Dignitas International

HIV/AIDS-related prevention, treatment and care should be available to everyone regardless of wealth, gender or geography.

Dignitas' mission is to increase access to effective HIV/AIDS-related prevention, treatment and care in resource-limited settings by developing and disseminating solutions that harness the power of community.

Dignitas is an international, medical, humanitarian organization that dramatically increases access to effective HIV/AIDS-related prevention, treatment, care and support in resource-limited settings through developing and sharing community-based solutions. Founded in 2003, their innovative, sustainable, community-based programming is highly monitored and researched so that effective models can be developed and disseminated to the global community.

HIV/AIDS and related illnesses have caused the preventable deaths of millions of people. Humanity’s failure to halt the AIDS pandemic and to provide care for affected individuals and communities is an affront to human dignity. Dignitas’s programming is delivered in Malawi’s Zomba District, home to 700,000 people. In many of the areas where Dignitas is working, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is approximately 16.5% of the adult population. Currently, there are more than 550,000 orphans who have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

The Malawi Ministry of Health is committed to stopping the AIDS pandemic, but lacks the necessary financial and human resources. Across all sectors, the number of healthcare providers available to see and treat patients is critically low, with approximately two physicians per 100,000 people.

Since October 2004, Dignitas has worked in partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health to provide life-extending antiretroviral therapy to more than 12,000 children and adults. Each month, hundreds of new patients are gaining access to medications that will not only keep them alive and improve their health, but also enable them to work, support their families, contribute to their communities, and allow children to continue their education.

As of October 31, 2009 an average of 3,800 people continue to be tested for HIV each month at 38 HIV Testing & Counselling (HTC) sites. From 2010 to 2012, Dignitas will scale-up programming across Malawi’s South-East Health Zone, expanding to five additional districts and reaching 3.1 million people.