AIDS, Tuberculosis And Malaria

PLAN Foundation is one of the pioneers of community and civil society response to Tuberculosis in Nigeria. PLAN Foundation’s Executive Director is one of the founders of the Civil Society for the Eradication of Tuberculosis in Nigeria (TB Network), which is the national umbrella organization of civil society organizations and TB-affected persons working on TB issues in Nigeria.  Her also serves as Civil Society Representative on the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Nigeria.

PLAN Foundation has achieved key milestones through innovative approaches to Tuberculosis and TB/HIV interventions in Nigeria through the engagement of affected communities and former TB patients as community volunteers and community TB workers in raising awareness and mobilizing communities to respond to TB and TB/HIV. PLAN Foundation, through the TBCARE 1 Project pioneered the innovation of house-to-house TB screening and awareness raising in urban slums in Oyo State, Nigeria.

As a recipient of the Stop TB Partnership (www.stoptb.org) Challenge Fund for Civil Society (CFCS), PLAN Foundation empowered TB-affected communities and civil society with information on TB and TB/HIV co-infection and held capacity building workshops and selected representatives of TB-affected communities to carry out TB case finding and treatment support activities. The organization also facilitated effective collaboration between TB and HIV interventions such as cross-referrals which was ensured by establishing five TB/HIV working committees and carrying out sensitization visits to Primary Health Care Departments, TB supervisors and HIV Programs.

As part of the Global Fund Tuberculosis project, PLAN Foundation built the capacity of community volunteers to engage in community mobilization, referral of presumptive TB cases for screening and for treatment of positive cases, follow-up of TB clients, defaulter tracing and adherence support in Oyo State communities. This resulted in a significant reduction (down to zero in some DOTS centres) in defaulter rates and up to 100 percent TB treatment success rates in communities reached by its interventions.