HEALTH:

African Youth and Orphan and Relief and Progressive Organisation ( AYORPO ) in collaboration with other stakeholders have a key role to play in ensuring that Government is doing what it has committed to do. AYORPO focuses on health governance, HIV/AIDS and gender equality.

Poverty and Health are closely linked. Sick people cannot work and a lack of health care and trained Medics means that sick people cannot get better. AYORPO recognizes that it needs efforts to improve the health System in order to boost growth and bring people out of poverty. HIV/AIDS is the greatest threat against all development efforts in Tanzania at national, community and individual levels. The official figure of people living with HIV/AIDS is 5.7% of the population. Already, this pandemic has impacted life expectancy. Regions with high HIV prevalence include Njombe, with 14.8% out of 100 infected with HIV, Iringa ( 9.1% ) followed by Mbeya ( 9.0% ) and Dar es Salaam ( 6.9% ) by the year 2007/2008 ---(Tanzania Indicator Survey ). For the last two decades, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has spread relentlessly affecting people of all walks of life, especially between the ages of 20 – 49 years. This is the productive population.The increasing number of AIDS related absenteeism from workplace and deaths reflect the early manifestation of epidemic with ramifications in suffering, grief, lower life expectancy, increasing dependency, reduced growth in incomes and productivity all of which results in increased poverty. Increasing incidents of infant and child mortality and growing number of Orphans in both urban and rural areas is alarming.

AYORPO’s initiatives on health, supports social development through:

• Promoting health—access to quality health care services, nutrition and life style behaviours to the children, orphans and vulnerable children ( OVC ), women, youth and disadvantaged people.
• To support the empowering of local communities, in urban and rural/semi—rural areas, enabling them to cope and act under the influence of HIV/AIDS.
• To support increased awareness among new target groups (the disabled, the deaf, the blind etc.) often forgotten or difficult to reach by other actors in the field of HIV/AIDS activities.
• To ensure that the funds reach the poorest of poor (these are mostly women and children and mostly vulnerable within the society).
• Supporting the national response to HIV/AIDS with greater efforts on prevention (especially among women and young people)
• To integrate HIV/AIDS and important Sexual and Reproductive Health components (life, STIs, Safe Motherhood etc.) Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and HIV/AIDS.
• Strengthening education on health system by improving awareness on primary health services.
• Also by addressing health facts that malaria and HIV/AIDS are the biggest causes of deaths for people over five years of age in the country and by concentrating more on nutrition.
• To encourage medical check-ups and testing voluntarily.
• Reduce maternal and child mortality through accessible family planning means and services.
• Educate the community /public on marriage age and the child bearing.