Texas Children's Global Health Baylor Foundation Eswatini

Baylor Foundation Eswatini collaborates with UNICEF to strengthen HIV prevention, treatment and care for children and adolescents in Eswatini. Several interventions have been initiated to ensure children and adolescents receive the clinical and psychosocial support they need to reach viral load suppression and have a positive health outcome. The program provides “in-reach” services, whereby we visited children and adolescents who had defaulted treatment or were lost- to-follow-up at their respective homes for assessment to explore options to bring them back on treatment. Social workers conducted 303 home visits over the past year. The clinic continually encourages teen club members to adhere to their medication and fully live healthy lives through fun, themed lessons. Teen Club enrolls at least 393 young people each month.

Baylor Foundation Eswatini has established a ground-breaking initiative known as ‘Baby Club’, a support group for HIV-positive mothers with their HIV-positive babies under the age of three. Baby Club provides psychosocial support to caregivers, fostering a climate of developmental play that will allow these children to thrive. Mother-baby pairs come together monthly for support, education and fun at our clinics. Since its inception in June 2017, the attendance of mother-baby pairs has been steadily increasing from 10 at the initial meetings to 59 pairs today. We have since rolled-out this initiative to our satellite clinics in Manzini and Hlathikhulu.

In 2019 we established Teen Mom Club, a new support group for HIV-positive pregnant and lactating teenage mothers. The support group sessions are facilitated by a mentor mother who handles the logistics of toy movement between sites, calls mothers who are late for their clinic appointments, helps form relationships with the teen mothers and also conducts home visits for those who have defaulted treatment. The ultimate goal is to support pregnant and lactating teen mothers to ensure viral suppression, prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and financial independence through building on income generating skills.

Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation has funded a new project to raise cancer awareness and lay the groundwork for better cancer prevention and treatment in Eswatini. In May 2019, Baylor Foundation Eswatini as a consortium leader, received funds to sensitize key stakeholders on cancer, create community cancer awareness among individuals, screen patients for breast and cervical cancer and vaccinate eligible adolescents aged 9-14 years with the HPV vaccine. In addition, women are able to receive treatment for precancerous lesions.

Due to the aggressive community cancer screening and buy-in from community gatekeepers and the Ministry of Health, the project has been able to conduct outreaches in the targeted areas, community clinics, individual organizations and church gatherings. We have surpassed all the screening targets within a year of implementation (a total of 12,745 patients). In addition, community members appreciate the integrated approach for cancer screenings along with screenings and treatment for other non-communicable diseases. 

Baylor Foundation Eswatini solicited funding to implement a community-based TB contact management project with linkages to healthcare services for enhanced diagnostics. The project is known as Vikela Ekhaya, which means TB Prevention at Home. This household TB contact management program identifies people with recent household exposure to TB through community-based clinical evaluation and prompt diagnoses of people with TB. It supports the activities of community Active Case Finders, a cadre recruited by the Ministry of Health working in the communities to screen for TB in those in contact of active TB cases. It also focuses on the capacity building of healthcare workers to collect pediatric TB samples to evaluate TB/HIV cases and to provide TB preventative therapy.