US & Africa Partnerships for HIV - Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation

Approximately 23.5 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV — more than two-thirds of the global HIV burden. Ninety percent of children worldwide living with HIV are born in this region. Through our partners, we are helping to bridge the gap in HIV treatment and support disparities in Africa.

Secure the Future

Care and support for patients in Africa fighting serious diseases

Since 1999, our SECURE THE FUTURE® initiative has been working with our partners in Africa to provide care and support for communities affected by HIV. This initiative is also expanding our work in HIV, tuberculosis, non-communicable diseases and AIDS-related cancers in sub-Saharan Africa.

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HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

Since 1999, the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation’s SECURE THE FUTURE® initiative has been working with partners in Africa to provide care and support for communities affected by HIV. Over the past 15 years, SECURE THE FUTURE has invested more than $180 million to support more than 240 programs in 22 African countries, with special emphasis on community treatment support programs, care for children and building healthcare infrastructure.

Working with the Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative at the Baylor College of Medicine and with governments in sub-Saharan Africa, the Foundation helped establish five Children’s Clinical Centers of Excellence in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Uganda and Tanzania, a network of eight satellite clinics and a Pediatric AIDS Corps of pediatricians and specialists. More than 275,000 children are receiving care through this network.

Now operating as a technical assistance and skills transfer program, SECURE THE FUTURE focuses on harnessing and strengthening community-based resources and building capacity to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of community outreach programs.

The Foundation also is collaborating with prestigious partners such as the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the President's Emergency Program on AIDS Relief and the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon initiative of the George W. Bush Institute among others to leverage the legacy and infrastructure of SECURE THE FUTURE in Africa to help HIV patients who are co-infected with tuberculosis or who may be at risk of developing cervical or breast cancers.

HIV in the U.S.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 1,201,100 persons ages 13 years and older are living with HIV in the U.S. The impact of HIV infection and AIDS is disproportionately higher for racial and ethnic minorities and people of lower income and education levels. Among the diagnoses of new infections in 2010, African Americans represented 44% even though they constitute only 14% of the population, and Hispanics represented 21% even though they constitute only 17% of the population. In addition, prevalence of HIV is less than 1% in the general population, but 2.1% in urban poverty areas.

AIDS-related deaths occur when people who are infected do not receive the testing, treatment and care they need. Treatment can help people with HIV live longer, healthier lives and also greatly reduces the chances of passing HIV on to others. Although access to care has improved, African Americans, Hispanics, women and uninsured people with HIV remain less likely to have access to care and less likely to have optimal patterns of care. Of the total population living with HIV, only 66% are linked to care upon diagnosis, 37% are retained in care, 33% are prescribed antiretrovirals and 25% are virally suppressed, which is a key to preventing HIV transmission and living longer with the infection.

HIV Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Africaid Zvandiri

Africaid Zvandiri was granted $156,250 over 24 months to help improve linkage and retention, adherence, disclosure and mental health among adolescents with HIV in rural Zimbabwe for 1000 adolescents and young people. (Read More)

Bambisanani South Africa

The Bambisanani Project received $120,000 over two years to strengthen HIV and tuberculosis (TB) awareness in rural communities in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa to reduce the incidence and spread of the two diseases, and to improve collection and reporting mechanisms for data disseminated to the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and World Health Organization’s ENGAGE-TB collaboration. (Read More)

Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS)

Our BMS Foundation will grant $203,148 to help this project determine the magnitude of co-morbidity of HIV and cancer among the elderly through community-based studies by CUHAS medical students in Shinyanga, a rural region of Tanzania. (Read More)

Community Health Access Program (CHAP)

Community Health Access Program (CHAP) was granted $528,466 over a period of three years to help reduce breast and cervical cancer and to provide support to pediatric TB activities in various Kenyan counties. (Read More)

Consortium of Christian Relief & Development Association (CCRDA), Ethiopia

Our Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will grant $223,098 over 24 months to enhance development effectiveness and professional competence of the civil societies in Ethiopia. This project will build upon the BMSF NGO Training Institute (NGOTI) Program in Ethiopia. (Read More)

CORDAID: EFCI Partnership

CORDAID: EFCI Partnership was granted $400,000 over a period of two years to help reduce the mortality and morbidity from breast and cervical cancer in selected Ethiopian districts. (Read More)

Doctors With Africa (CUAMM-Ethiopia)

Doctors With Africa (CUAMM-Ethiopia) has received a $688,071 grant over three years to help prevent cervical cancer in selected areas in Ethiopia. This will be accomplished by screening and treating early lesions, integrating awareness and education, and strengthening and leveraging HIV, TB and Viral Hepatitis services. (Read More)

Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT)

Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT) received $116,976 over 18 months to strengthen the community-based Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission program and referral systems in Zimbabwe by building on platforms created through prior grants from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation. The primary focus will be on HIV prevention among future parents and will be linked to HIV prevention programs in place. (Read More)

Forum for African Women Educationalist Swaziland Chapter (FAWESWA)

Our Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will grant $207,435 over 36 months to help this project, which aims to reduce the incidence of HIV, STIs, and TB among adolescents in 15 schools in 3 Tinkhundlas (local units). (Read More)

Grassroots Poverty Alleviation Program (GAPP)

Our Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation will grant $236,025 over 36 months to help this project reduce HIV/TB-related mortality by using a community-based model of HIV/TB control among fishing folk, prisoners and cross-border population in Busia and Siaya counties of Kenya. (Read More)

Isibani Development Partners (IDP)

Isibani Development Partners (IDP) will receive $139,535 over 18 months to build the capacity of community-based organizations in four provinces of South Africa to provide comprehensive and integrated care and support for HIV and TB, in collaboration with the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and World Health Organization’s ENGAGE-TB collaboration. (Read More)

Lesotho Red Cross Society

The Lesotho Red Cross Society was granted $609,216 over a period of three years to develop and test an outreach model that will harness the efforts of Senkatana ART Centre and Red Cross clinics that will define a most affordable essential health package for breast and cervical cancer in three districts of Lesotho. (Read More)

Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA)

Medical Women Association of Tanzania (MEWATA) was granted $427,688 to increase early diagnosis of major NCDs (CVDs, hypertension and stroke), diabetes, breast and cervical cancers as well as tuberculosis cases through community awareness and screening services in select regions of Tanzania by December 2020. (Read More)

Muslim AIDS Program (MAP)

The Muslim AIDS Program (MAP) will receive $114,923 over 18 months to strengthen community involvement in HIV and TB activities in three South African communities to bridge disparities and contribute to South Africa’s goal of zero infection. (Read More)

National University of Lesotho (NUL) Consuls

National University of Lesotho (NUL) Consuls was granted $424,345 over 36 months to help improve HIV and TB treatment outcomes by strengthening community healthcare services in order to inform national policy, programming and allocation of resources. (Read More)

National University of Lesotho School of Pharmacy

The National University of Lesotho School of Pharmacy will receive $95,683 for a project to train and integrate pharmacists into the healthcare team to counsel HIV-positive geriatric patients about the medications they take, and possible drug interactions and storage. A team of pharmacists will travel into rural areas in Maseru, Lesotho, where access to healthcare is limited, to provide group and individual counseling about medication and its proper handling especially at home. (Read More)

Salesian Life Choices

Salesian Life Choices will receive $98,868 over 18 months to continue its program that provides HIV services and treatment, TB screening, psychosocial support and sexual reproductive health education to youth in three communities in the Western Cape of South Africa. (Read More)

SAYWHAT

SAYWHAT will receive $92,000 over 18 months for a program that will develop the organization’s capacity to reach youth affected by HIV in Zimbabwe, will raise HIV and TB awareness among youth and advocate for providing HIV services within college clinics. (Read More)

Shika-Adabu Bamako

Shika-Adabu Bamako will receive $25,000 to train lay and community health workers in Kenya to provide care and support to people living with HIV and for technical assistance that will give basic fundamentals in organizational development and program planning as it continues to develop its outreach services. (Read More)

Siso Foundation

Siso Foundation was granted $144,833 over a period of 18 months to design and implement the institutional, operational and procedural facilitation of the capacity-building activities required to meet the needs of the BMSF-TAP funded projects and programs. (Read More)

St. Kizito – Mikumi Hospital

St. Kizito – Mikumi Hospital was granted $481,096 over three years to develop a model for HIV/NCD integration in order to reduce the mortality rates due cervical cancer, breast cancer and tuberculosis and prevent complications from diabetes and hypertension among people living with HIV in the Kilosa District, Morogoro Region, Tanzania. (Read More)

Super Buddies

Super Buddies will receive $196,905 over 18 months for a project that will equip communities and health providers with information and programs to reach more teens living with HIV in neglected rural communities in Swaziland, and increase access to HIV care, psychosocial support and counseling services. (Read More)

Talaku Community Based Organization

Talaku Community Based Organization will receive $89,915 over two years to reduce the burden of HIV and TB in poor and vulnerable populations of Kenya and to strengthen institutional and community organizations by collaborating with the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and World Health Organization’s ENGAGE-TB collaboration. Talaku also will work on bringing national TB targets in line with global targets and achieving millennium development goals in TB control. (Read More)

Thabo Mwale TB Foundation (TMTBF)

Thabo Mwale TB Foundation (TMTBF) will receive $69,667 over 18 months to expand its services in the North-West province of South Africa for individuals diagnosed with HIV and/or TB in four rural sub-districts of Madibeng. TMTBF works with other organizations to help control the spread of TB and runs an HIV/TB project in Tshwane District Municipality, Gauteng Province. TMTBF works in collaboration with the South Africa Department of Health and is a member of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation and World Health Organization’s ENGAGE-TB collaboration. (Read More)

Touch Foundation

Touch Foundation received $24,000 over two years to continue work on its Treat & Train Program in Tanzania and expand it to the village level to improve the quality of health care for rural Tanzanians and to strengthen the health system by increasing the number of skilled health providers deployed in these hard-to-reach areas. (Read More)

Ukuzakha Nokuzenzela Women’s Association (UKUNOWO)

Ukuzakha Nokuzenzela Women’s Association (UKUNOWO) will receive $106,776 over 18 months to support grandparents caring for vulnerable children in the rural eDumbe region of KwaZulu Natal, an area marked by poverty, lack of infrastructure and a high level of unemployment. UKUNOWO is comprised of rural women, the elderly, youths and single parents who may also be abused, infected or affected by HIV and TB, and unemployed. (Read More)

World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Program

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Program received $2 million over three years for the second phase of the ENGAGE-TB approach designed to strengthen community-based prevention, care and control of TB – including co-infection with HIV – in sub-Saharan Africa. The first phase, which also was supported by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, focused on defining global policy and program environment while implementing successful models in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Read More)

World Vision International

World Vision International will receive $220,000 over two years to improve the level and quality of HIV mother-to-child transmission prevention programs for women and children in Tanzania by improving the education and technical skills of frontline health workers who will be better equipped to plan, implement and coordinate interventions. (Read More)

Youth Advocates of Zimbabwe

Youth Advocates of Zimbabwe will receive $99,968 over 18 months to create inclusive, youth-friendly HIV services for at-risk youth in Zimbabwe and, through peer-to-peer outreach, social media and other communications technology, encourage youth to seek access to HIV services and other health and support services. (Read More)

HIV Programs in the U.S.