United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Launches New Health Project to Offer Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Services to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in South Sudan

The five-year project will offer medical services to orphans and vulnerable children living with HIV in addition to delivering income-generating and life skills to economically vulnerable young women.

Yesterday, the U.S. Ambassador to South Sudan Michael Adler and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Kate Crawford launched a new USAID-funded health project, Hayatna, which in Arabic means “our lives.” The five-year project will offer medical services to orphans and vulnerable children living with HIV in addition to delivering income-generating and life skills to economically vulnerable young women. The Ambassador said that the provision of assistance has been central to the decades-long history of U.S. efforts to help the South Sudanese people, and he thanked his USAID colleagues and implementing partners for their life-saving work.

The Hayatna project will work in partnership with local organizations to support children and adolescents living with HIV, HIV-exposed infants, children of HIV-positive caregivers and mothers, and survivors of violence against children. The Project’s goal is to improve HIV and health outcomes for vulnerable families and keep vulnerable children healthy, safe, and schooled. It will provide adolescent girls and young women with economic opportunities and support localization and capacity-building. The project will be implemented in Juba County, targeting Juba, Kator, Lokiliri, Munuki, and Rejaf.

The Hayatna project complements other successful USG PEPFAR efforts in South Sudan which, since 2007, have been combating the spread of HIV, providing life-saving antiretroviral treatment to some 50,000 South Sudanese, and supporting vulnerable families and young women.

Cassien Tribunal Aungane, Editor