Programs | Friends in Global Health

Working in partnership with local government and civil sector organizations, Friends in Global Health implements health and development programs through effective partnerships and sustainable strategies, and conducts innovative research shaping health care delivery in low- and middle-income countries. Our impact on community health and well-being is guided by engagement with local teams and strategic partners.

Programs have been funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vanderbilt University Medical Center, private foundations and donations.

Friends in Global Health is a wholly-owned affiliate of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, currently operating in Mozambique with a national office in Maputo and with program activities in nearly every province of the country, with a heavy focus on Zambézia Province. Established in 2006, the organization has been a PEPFAR Clinical Implementing Partner, working closely with the Mozambican Ministry of Health and the US Government, for the past 17 years.

With a strong employee base and other infrastructure located in Mozambique, Friends in Global Health is positioned to lead and support health development programs, including the provision of technical assistance at the national, provincial, and district levels to operationalize sustainable models of community and facility-based health services.

Focus Areas:

Friends in Global Health has maintained a focus on rural areas where limited human resources, poor health care coverage, lack of opportunities, weak infrastructure for economic development and vulnerability to food insecurity provide many additional challenges for program implementation.

CURRENT PROGRAMS

Avante: Towards Epidemic Control

Friends in Global Health provides technical assistance to support the Ministry of Health in the delivery of adult and pediatric HIV/AIDS care and treatment, HIV prevention programs, counseling and testing services, tuberculosis program services, and HIV-exposed child services to all districts within Zambézia Province.

This support is provided through the Avante project, a program funded through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) via the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We have been a PEPFAR implementing partner, supporting HIV care and treatment services in Zambézia province, since 2006.

USAID Integrated Malaria Program (IMaP)
As an implementation partner under the direction of Chemonics International, Friends in Global Health is contributing to the effort of reducing malaria-associated mortality, morbidity, and parasitemia in four high malaria burden provinces (Zambézia, Nampula, Cabo Delgado, and Téte) of Mozambique by enhancing malaria interventions and strengthening malaria service delivery in health facilities at the community level.

The program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), supports the implementation of Mozambique’s National Malaria Strategic Plan, as aligned with the US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

Specific IMaP Objectives:

strengthen malaria prevention and case management at health facilities and communities;

build district and provincial level management capacity to provide oversight and supervision of malaria interventions;

improve data reporting, analysis, and use for decision-making by strengthening the health management information system

Friends in Global Health supports this program by leading specific activities including facility-based febrile case management and malaria in pregnancy interventions as well as building capacity of facility-based staff in overseeing and supervising malaria interventions and quality data entry.

Partners-based HIV Treatment for Sero-concordant Couples attending Antenatal Care (HoPS+)

Friends in Global Health is a leader in the implementation of evidence-based strategies that increase the engagement of male partners in their pregnant spouses’ antenatal care. We piloted the first 4-year intervention (“Men for Health,” in Portuguese “Homens Para Saúde” or “HoPS”) that leveraged a partnership between specially-trained male community health workers and local female traditional birth attendants to provide community-based counseling. These care teams accompanied expectant couples to antenatal care visits, which led to substantially improved HIV testing and antiretroviral (ART) service uptake.

With support from the Provincial Health Directorate, Friends in Global Health now incorporates this male engagement strategy into routine programming throughout Zambézia province, and the Mozambican Ministry of Health promotes the strategy within its national directives for male engagement into health services.

Building on this new standard of care, Friends in Global Health is currently implementing a randomized control trial supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. Under the direction of Carolyn Audet, Ph.D., principal investigator), the trial seeks to improve retention in care for HIV+ couples (“HoPS+”). Through this novel and integrative framework, we are piloting the delivery of couple-based comprehensive HIV care and antiretroviral services during antenatal care visits. Anchored in professional and peer couples counseling, the primary goals of this intervention are that partners are engaged and cared for during pregnancy and the postpartum period, preventing vertical transmission for their baby and promoting retention in care for themselves and each other.

Friends in Global Health co-investigators and research staff work in close collaboration with provincial- and district-level health sector partners to provide high-quality technical training and mentoring support, as well as implementation and monitoring of all study activities.