Linking Lives is the sole funder of a pilot project to train and fund salaries for experienced AIDS patients to serve as a service link between the community and hospital staff to ensure the highest quality treatment and care.  Partnering with Hiwot HIV/AIDS Prevention Care & Support Organization (HAPCSO) has allowed us fund this pilot project to support the poorest AIDS patients in Addis Ababa. 

An Expert Patient is a member of the community who has successfully entered and maintained treatment for AIDS.  10 Expert Patients have successfully completed training in HIV/AIDS hospital and community social support.  They work at ALERT Hospital and in the surrounding community, one of the poorest neighborhoods of Addis Ababa.  Each of them averages 2 days per week in the hospital and 3 days per week in the community.

The Expert Patient Pilot Program has been an outstanding success in facilitating patient participation in HIV/AIDS care and treatment at ALERT Hospital and in the surrounding community.  Hospital Director, Dr Yigeremu, County Representative for Clinton Foundation especially commended the Expert Patients for their assistance with hospital admissions processes, clinic operations, and for providing patient education.  The Ministry of Health is evaluating the Expert Patient pilot project and considering expanding the service throughout the country.

Some quotes from the Expert Patients:

 “People are frightened.  They don’t know what to do.  They come to the ALERT hospital clinic, thinking they have malaria or some other such disease, only to find that they have HIV/AIDS.  They are afraid and some of them are very ill.  They are confused and it is hard to understand what they must do.  We take them by the hand and help them through the hospital offices to find the medication they need or admit them to the hospital until they are ready to go home.”

“If the Expert Patient is not in the clinic, the patient is overwhelmed.  It is hard for them to decide what to do.  We can help them understand that they can be healthy, even if they are HIV positive.”

“Sometimes a patient is discouraged from taking the HIV therapy because the family is ashamed.  There is still a lot of stigma in the community.  We help the whole family to understand that HIV is a disease, not a death sentence, and that the medication can help the patient to lead healthy lives.”

Expert Patients have unique experience and provide support and hope as no one else can.

Linking Lives is the only nonprofit working in Ethiopia with a focus on alcoholism, substance abuse and treatment. Linking Lives has been involved in capacity building of these treatment centers providing personnel, training, and literature.

Linking Lives will bring the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Addis Abada University, to the Lifetime Recovery Center in San Antonio, Texas in December for hands on training. In addition, trained personnel will be sent from the USA to Ethiopia to assist in the development of curriculum and training of staff.

In Ethiopia, most women have a lifetime of poor nutrition and no access to reproductive health care.  As a result, many have obstructed labors that result in torn bladders and colons.  If not repaired, these tears will leak for the rest of their lives and they will remain ostracized by their own communities.  The Trampled Rose provides lodging, meals, education and patient advocacy for women while they await surgery to repair obstetric fistula. These patients range in age from 17 to 50 and have lost everything.  They suffer alone with the stigma of this disease.  But there is now hope for them. 

Linking Lives funds a Project Manager who will assist patients in their recovery as well as prepare them to live in community and earn a living.  Over 500  women have been helped in just a few years.