Team PATA

Summary of the 2008 PATA Forum

PATA (Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa) continues to develop and grow. From our first meeting in Cape Town, in 2005 we have grown and developed through successful and inspiring meetings in Nairobi (2006) and Swaziland in 2007. This most recent meeting was attended by 43 teams from 17 Sub-Saharan countries.

The 4th PATA forum began with Master Classes, held on the afternoon of Tuesday 25 November 2009. Teams were treated to talks from Gail Todd (The skin in HIV/AIDS) Tom Heikens (Nutrition), Mitch Besser (managing the prevention of Mother to Child Transmission) and Leon Levin (Paediatric anti-retroviral therapy).

Day One of the forum was all about ‘Care of the very young infant’. Besides Mitch Besser we also had James Nuttall (diagnosis of HIV in young infants), Mark Cotton (implications of findings from the CHER study), Simone Honikman (caring for mothers of sick infants), Cyprien Baribwira (Delivery of ARVs to infants in Rwanda) and Leon Levin (Ideal care for the very young infant) to present and provide expert plenary and group discussion input.

On Day Two, participants answered questions relating to the delivery of nutrition. They heard presentations from Josephine Kayumba (Nutrition problems we encounter in Rwanda), Tom Heikens (Translating the WHO Ten Steps in the care of HIV/AIDS), Charlotte Adamczick (therapeutic and weaning foods in HIV/AIDS), Agnes Malamule (the counsellor’s role with orphans) and Alexandra Peltier (the psychosocial consequences of malnutrition).

On Day Three everyone travelled out of the city to rural Rwinkwavu, where Partners in Health have established a comprehensive health care and training centre. Participants were welcomed to the training centre by Sara Stulac and heard a stirring speech by Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners in Health, before beginning with the day’s plenary session. This took the form of a round table discussion about traumatised children and post-traumatic stress disorder. The round table session included delegates from the DRC, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Rwanda and was led by Jenny Altschuler, who was assisted by Alexandra Peltier. Steven Rollnick presented a paper on leadership-, clinical- and parenting styles and Shaffiq Essajee rounded off the plenary input with a talk on ways of implementing change in one’s service.

PATA faces incisive changes in the coming year. We have grown and are coming of age. The steering committee, with due consideration of wishes expressed by our participants, have decided to move the focus of PATA activities to annual regional meetings, with less frequent continental ‘summit’ meetings. There is also a need to devolve responsibilities and activity to country level, and ensure that PATA makes its mark and augments its work with governments, alongside organisations such as the Clinton Foundation, MSF and UNICEF which currently interact with governments.

At the same time, PATA-affiliated clinics will be encouraged to arrange team exchanges, in the same way that PIH teams in Rwanda have done in the last year. Staff exchange programmes are likely to be a powerful way of spreading the PATA effect.

The responses of our plenary experts to the PATA process during this PATA Kigali forum have been heart-warming. One and all have volunteered to serve as PATA ambassadors and consultants in the year to come.

The success of our clinical teams is as dependent on teamwork and partnership as we are on the support of our funding partners. We are most grateful to our funding stalwarts Aurum and Synchronicity and to an Anonymous Philanthropy, Sidaction and MAC AIDS for having made this meeting possible.

Messages from 2008 PATA teams in Kigali:

We feel the warmth of the rising sun and the dawn of hope for the children of Africa (Zimbabwe).

On the last day of the PATA Forum in Kigali, teams wrote notes about their experiences at the conference. These were stuck onto a large map of Africa for all to see, highlighting their dreams for the year ahead. This is a selection of inspiring messages.

Please treat each child as you would your own – with love and respect. (Butare, Rwanda)

Positive ideas for negative babies! (Hamburg, South Africa)

May the Expert Patient Programme live on to reach the unreached children (Kakamega, Kenya)

We feel the warmth of the rising sun and the dawn of hope for the children of Africa (Zimbabwe)

We came as individuals, we are leaving as a team of children’s activists! (Worcester, South Africa)

Le vih n’epargne personne, traitons chaque enfant infecte comme le notre (CHU de Yopougon, Cote d’Ivoire)

It is said that it takes a community to raise a child. And the communities we work in entrusts their most valuable assets to us. May we rise to the occasion and heal not only their bodies but also their hearts. All children need to dream, all children have the right to a future. Let us help to create hope for them. (JST Hospital, Rustenburg, South Africa)

Many thanks to Sara Stulac and her team from Partners in Health, Rwanda

for hosting the 2008 PATA forum. A special thanks to Richard Mugisha and Christina Bryant for all their hard work in making the PATA forum possible, and to all of the Rwinkwavu staff for welcoming us all so warmly to their beautiful country. PATA Rwanda photographs are available here. Can I give the photos to you on CD or what would be best?