Sr. Catherine Mulligan DC
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul
Nairobi, Kenya
Sr. Catherine is involved in
the DREAM (Drug Resource Enhancement against
AIDS and Malnutrition) project. This is a
comprehensive programme for the diagnosis,
counselling, treatment, nutrition and home-based
care of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Sr Catherine works in Nairobi, Kenya, and is
part of Nutrition Support Service for people
living with HIV/AIDs
Project
DREAM, a program for treating AIDS, began in March 2002 in
Mozambique. There are now DREAM centers in Mozambique, Malawi,
Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Tanzania, Angola, Nigeria, Congo,
Cameroon and Kenya. In the latter four countries, DREAM is in
collaboration with the Daughters of Charity. In 2005, the Community
of Sant'Egidio entered into a cooperative agreement with the
Daughters of Charity, to bring DREAM into the countries of Africa
where the Sisters work. At present the Sisters work in 21 African
countries and have numerous native-born Sisters there.
The project applies state-of-the art standards to Africa which
includes VCT (voluntary counseling and testing), a molecular
laboratory offering CD4 and viral load tests, antiretroviral
medications, food, and home-based care.
DREAM has extraordinarily positive results. While treating the whole
family, it focuses especially on preventing the transmission of
HIV/AIDS from a pregnant woman to her new born child. For women who
adhere to the program, 98% of their children are born HIV-free.
With funding from misean cara, a nutritional support center was
built as part of the new DREAM Center. The DREAM Centre in Nairobi
forms part of the Area Health Plan and is supported by the District
Medical Officer and the Local Director and team of the HIV/AIDs
strategy (DASCOP). An Agreement was signed in May 2007 between the
Minister of Health and the Daughters of Charity authorising this
programme. The construction of the center and molecular laboratory
is now complete, the staff are employed, trained in the DREAM
protocols and are already at work.
Good basic nutrition is most important for the adequate and
comprehensive treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially
pregnant mothers and children. However, providing nutritional
supplements does not form part of the National Guidelines for
Antiretroviral Drug Therapy in Kenya (2005), A research survey we
carried out showed that very few centres of care give food
supplements and those that do are very irregular and depend on
availability of food, making it very haphazard and uncertain.
Supported by misean cara and as a component of the DREAM programme,
the Sisters built a food store/ distribution area to provide regular
food supplements, constructed a kitchen and a laundrette, and bought
a vechicle to do home-based follow-up for vulnerable patients and
families. We also have a three-acre DREAM farm, situated near
another of the Daughters of Charity missions in a rural area called
Thigio, where the sisters already have land under farming to support
programmes for orphans and disabled children or adults.