Hope Through Health is proud to announce the debut of a new satellite location in Kabou, Togo. Located more than 30 miles away from HTH’s main clinic in Kara, this new site will help increase access to comprehensive community-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Christophe Gbeleou, Executive Director of AED-Lidaw, Hope Through Health’s partner organization, agrees that this is an important step in reaching impoverished communities throughout the region. “We have wanted to establish a clinic in this western zone for a long time. Patients would come from as far as 60 miles away to receive the care they need. Consider the price of gas (nearly $4 per gallon in Togo) and imagine the difficulty for someone making at most a couple dollars a day.”
The clinic in Kabou has partnered with local government and hospital officials, who have provided a meeting space housed within the hospital. The site’s monthly General Assembly meeting provided the occasion for Executive Director Gbeleou’s most recent visit to the nascent clinic. His main objective was to ensure that the site was being managed true to Hope Through Health’s model of patient empowerment. “I wanted to make sure that members know what it truly means to be a grassroots organization,” he said. Hope Through Health empowers people living with HIV/AIDS to design, implement, and monitor their own community-based health services. Mr. Gbeleou led the group in a discussion on how the group’s resources were being used. He asked the group, “Which members received nutritional kits last month? Who made this decision? Upon what criteria did you decide?”
Because Hope Through Health members are the ones who best understand their own situations, they are the ones who should define their own vision and ensure that their health services respond to their needs. Now that Hope Through Health’s model is being implemented in every corner of the region, one can say that this movement has truly taken root.
Executive Director Gbeleou (right) listens to Hope Through Health members in Kabou, Togo.