Project Concern International (PCI) is a supporting member of the Washington Global Health Alliance. PCI's innovative approach to improving the health of HIV positive individuals in regions of Africa through nutrition and food security was featured in a recent "Case Studies for Global Health" publication. This publication was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The following is an excerpt from "Case Studies in Global Health: Links for Life Integrates Programming for Food Security, Nutrition and HIV Treatment".

Good nutrition has been called the key to positively living with the HIV virus. When malnutrition prevails, the immune system is weakened, and one’s susceptibility to infections increases.

“Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) is becoming increasingly available, treatment can fail when patients are nutritionally compromised,” said Gwenelyn O’Donnell-Blake, Food Security
Technical Officer at Project Concern International (PCI).
“Without nutritious food to complete treatment, patients are
often too ill to successfully start ART. And, once on treatment,
interruptions due to hunger contribute to treatment failure and
drug resistance.”

To promote learning and advocacy around integrated HIV and food/nutrition security (FNS) programming, PCI and its many NGO partners initiated Links for Life, a multi-faceted development program.

Links for Life was conceived at the Africa Forum 2006, a gathering of NGOs and international health and development organizations from across the continent. A total of 220 practitioners from 16 countries attended this hands-on, skills-building conference that focused on sharing up-to-date knowledge in integrated HIV and FNS programming.

To read the entire publication, visit the Case Studies for Global Health website.