Explore Marindi Community ART Group (CAG)

Marindi Sub County hospital is a level four government health facility in Homa Bay Bay County Kenya. It serves a catchment population of approximately 13, 000 people.

The Hospital offers HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services among and other preventive and curative services. It has enrolled 2,100 people on Antiretroviral therapy (ART). The hospital has embraced Community ART groups (CAGs), a community-based Differentiated Service Delivery (DSD) model for stable patients on ART. This model facilitates ART access in the community closer to patients’ homes, decongests the clinic, and enables peer support.

So far, the facility has formed ten CAGs. There is a possibility of missing out on other health interventions given the reduced contact time between the patients and health care providers

There is a need to maximize the groups' availability and use it as a platform to enhance service provision to the patients and promote the sustainability of the groups. There is a misconception that this group of clients since they are stable, do not require nutrition services as their counterparts who come to the health facility. Actually, quite a number of them are obese and overweight.

It is against this background that the health workers aim at scaling up nutrition services through nutrition education and counseling and establishing community and home-based gardens that are rich in the nutrients required by the PLHIV and give nutrition education on a healthy lifestyle and physical activity as a strategy to prevent and control non-communicable diseases.