Accelerating Progress in Communities (APC 2.0) in Botswana works with people living with HIV to increase access to care and treatment services as close to their homes, schools and workplaces as possible. APC 2.0 helps to ensure that people living with HIV remain in long-term care and treatment with the support of their families, peers and existing community health systems. In addition, the project supports HIV and gender-based violence (GBV) prevention activities.
APC 2.0 is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and partners with the Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Program (BOCAIP), the Botswana Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Support Centre (BGBVC), Humana People to People (HPP), Letloa Trust — Kuru Health and Tebelopele. APC 2.0 is committed to supporting the Government of Botswana in the implementation of the third National Strategic Framework for HIV (2018-2023).
The project continues the work of Advancing Partners and Communities (APC) in Botswana and uses the earlier project’s community health worker model to:
- Provide HIV testing services in the community, specifically index and self-testing
- Locate people living with HIV who are not enrolled in a care and treatment program and link them to treatment
- Locate previously enrolled patients who have difficulty taking medication and support them in adhering to treatment
- Ensure that people living with HIV stay in care and are healthy
- Address harmful gender norms and practices that expose or pose barriers to accessing HIV services
Activities include:
- Implementing differentiated models of care to provide client-centered HIV treatment services and promoting client treatment adherence and retention
- Using social media and other digital means to create demand and link adolescent girls and young women with HIV prevention and support services
- Using youth-friendly clinics to provide HIV prevention services such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other sexual and reproductive health services to adolescent girls and young women and their partners
- Integrating noncommunicable diseases screening and diagnosis, such as hypertension and diabetes, into facility-based HIV testing services
- Providing tuberculosis treatment in public and private facilities, especially in rural communities
- Providing capacity strengthening for local partners to effectively implement U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programs
