Shaeri is a curious four year-old who loves school.  Thanks to Dignitas-supported treatment and care, Shaeri is HIV-free. 

This Mother’s Day, send an eCard to your mom telling her how a donation made in her name will mean that more babies arrive into this world HIV-free.

After nine years of service, Dignitas International’s Co-Founder James Fraser, has stepped down from his position as President and CEO to pursue other endeavours.

The Dignitas community is deeply grateful for James’s tremendous contribution and unwavering dedication to justice and equality. He will continue to inspire us as we work towards the vision of Dignitas: to ensure that everyone has access to health care, regardless of wealth, gender, or geography.

Since launching in 2004, James has been the driving force in establishing Dignitas as a leading global health organization. Dignitas has saved tens of thousands of lives and significantly strengthened the health system in Malawi. We have worked with the Malawian Ministry of Health to train and empower hundreds of health workers.  Further still, we have generated important evidence and models of care to improve health in resource-limited settings around the globe.

Dignitas is currently expanding programming in Malawi from one district to six, impacting the lives of millions more people. Working alongside the Ministry of Health, we are tackling the barriers to life-saving health care, expanding our research activities, and further testing models that can save lives.  This expansion is supported by a donor community of passionate and engaged individuals, as well as by grants from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Our successes have been achieved in no small part by James’s belief in overcoming the insurmountable, along with his ability to motivate people, humbly question what can be done better, and connect all the aspects of our work, from frontline health care and research to advocacy and policy engagement.

We salute James for all he has done to ensure Dignitas’s growth so that it can become an even greater force for good in the world, and an ever-louder voice for those whose voices are not being heard.

Dr. Michael Schull, a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and an Emergency Medicine specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, has stepped down from his role as Chair of Dignitas International’s Board of Directors to assume the role of Interim President and CEO until a replacement is found.

The staff and Board look forward to Dignitas’s continued growth as a leader in the development of global health solutions, and are committed to defending the health and dignity of the world’s most vulnerable.

So he chose a different track. Rather than compile grim death statistics, Smith traced the lives of four miners who had contracted TB and HIV while working in the mines. No longer able to work, the gravely ill men are sent home – without essential medicine and care. Three of the four have since died.

In his resulting film, They Go To Die, Smith picks up the story as the men arrive home to their South African villages, capturing intimate moments with family and friends.

Miners’ wives describe the moments they fell in love with their husbands.  After spending months coughing up blood and gasping for air, proud men explain what it’s like to recognize they’re no longer capable of providing for their families. Fathers struggle to find words for the ache they feel knowing their sons have taken up work in the mines.

The most frustrating aspect of the TB epidemic – which kills two million people each year, according to the World Health Organization – is that TB is treatable and preventable.

“There’s been an utter lack of energy and political will for patient-centered care,” Smith said.

How can we treat TB and prevent it from spreading to others? “Rather than provide pharmaceutical drugs alone, the global health community must better fund and equip community health workers,” Smith said.

Dignitas International and its African partners are developing and evaluating practical tools that make it possible for lower-level health workers to better diagnose and treat TB patients in their own communities. Right now, testing and treatment is often only available in hospitals located in urban centres.

We’re also training rural health workers and bringing in former TB patients to counsel patients on how to better adhere to treatment schedules to ensure that their TB doesn’t become resistant to drugs.

“Engaging former TB survivors as patient mentors is a huge deal. It empowers people. It shows that it’s curable,” Smith said.

Please take a moment to remember the full, loud and beautiful lives that have been lost in an epidemic so often described in silent numbers. And like Jonathan Smith and other Dignitas supporters, we encourage you to be a spark of change by sharing this story with your friends on Facebook or Twitter, and help bring attention to this global health issue.

Each June, hundreds of Dignitas International supporters take part in the heart-pumping Race For Dignity Challenge at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square.  On this day, the Square, located at one of Canada’s busiest intersections, is transformed into an outdoor cycle spinning studio.

The Race For Dignity Challenge symbolizes the fight for global health, a fight that brings together a diverse group of volunteers, health workers, researchers, and policymakers. From Canada to Malawi, we’re all cycling together – sharing ideas and innovations, giving our hearts and minds. At the Race, participants raise funds through pledges and symbolically join like-minded and passionate individuals working to tackle health care barriers,and defend the health and dignity of the world’s most vulnerable.

One such individual is Yi-Min Chun, President of the Dignitas Youth chapter at the University of Toronto – St. George Campus.  As an organizer of a satellite Race For Dignity event at her school earlier this month, she boosted her skills in advocacy and creativity as she found new ways to engage students and business leaders on the issue of global health.

“The more informed I am, even though I’m here in Canada, the more I can contribute,” she says. “One day I hope to be a doctor and work in Africa. This is the best I can do in the meantime.”

Medal-winning triathlete Scott Simpson was actually the inspiration behind the organization’s signature event.  In 2004, he set out to highlight inequities in access to HIV medications in the developing world by cycling 13,000km across the continent of Africa. Simpson’s goal: to raise funds and awareness for Dignitas’s work.  In the end, Simpson, who is HIV positive, could not embark on the journey due to health concerns. But his attempt inspired University of Toronto students to carry on his dream. They collected pledges and rode on stationary bikes on World AIDS Day in 2005, raising thousands of dollars.  Since then the Race For Dignity Challenge become an annual event and has raised more than $1.4 million for innovative health programs in Africa.

The 6^th annual Race For Dignity Challenge will be held on Sunday June 3^rd from 9am – 1:30pm.  With a new streamlined format, we invite participants, young and old, returning and new, to join us for what promises to be a fantastic day!  For the first time, teams of four will be able to spin alongside one another as they race to provide life-saving care for adults and children living in Africa.  And if you sign up before April 1^st, we’ll waive the $25 registration fee.

So let’s get moving for global health!  Register today at RaceForDignity.com.

Photo Credit: Trevor Haldenby

In fact, according to the World Health Organization, TB is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent.  People ill with TB can infect up to 10-15 other people in a year. Sufferers cough up blood, become frail and thin, and struggle to breathe.  Without proper treatment, up to two thirds of people suffering from TB will die.

TB mostly affects young adults, in their most productive years.  To treat active cases of the disease, patients are required to take several pills a day for months and need close monitoring and supervision. As a result, family members often have to stay home from work or school to care for loved ones and take them to the hospital.

Dignitas International is researching and implementing ways to integrate TB and HIV care, and to bring testing and treatment currently available in urban centres to rural communities in Africa.  Our approach will facilitate early detection and relieve caregivers and patients of the heavy financial burden related to the cost of travel. Because TB remains the leading cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, effective treatment of the co-epidemic is critical.

We’re also training frontline health workers to diagnose and treat TB, and engaging “expert patients” like Gertrude Mnthambala to counsel and support other TB patients.  Gertrude, a mother of 3 rambunctious boys, knows well how TB can destroy the body and make one feel helpless and hopeless. Gertrude has been there herself.

In 2007, Gertrude, who is HIV-positive,  fell seriously ill. “I was bedridden… I had diarrhea and vomited a lot.  People could not recognize me as I had lost weight.”  It was so bad that even family members and friends had lost hope of her recovery. Fortunately, she was treated by health workers supported by Dignitas International and eventually regained her health.

“As long as patients are detected early and take their medications, TB is treatable.  I am living proof of this,” says Gertrude.

Lack of adherence to TB drugs is a key reason for treatment failure and death. Sadly, it is often a result of poor TB treatment literacy and limited instruction on the importance of taking and continuing treatment regimens.  Trained health workers, and expert patients – who have fought TB themselves – are vital in ensuring patients regain their health and don’t infect others.

Today, millions in the developing world are currently struggle to breathe because of TB. This World TB Day, you can bring life-saving health care to people living in Africa by supporting the work of Dignitas International. Your support is greatly needed.  Please give today.

Photo Credit: Ian Brown

In African countries, pregnant women often face stigma for seeking treatment to prevent transmission of the HIV virus from mother-to-child during pregnancy, birth, or breastfeeding. When mothers find out their babies are HIV-free as a result of treatment, they often shout and dance for joy.

In 2011, the government of Malawi launched the most rigorous HIV prevention program on the African continent. The program, known as Option B+, strives to ensure that all HIV-positive pregnant women are initiated on antiretroviral treatment for life. If taken properly, treatment virtually eliminates mother-to-child transmission, and ensures that mothers remain healthy so that they can raise and care for their children.

In partnership with Malawi’s Ministry of Health, Dignitas is training and supporting health workers to test and treat pregnant women. Meanwhile, we’re empowering “expert patient” mothers to encourage pregnant women to seek testing, and to counsel those who are HIV-positive.  This approach will reduce the burden on under-resourced health workers and expand the reach of the program.  Finally, Dignitas and its local and international partners were recently awarded a major research grant to study the effectiveness of Option B+ in Malawi over the next four years.

“If the results prove that Option B+ is as successful as we expect, this study will help to provide strong evidence on innovative, community-based strategies to start, support, and retain mothers on treatment,” explains Dr. Fabian Cataldo, our Director of Research. “With the adoption of treatment as prevention, we’re one step closer to achieving an AIDS-free generation.”

How can you help?  Your support is needed in order to continue researching and implementing ways to achieve better health outcomes for mothers, children and communities. Your gift will ensure that more mothers joyfully dance when they find out their baby is HIV-free.

This Valentine’s Day, show some love with a donation to Dignitas International and help bring us closer to an AIDS-free generation.  Please give today.

Photo Credit: Jacquie Labatt

Due to severe shortages of human resources, health workers in many African countries are often undertrained and receive little mentorship. Health workers – especially those in villages and rural areas – struggle with gaps in their knowledge, long patient lines, and no support.

Along with our partners in Zomba, Malawi and in the Knowledge Translation Unit at the University of Cape Town Lung Institute, we’ve developed a toolkit known as PALM+ to address this issue.

Put simply, PALM+ is an integrated toolkit that walks health workers through a patient’s symptoms to diagnose common conditions including HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. It’s organized with images and flowcharts so that health workers can quickly look up a symptom or condition for guidance on how to treat, counsel, and/or refer patients efficiently and accurately. In partnership with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), we’ve rolled-out the toolkit and training approach in health centres across Zomba District.

We invite you to watch this video to learn more about how this innovative tool is helping to improve health care in under-resourced communities.

For Faye Richardson, our Streamlined Tools and Training Manager, what’s most exciting about the program is that trainings are conducted onsite by peer instructors who already work in the health facilities themselves.  “If someone has a question about a patient, they can approach their trainer and say ‘I’m not sure what to do’,” she explains. “They can review the guidelines together to find the answer. It’s a beautiful thing that didn’t happen before the introduction of the tool.”

Since the program began in 2010, close to 300 training sessions have been conducted for more than 500 health workers. PALM+ has given health workers new confidence. “Many health workers have told us, ‘This is going to make my job so much easier’,” says Richardson.

With support from the Government of Canada’s Africa Health Systems Initiative, Dignitas and its partners in Malawi and South Africa are currently evaluating the effectiveness of PALM+ in improving patient care and health worker satisfaction. The results of this study will help us as we refine the tool and training with a view to expanding its use within Malawi and other countries.  In fact, we’re currently planning an assessment into the usefulness of a tool like PALM+ for remote, under-resourced areas in Canada.

Help us strengthen weak health systems. Your investment will train and empower more health workers. The return? Adults and children in Malawi will receive quality treatment and care. Entire communities will be healthier and stronger.

Help us take another step towards changing the face of global health, one innovation at a time.  Please give today.

Photo Credits: Ian Brown, Barry Burciul, Jacquie Labatt.

It follows four men that were sent home due to contracting TB in the mines and left with no access to medication. Though the men in the film that did not have access to care eventually succumbed to their illnesses, the film does not focus on their death, but rather the life that has been taken away. The film follows Jonathan Smith, an American graduate student, into the homes of these African miners and their families.   The film depicts family bonds, cultural differences, and the challenges that each character faces in health and family life.  They Go to Die is ultimately a story of humanity – a celebration of family and the power of relationships. 

She uses the example of Esther*, a female patient who came to Zomba Central Hospital after testing positive in a prenatal clinic. “Because Esther was pregnant, we immediately started her on treatment so that her baby wouldn’t contract HIV,” explains Mayuni. “Fortunately enough, Esther’s husband Martin* didn’t oppose her decision.  He also later came in for the test.”

Martin, who had been very ill, was also found to be positive and was immediately started on antiretroviral treatment. Once Martin’s health rebounded, he joined the local HIV/AIDS community support group to encourage his peers to seek diagnosis and, if needed, treatment, for themselves and their children. Meanwhile, Esther’s three other children were tested; the first two were negative and the third was HIV-positive and started on medications. “As long as he continues with treatment, the child should live well into adulthood,” says Mayuni.

As we expand our operations from one to six districts in Malawi with a population of more than 3.1 million people, increasing testing and treatment of mothers-to-be is one of our key goals. Given that many poor Malawians don’t access the health system unless they are very sick, prenatal care and childbirth offers an important opportunity to not only test and treat mothers, but also their children and partners.

“When we visit rural clinics, we routinely coach staff on the importance of HIV testing and counselling, while also helping them improve treatment and care for HIV-positive patients,” explains Mayuni. Just as we know that testing mothers can start a chain reaction of testing and treatment for entire families, we also know that training health workers on the ground starts a chain reaction that leads to more effective health care.

*The names of these individuals have been changed to protect their identities.

When I learned that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria had cancelled the next round of funding, my heart sank.

As a physician and medical researcher who has lived and worked in Malawi since 2007, I see the human faces behind the financial numbers. I imagine having to tell a sick AIDS patient who is unable to work or is struggling to breathe, “Sorry the drugs that would make you healthy again are simply not available.” I imagine how my colleagues in Malawi – nurses and clinicians who have spent years working long, frantic hours to treat patients – will take the scarcely believable news.

Like many other developing countries around the world, Malawi is almost entirely dependent on donations from the Global Fund to fund drugs for HIV patients. The Global Fund is the UN-backed international financing institution that channels health aid donated by numerous countries around the world, including Canada.

The cancellation of Round 11 was caused by a ‘perfect storm’ of factors including the delayed timing of donor pledges, the reduction in investment due to devaluation of European currencies, reduced interest earnings of the Fund itself, and finally, a more cautious forecasting methodology adopted by the Global Fund to predict future income from donors.The cancellation means that while the number of people needing treatment is growing, only those currently enrolled in HIV treatment will continue to receive it. New patients will be turned away.

The cuts couldn’t have come at a worse time –  just when health workers on the ground are seeing that their efforts are paying off and we’ve begun turning a corner on the epidemic. 2011 has been a watershed year in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We learned just how important treatment is, not only to allow patients to get back to learning, farming, working, and caring for loved ones, but also to reduce the number of new infections. A recent study showed that an individual who is treated early for HIV is 96 percent less likely to pass on the virus to someone else because treatment vastly reduces the levels of the virus in the body.

Also this past year, the government of Malawi adopted a program to virtually eliminate HIV in children. The program is based on the premise that lifelong antiretroviral medication for HIV-positive, pregnant women is the most effective way to ensure children are born and stay HIV-free. Malawi’s ambitious program to reach all HIV-positive mothers with antiretroviral medication will not be possible if new patients are turned away from this life-saving treatment. Thousands of babies in Malawi alone will be born HIV-positive. Thousands of babies, at a time when we have the knowledge and resources to stop it.

What can you do?  You can encourage your MP and Prime Minister Stephen Harper to increase Canada’s investment in maternal and child health through the Global Fund.  You can urge the Canadian government to take leadership on this issue by encouraging other governments to follow suit.  You can share this article and others with your friends and family.You can stand with all of us as we fight for the millions whose life and future rests in our hands.