McGill Nurses for Highlands Hope was established in 2006 to provide education and practice opportunities between McGill University's School of Nursing and Chakunimu, a nongovernment organization that brings together community, professional, and volunteer networks to address the challenge of HIV/AIDS and related social problems in the Njombe region of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.Nurse Neema using the Point-of-Care (PoC) CD4 Testing Program in rural Njombe, Tanzania. /photo M. Wilson

Program Objectives

Edmund Munubi, Manager at Tanganyika Wattle (TANWAT) Company Hospital visits Faculty of Medicine at McGill (2012). Owen Egan

Program Highlights

McGill Nurses for Highlands Hope has supported fellowships, scholarships, visiting scholars and student projects. It has also provided instrumental support so that nurses and community health workers have materials and increased skills to use in their daily work.

Visiting Scholars

Edmund Munubi, Manager at Tanganyika Wattle (TANWAT) Company Hospital (2012)

Bathseba Liduke, RN, and Evangelista Kayombo, RN, Tanganyika Wattle (TANWAT) Company Hospital (2009)

Student projects

Andra Leimanis - Factors influencing implementation of home based care in Tanganyika Wattle Company Hospital villages (2008).

Jacquie Bocking – Factors affecting adherence to antiretroviral therapy in Tanganyika Wattle Company Hospital HIV Clinical Treatment Centre (2008).

Amy Low – Exploring the needs of clients using community home-based care in Njombe, Tanzania (2009).

Veronique Fraser – They test with their eyes: Rapid appraisal of barriers and facilitators to voluntary counseling and testing in Njombe, Tanzania (2009).

Kristin Gagnon – A home care kit training intervention for Peer Health Educators delivering community home-based care in rural Njombe, Tanzania (2010).

Ryan Lomenda – Primary school students’ knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding HIV/AIDS in Njombe, Tanzania (2010).

Joyce Ngabire - Sustainablility of peer health education in primary schools in a low-resourced setting - building on students' leadership skills (2012).

Maggie Wilson - Evaluating the implementation of Point-of-Care (PoC) CD4 Testing Program for the Monitoring and Management of HIV/AIDS in rural Njombe, Tanzania (2013).

Andrea Willett - Evaluating the sustainablility of a Point-of-Care (PoC) CD4 Testing Program for the Monitoring and Management of HIV/AIDS in rural Njombe, Tanzania (in progress).

Instrumental support

Support from our generous donors is vital to our continued success. Donations have enabled McGill Nurses for Highlands Hope to:

A group of generous (and fit)  Montrealers climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro as a fundraiser for Hope School in Iringa, Tanzania. The school’s “Let them Learn” program has been successful in reducing teen pregnancies, preventing abuse, and increasing the rate of successful school completion among its female students.

Thanks to the work of Kristin Gagnon (MSc(A) 2011) and creativity and printing by Origami Tactical Creativity and Branding, the home-based care resource manual Mwongozo Wa Haraka 1.0 was released in 2012!