Seven months after its creation, the DSF supports its first community-based projects

The objective of the first projects supported by the global Digital Solidarity Fund is to associate the digital solidarity with health promotion. In collaboration with AIDSETI*, a network of NGOs promoting access to HIV/AIDS treatment, the DSF is financing Internet access for local African communities facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS. The objectives of the project will develop on four fronts: follow-up and evaluation of patients, telemedicine, distance education and income-generating activities.

Four community structures in Burkina Faso and three in Burundi have been selected as pilot sites. Thus, seven months after its creation in March 2005, the DSF enters its operational phase.

A telephone line put at the service of therapeutic treatment? Yes, because the use of new information technologies opens promising prospects for actors involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Broadband Internet access means better coordination among communities, public medical structures, those who need care, research institutes and NGOs. Communities with few resources and faraway from urban centres will benefit from databases on prevention, medical care and treatment of patients. The deployment of more powerful systems for follow-up and evaluation will make it possible to measure adherence, fidelity and epidemiologic resistance.

Knowledge transfer will be a key component of this project. Internet enables training and remote assistance of health care personnel working in rural communities affected by the disease. Thanks to telemedicine, quality resources typically only available in large urban centres will be accessible for all. Thanks to a connection to reference hospitals, community centres will be taken out of isolation at lower costs. Partnerships with research centres in industrialized countries can also be foreseen. With the disappearance of constraints linked to distance, patients will benefit from the best specialists, with real-time access to recent information.

On the technical level, the project will provide broadband Internet access via satellite, which will make it possible to deploy local radio loops on the WIMAX network. Seven C-Band connections are necessary, as well as a dedicated bandwidth of 2048/512 kbps. The selected sites have already the support of AIDSETI: office buildings, human resources and local know-how are available. To meet the objectives of the project, each site will be equipped with 30 to 40 PCs, connected in local area networks and configured for telephony on IP and videoconference.

*AIDS Empowerment and Treatment International was created by people living with HIV/AIDS. The AIDSETI Network counts 23 members associations adding up to more 100,000 people living with HIV in the 13 countries where it operates, in Africa and in the Caribbean. The objective of AIDSETI is to promote access to medical care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in the impoverished countries of Africa and the Caribbean www.aidseti.org