Abstract #144  -  Health Empowerment Through Nutrition leading the way in establishing a credible evidence base for the most appropriate nutritional support for those with HIV, TB and chronic illness in resource poor settings.
Authors:   Presenting Author:   Dr Gary Orr - Health Empowerment Through Nutrition
Additional Authors:  Dr  Geoffrey Douglas,
Aim: In this poster we outline our organisation, current projects and expected outcomes following 6 months of monitoring and evaluation of the work of an NGO in South Africa. We also outline funding streams and effective utilisation of donor funds direct to the recipients.
Method / Issue: Health Empowerment Through Nutrition (HETN) is a small and recently constituted charity in the UK, whose aim is to establish a credible evidence base for the role of nutrition in the support of those with chronic illness such as HIV and TB in resource poor settings. HETN has established a network of partnership NGOs in South Africa to assist in our projects. There is a growing body of evidence to support the role of appropriate nutrition in the adjunctive management of chronic illness in those who are nutritionally deplete. To achieve our aims, we have partnered with a South African based food manufacturer who has pioneered a novel and African solution for nutritional support using whole grain cereal fortified with advanced food-chelate technology that provides greater bioavailability of nutritional resources. The increased bioavailability of this form of nutritional support ensures greater bioefficacy of feeding programmes. We have established a simple mechanism for the monitoring and evaluation of our projects, and we will be able to report on our initial 6 month data for AIDS IMPACT in September 2009.
Results / Comments: Current Projects: Alexandra Creche and home based Feeding Scheme in Gauteng in partnership with the Society of St Vincent de Paul: We deliver nutritional support to 1800 cr�che children, many of whom are OVCs. We also support a home based feeding scheme of 250 adults who are HIV positive, and many are co-infected with TB. Initial monitoring and evaluation has shown an improvement in nutritional assessments from baseline, and reported subjective improvements in the state of alertness and interaction of the children. We will be able to report on 6 month data in September. Home based family feeding scheme in partnership with the South African National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA): We deliver nutritional support to 2000 home based individuals with TB, and co-infection with HIV. Initial results show an increase in TB cure rates at 6 months from 54% to 78%. These initial results will allow this project to move to long term sustainable feeding support. Sefikeng Primary School feeding scheme in association with the Rotary Club of Morningside: We deliver nutritional support to 350 school age children. A monitoring and evaluation process includes assessment of educational achievement as well as nutritional assessment similar to other projects.
Discussion: Our Funding Processes: To date we are funded by a combination of small donor funding from the public and regular dual donor philanthropic support in the UK. We are a small organisation with limited executive & infrastructure costs which enables us to maximise donor support for our projects in South Africa. Our current feeding projects cost �5000 per month, which is expected to rise to �7500 per month as we take on new projects.
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