HAART and Harvest

The IU Kenya Partnership Saves Lives of HIV/AIDS Sufferers in Sub-Saharan Africa

In 1990, the IU School of Medicine Faculty, with leadership from the Division of General Internal Medicine, forged a collaboration with the Moi University Faculty of Health Sciences Program. That collaboration has touched the lives and hearts of all, American or Kenyan, who participate in it.

Eldoret is a city of 100,000. It is a place of disquieting contrasts. Great needs and great hopes co-exist there. Lifetime memories and lifelong friendships can be made there. Eldoret is located to the west of the Great Rift Valley in western Kenya. The 7,000 ft elevation is a blessing: it gives relief from the equatorial heat. Days are sunny and nights are cool.

Program participants work in the Eldorat Referral Hospital and urban and rural health centers. The program supports one full-time IU faculty member on site, who shares with his or her Kenyan counterparts responsibilities for teaching, patient care and curriculum. Residents and students from the IU School of Medicine may choose to take an eight-week elective.

The primary goals of the IU Kenya program are:

• to enhance medical education and personal growth
• to promote collegial relationships between American and Kenyan doctors and students
• to offer a unique opportunity to reinforce professional values and
• to develop healthcare leaders in both countries

Counterpart relationships form the cornerstone of the Indiana University-Moi University (IU-MU) partnership. Each American visitor in Kenya links with his/her counterpart. Faculty physicians link with faculty, under the direction of the Kenyan head of department; residents link with medical officers; and medical students with other medical students.

HAART & Harvest: Evolution & Expansion of a Program Designed to Save
Lives & Promote Cultural Exchange

The initial program was established in 1990 and has been hugely successful thanks to grants from many donors, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Today the partnership has expanded to include a treatment program for HIV/AIDS sufferers. However, medication alone is not enough. It is critical that these people also receive food to help them combat the illness and return to health.

This prompted the creation of the HAART & Harvest Initiative, a program designed to provide regular access to food. A ten acre farm was established near Kenya's Mosoriot Clinic in an effort to produce food locally.

With the help of philanthropist Mouli Cohen plans are underway for the creation of an additional farm with a continuous irrigation system capable of hundreds of tons of produce per year. This ambitious plan will provide enough food for the entire region and will be carried out over the next two years.

To find out more about Mouli Cohen's involvement with the IU Kenya HAART & Harvest initiative, read the Press Release. Or visit the IU Kenya web site.