PATH and Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), in coordination with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), will develop a programmatic partnership under USAIDs Global Development Alliance (GDA) mechanism to reduce HIV risk and mitigate its impact on communities in the Fungurume Health Zone (FHZ) and the town of Kasumbalesa in the Katanga Province of DRC. To help TFM expand the reach of HIV prevention, care, support, information, and services beyond its workers, PATH will provide a range of technical assistance to reach the wider community of Fungurume as well as Kasumbalesa. The projects objectives center around establishing a Champion Community (CC) in Fungurume through which prevention and mobilization activities will occur, providing HIV testing and increasing access to HIV/AIDS care and support services. This project will also seek to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS in communities along the trucking route of Fungurume to Kasumbalesa by providing targeted prevention, testing, and referral services to truck drivers, commercial sex workers (CSWs), and other high-risk individuals, including persons with disabilities, as well as to the general population within these communities.

The project will adopt the US Governments strategy of integrating care and support services into the framework of the family-centered continuum of HIV services and involve PLWHA and OVC in every step of the project. The CC will set up auto-support groups of PLWHA which will become the center of the care and support activity. They will receive support as needed, including some medical care (cotrimoxazole) and ARV adherence support and opportunistic infection control. Providers at the health facility will be responsible for the medical care of patients referred by the CC. TFM will cover the costs of drugs for sexually transmitted and opportunistic infections if there are gaps. In order to plan, TFM will coordinate with ProSANI and other programs to identify the needs.Building on local resources and capacities, the project will seek strategies to deliver low-cost, evidence-based care and support activities including nutritional counseling, psychosocial support for PLWHA and their families through support groups, home-based care, and CD4 count monitoring. Existing community support groups such as a local charity for OVC, the three Fungurume-based human rights organizations, scouts, and religious groups will be tapped. SODEXO Management, the TFM food provider, has agreed to provide nutritional support and counseling for PLWHA in need and identified by the project. SODEXO will to providing PLWHA with nutritional support in the form of limited meals, as well as training in nutrition counseling for PLWHA. Please see Attachment 3 for SODEXOs letter of intent for these contributions.Longer-term economic strengthening activities will be fostered, where feasible, through TFMs economic development initiatives for small and micro business development. PLWHA will have access to TFM-sponsored workshops, training and mentoring in business development and in applying to the TFM Social Community Fund for grants to develop

The project will use ProVICs Champion Community approach to introduce innovative and sustainable strategies to increase community ownership over HCT and prevention activities within the communities surrounding the Tenke Fungurume mine. Some CCsestablished under ProVICalready exist in the Kasumbalesa area, so this project will not initiate others. Prevention strategies will address underlying causes of people's vulnerability and will create changes in individual and community behavior, reducing stigma and encouraging adequate counseling and testing. Via the CCs and the sectors of the population it represents, the project will conduct prevention activities to MARPs, particularly TFM employees and their families, truck drivers, CSWs, and youth. TFM has two separate HIV programs. The workforce program is managed by International SOS for all employees and dependents, and that will continue in parallel with this project. Through this partnership, TFM will focus on the communities living within its concession of approximately 1,600 km and Kasumbalesa. Although the focus is not specifically on the employees and their dependents living with the target communities (so as not to be redundant with International SOS), there will be a spillover benefit to these people.

PATH and TFM will look for opportunities to offer community-based HCT services, including mobile HCT targeting MARPs including truckers, TFM employees living in the community, CSWs, and youth. In addition, the government referral clinic will provide HCT. PATH will work with International SOS, the TFM health care provider, to evaluate and reinforce company HCT activities for TFM contract truckers. The staff of the TFM-supported mobile clinicwhich reaches remote uncovered areas of the FHZand all 23 FHZ health center staff will be educated regarding HCT services available in the FHZ so that they can orient clients to services. BAK-Congo mobile units will be deployed in the communities within TFM concession to identify high-risk locations and populations and will refer people to FHZ for testing and treatment, if necessary. Artisanal miners, CSWs, truckers, and people who frequent hotels and bars will be targeted for interventions.

The project will use ProVICs Champion Community approach to introduce innovative and sustainable strategies to increase community ownership over HCT and prevention activities within the communities surrounding the Tenke Fungurume mine. Some CCsestablished under ProVICalready exist in the Kasumbalesa area, so this project will not initiate others. Prevention strategies will address underlying causes of people's vulnerability and will create changes in individual and community behavior, reducing stigma and encouraging adequate counseling and testing. Via the CCs and the sectors of the population it represents, the project will conduct prevention activities to MARPs, particularly TFM employees and their families, truck drivers, CSWs, and youth. TFM has two separate HIV programs. The workforce program is managed by International SOS for all employees and dependents, and that will continue in parallel with this project. Through this partnership, TFM will focus on the communities living within its concession of approximately 1,600 km and Kasumbalesa. Although the focus is not specifically on the employees and their dependents living with the target communities (so as not to be redundant with International SOS), there will be a spillover benefit to these people.