KELIN in collaboration with the Kenya Paediatric Association with support from AIDS Fonds conducted a health care workers’ training from 25th to 27th February. The training, which took place in Nakuru, endeavored to enhance the healthcare workers’ knowledge and understanding on the link between HIV, Human Rights and the Law.
The 26 health care workers from Nakuru and Uasin Gishu counties got an opportunity to share their experiences in promoting a human rights based approach to HIV related services within the health care institutions. The key challenge noted was the lack of awareness on the laws and policies, more so the provisions of the Constitution on human rights. The participants also cited understaffing and lack of essential medical supplies as key obstacles to the promotion of human rights in service delivery to PLHIV and key populations.
Participants had an interactive session with the representatives of key and affected populations, these included, sex workers, PLHI V who shared the challenges they face in accessing the right to health. The health care workers committed to working together with the KELIN’s pool of probono lawyers from Nakuru and Uasin Gishu in order to promote access to justice by PLHIV and key populations and reduce the high level of HIV prevalence within Nakuru and Uasin Gishu counties.
Speaking during the training, Mr. Ambrose Rachier, the Chairperson of KELIN’s board, emphasized the need to respect the privacy and confidentiality rights of PLHIV, as enshrined in the Constitution and the HIV & AIDS Prevention and Control Act, as this is key to enhancing the human rights based approach in service delivery within the health institutions.
In concluding the training, the health care workers also committed to partner with KELIN to conduct more sensitization forums at the hospitals and advocate for access to pediatric ARVs among children because there is a major challenge in the full enjoyment on the right to access medicine by children living with HIV.
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