Report “Born HIV positive” in Ivory Coast
Meeting the actors and actresses, and young people mobilized in the fight against HIV-AIDS at the Social Action Solidarity Center (CSAS) in Bouaké in Ivory Coast
Watch the report by Igor Strauss for RFI’s “Priorité santé” program, meeting the actors and actresses, and young people involved in the fight against HIV-AIDS at the Centre solidarité action sociale (CSAS) in Bouaké, Ivory Coast.
The SAS Center (Solidarity Social Action) has been active since 1995. It specializes in monitoring young people who were born HIV-positive or who contracted the disease very early, during often tragic accidents in life. Until now, there was no program for these adolescents, even though this period of life is very special, especially when you are a carrier of the virus. How are the adolescents treated and monitored? What are their backgrounds, their questions? How do they see the future?
The PRESERV project
Selected following the call for projects “Access to quality services for vulnerable populations” from L’Initiative in 2021, the “PRESERV” project is supported by the SAS Center.
The objective of “PRESERV” is to strengthen access to HIV and reproductive health services for adolescent girls and boys, infected young people and vulnerable populations, taking into account gender specificities in the regions of Bélier, Gbêkê, Hambol and Pôrô-Tchologo-Bagoué.
The project is carried out with the partners Caritas Korhogo, Napie Rural Animation (ARN), Women and Environment (FEE), Renaissance Santé Bouaké (RSB), Hope for Children (EPE) and Savane Communication (SAVCOM).
The SAS Center
The Centre for Solidarity and Social Action (CSAS) is headed by Mrs. Penda Touré. Since its creation in 1995 in Bouaké, it has been implementing the fight against HIV-AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire, first through psychological and social support for patients in the early hours of the pandemic when no treatment was available in the country, then through a fierce fight for:
- the provision of antiretrovirals to all patients who test positive;
- the popularization of a set of prevention, care and support services for PLHIV and their families.
CSAS has more than 80 permanent workers spread across its sites in Bouaké (headquarters) and Korhogo. The headquarters also offers:
- an adult care center;
- a laboratory;
- a pediatric center;
- and a kindergarten in Bouaké.
At the Korhogo branch, the center carries out its activities of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), pediatric care and psychosocial support for adults.
The multidisciplinary team is made up of social workers, counselors, doctors, data managers, nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians, secretaries, accountants, monitoring-evaluators, receptionists, pharmacy managers, logistics managers and security guards.
