Duyan Program is the newest program of the Project Red Ribbon Care Management Foundation, Inc. (TRR) that aims to provide care and support to children with HIV in the Philippines. “Duyan” is a Tagalog noun which means “cradle” and TRR’s Duyan Program will cradle these children with HIV with care, love and attention, to improve their quality of life until they once again are healthy, playing and going back to school.
In the Philippines, the incidence of children being born with HIV continues to rise. With this increase, come with these issues: inadequate supply of antiretroviral medicines for HIV children, inadequate pediatric HIV care in treatment hubs, unaffordable laboratory tests and medicines for AIDS-related infections, blood transfusion needs and daily maintenance of health like milk formula and children needs like diapers while in the hospital. Economically challenged parents even have difficulties in taking their children with HIV to the hospital for regular check ups and refill of their antiretroviral medicines. Aside from that, stigma and discrimination compound the issue with parents being evicted from their homes and some children are abandoned when the mother and or both parents die due to AIDS.
TRR would like to address these issues with the conceptualization of this program to save these children with HIV. The Duyan Project will do this by:
- Providing mothers with PhilHealth membership to extend the coverage of the out-patient HIV and AIDS Treatment (OHAT) package to their children with HIV. This will enable the children access to:
a. Baseline Testing
b. Free Consultation in the treatment hubs
c. Access to ARV’s
d. hospitalization benefits
2. Assist children with HIV for their medical needs such as:
a. Laboratory tests for AIDS-related infections
b. Medicines for AIDS-related infections
c. Vaccinations
d. Blood transfusion needs
- Transportation and/or courier of the children’s ARV’s for one year, post hospitalization.
4. Maintenance of over all health for one (1) year during and post hospitalization:
a. milk formula
b. diapers
c. children’s clothes and toys (while in the hospital)
d. vitamins
Project Red Ribbon Duyan Project would like to help children with HIV from newborn babies to 11 years old. To date, the Foundation has been assisting 20 children with HIV.