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By Brendan Wood Empoyees By Friends of LAZARUS PARTNERS

Dr. James Orbinski
President

Dr. James Orbinski is a Research Scientist and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Centre for International Health at the University of Toronto. He also practices clinical medicine at Toronto’s St. Michaels’ Hospital Inner City Health Program.

Dr. Orbinski is a former International President of the medical humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF in 1999 at the Nobel Ceremony in Oslo, Norway. As president of MSF, Dr. Orbinski launched its “Access to Essential Medicines Campaign” and has represented MSF in numerous settings and emergencies including the UN Security Council, many national parliaments, the WHO, UNHCR, in the Sudan, Kosovo, Russia, Cambodia, South Africa, India and Thailand.

Godfrey Rudahigan
Dr. James Orbinski & Friends

Dignitas International’s work is rooted in:

  1. A fundamental belief in the dignity of every human being.
  2. Indignation about the extreme suffering caused by HIV/AIDS.
  3. Compassion for individuals, families and communities afflicted by HIV/AIDS.
  4. The realization of interdependence between our lives and the course of the pandemic.
  5. Courage to confront the overwhelming human tragedy that is unfolding.
  6. Real action to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Although AIDS is a treatable disease, the severe lack of healthcare workers in parts of the developing world often makes delivering HIV/AIDS treatment and effective prevention very difficult. Our innovative model overcomes this obstacle by using a huge untapped resource – people who are already responding to AIDS and caring for their families, friends and neighbours by drawing water, ensuring they have food and firewood, and nursing those too ill to care for themselves. Training these volunteer caregivers to provide basic HIV care and support patient adherence to treatment, as well as formally linking them to the existing healthcare system, will empower these leaders to help their families and communities survive AIDS while increasing the health system’s capacity to provide access to many people who need treatment.

We believe this community-based care approach is a vital component to stopping the pandemic and our experience in the field supports this contention. In October 2004, we began a comprehensive HIV/AIDS program in close collaboration with the Malawi Ministry of Health. Our program focuses on the Zomba District, where one-in-five people are HIV positive. Together we have made a dramatic difference. Among many other things, the support from Lazarus Partners has enabled us to:

  • Provide life-saving ARV therapy to more than 1,100 patients and conduct 2,000 medical consultations monthly.
  • Train hundreds of community workers and home-based care volunteers
  • Test more than 2,600 people a month and provide HIV/AIDS education and prevention services to more than 35,000 people a month.

Thank you for making an important difference in the lives of people who desperately need assistance while helping us refine our community-based model of care so that it can be shared and replicated in other regions o Dr. James Orbinski & Friends verwhelmed by AIDS.