A beginning in South Africa

Purchasing Mavens:

A note - we will have a team picture tomorrow of our meeting here in South Africa as I have to load it from the camera (hey - I am getting better at all of this file transfer...)

ITECH - South Africa is a smaller operation than Namibia (approximately 12 people in the home office, this does not count those in the field). They have moved to new offices that provides them with room to grow.

OVERVIEW:

Since 2003, I-TECH has been working in SouthAfrica at the request of the National and Provincial Departments of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program (CDC GAP) South Africa, to help implement the South African government’s Operational Plan for comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management, and Treatment.

I-TECH was initially invited to work in South Africa to develop and implement a national training center initiative, specifically at the Regional Training Centre (RTC) in the Eastern Cape Province. The nine SouthAfrican provincial RTCs, also known as the Health Promotion and Quality Assurance (HPQA) centres, are responsible for training health care workers in the care and treatment of HIV and AIDS as well as sexually transmitted infections (STI), tuberculosis (TB), and other diseases associated with HIV.

I-TECH South Africa currently supports organizational development; monitoring and evaluation; and planning, implementation, and clinical mentoring of HPQA centre staff to support the growth of provincial sites, including the Eastern Cape (consisting of the Eastern Cape's main population areas of Mthatha, East London, and Port Elizabeth); Mpumalanga; and Limpopo.

The I-TECH South Africa office moved to Pretoria in April 2008, though it maintains a small satellite office in East London. This shift in location supports the broadening mandate for I-TECH by CDC GAP South Africa, which is to provide technical assistance and expertise to HPQA centres, where requested.

The primary purpose of our meeting here, for one day, was to meet the team, understand their operation and to discuss their future. Jack Jourden, the Country Director and his team have established a good foundation for growth. Sophia and I
look forward to working with them on their journey towards delegation of authority.

Dennis & Sophia