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www.lvcthealth.org
Building capacities of PWDs organisations to
enhance access to sexual reproductive health
and HIV information and services for PWDs –
LVCT Health’s experience with DPOs in Nyanza
Jeckonia, P; Theuri, C; Kongere, M; Nalobo, L; Mukoma, W
6th International Conference on Peer Education, Sexuality, HIV & AIDS
2014
Dates: 16- 18 June 2014

2. We have rebranded. We are now LVCT Health

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ABOUT LVCT Health
www.lvcthealth.org
• LVCT Health (formerly known as Liverpool VCT, Care
and treatment (LVCT)) is an indigenous Kenyan non-
governmental and non-profit organization.
• Founded in 1998 and registered in 2001
• LVCT Health envisions healthy societies and uses
research results, capacity improvement and policy reform
action for equitable HIV, SRH services to the most
vulnerable populations.
• LVCT health reached 1.3m Kenyans with HTC in 2013
with 80% linkage to care, 40,000 in care, 4300 survivors
of sexual violence in 124 MOH facilities and 150,000
youthful callers to one2one hotline.

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Presentation Outline
www.lvcthealth.org
• Background
• Our approach
• The process
• Results
• Lessons learnt
• Recommendations

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General Background
www.lvcthealth.org
• About 600,000,000 people live with disabilities in the world, with 80%
of this total living in low income countries.
• 10% of Kenyan population (approx. 42 million) indicates that there are
4 million people living with disability (PWD).
• The Kenyan government spends less than 1% of its health budget on
mental health.
• Many PWD in Kenya live in poverty and have limited opportunities for
accessing education, health, rehabilitation, suitable housing and
employment.
• 51% of PWD are female, while 49 % are male.
• The most prevalent forms of disability are visual (30%) and physical
(30%), followed by hearing (12%) and mental (11%).

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Health Related Background
www.lvcthealth.org
• 1 in every 5 PWDs has tested for HIV (approx. 20% compared to 72% of
national KAIS data).
• Those with hearing impairment had a prevalence of 7% according to
Taegtmeyer, T. et al. 2008
• 16% women with disability aged 12–49 years use some form of family
planning.
• More PWDs reside in rural than in urban areas, where health facilities are
fewer and infra-structure is less friendly for a PWD.
• 65% of PWDs regard the environment as major problem in their daily lives
• 15% of PWDs are likely to be affected by environmental factors on a daily
basis and 3% on a weekly basis.

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Challenges for PWDs
www.lvcthealth.org
• Physical infrastructure in most health facilities – limiting access.
• Communication- Health information accessible to the public is often
not readily available for people with visual, hearing or intellectual
disabilities.
• Due to low literacy levels and handicap caused by various disability,
many PWD are not gainfully employed and do not participate in trade.
• Attitudes and perceptions from general public lead to stigma and
discrimination.
• The combined effect of disability and HIV/AIDS poses double stigma.
• Challenges faced by PWD are seldom highlighted, therefore limited
interventions.

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LVCT Health’s Achievements
www.lvcthealth.org
• LVCT Health pioneered the first three deaf VCT in Kenya
(Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa).
• HTC offered to over 30,000 PWD clients including over 15,000
deaf clients with 80% of positive clients linked to care.
• Over 150 hearing HIV service providers trained on basic KSL
• Built organisation capacity of 7 PWD peer-led organisations.
• Partnered with over 20 groups/organisations of persons with
disability
• Over 20,000 HCWs have been sensitised on offering PWD friendly
services to strengthen referrals and linkages

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LVCT Health’s Capacity Development Approach: The Timisha Model
www.lvcthealth.org

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The Process
www.lvcthealth.org
• Peer-led approach - LVCT Health has a disability division headed by an
hearing impaired staff who actively identifies PWD groups and
organisations that need capacity building to reach PWDs.
OSS trainings
Continual mentorship and
coaching
Develop a capacity building
plan
End term assessment
Graduation of organisations Baseline assessment
Solicitation of organisations
Ongoing Monitoring,
evaluation and
documentation

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Disabled Person’s Organisations (DPO)
www.lvcthealth.org
LVCT Health worked with 3 DPOs in Nyanza between 2011 and
2014.
Successes:
All three organisations have stable income generating activities
supporting their operations.
All three organisations have operational organisation policy documents.
All three organisations engage in county level policy and advocacy
forums
All three organisations have strong referral systems to different health
facilities in the region.
One of them is offering KSL training
All three organisations are complying to legal requirements as per their
type of registration

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Lessons Learnt
www.lvcthealth.org
 Peer led PWD organisations are more effective in
programming for PWDs
 Participatory approaches in capacity building creates
buy-in and yields better results.
 Working with DPOs requires patience and constant
mentorship to achieve the best results.

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Recommendations
www.lvcthealth.org
There need:
• To be a conscious inclusion of PWD in national planning
for health and other services.
• To scale up sensitivity trainings for health care workers
to ensure that they provide comprehensive and friendly
health services to PWD.
• To consider communication needs of PWDS with
different forms of disability in health services.

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Thank You
CONTACT US:
yourname@lvcthealth.org
yourdivision@lvcthealth.org
www.lvcthealth.org