Chevron funds mother-to-child HIV transmission with N265million

Chevron Nigeria Limited, operator of the NNPC/Chevron Joint Venture, has announced that Chevron Corporation will commit an additional N265 million($1.7 million) in its funding support for the community-based Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) project known as the PROMOT project, in Bayelsa State.

This additional commitment raises Chevron’s 5-year investment for the PROMOT Project to $5.3 million, according to Deji Haastrup the company’s General Manager on Policy, Government and Public Affairs

He said the additional support will facilitate the expansion of the reach of the PROMOT project to all local government areas in the state with a target of reaching at least 120,000 men and women of reproductive age.

He also said that PROMOT project will train an additional 300 community health workers on community PMTCT approaches to enable them continue creating demand for PMTCT services in existing health facilities across the state.

The PROMOT project is sponsored by Chevron and implemented by Pact Nigeria in partnership with community based organizations (CBOs), to achieve the primary goal of educating and mobilizing the population in targeted communities to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV in Bayelsa State.

The project, which began in September 2012 with a funding of $3.6 million over three years, had in the first year, reached more than 6,500 individuals in Sagbama and Yenagoa local government areas with critical HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention information, tested more than 7,000 women during prenatal care, and arranged for HIV counseling for nearly 700 people. In addition, 147 community health workers were trained to carry out community PMTCT activities.