PREMIER NATIONAL HIV TESTING & COUNSELING DAY
HELD IN EAST AFRICA
BY ROTARY DISTRICT
9200 & RFFA
Rotarians from 102 Rotary Clubs in the countries of Kenya and Uganda got together on April 30th, the Rotary-declared Rotarians At Work Day and did something that has never been done before in the history of Rotary – they held a nationwide HIV Testing & Counseling Day at 125 sites throughout the two countries that included wraparound health services! They called it the Rotary Family Health Day!
This one to three day event was the vision of District Governor Stephen Mwanje, District 9200 in East Africa. He engaged the support and partnership of RFFA (Rotarians For Fighting AIDS), the Rotarian Action Group led by CEO Marion Bunch. DG Stephen asked RFFA to help him obtain partners and resources to bring this event to life. He asked each Rotary Club to have ten representatives working at this event – or over 1,000 Rotary volunteers.
RFFA gained the pro bono services of its global partner, FHI (Family Health International) to help plan the overall project and to be the Primary Technical Partner in Kenya. AIDS Information Center was engaged as the Primary Technical Partner in Uganda. The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (a six year partner of RFFA) provided $100,000 in mobilization costs for this event. Rotary Clubs held fundraisers to support the event. Thirty or more other technical partners in each country provided pro bono technical/medical support for this mission. RFFA leaders and the key partners worked with the Ministry of Health in each country in planning this event.