Where We Work > Americas > Central America

Central America

Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama

Compared to sub-Saharan Africa, Central America’s HIV epidemic is relatively localized and continues to be concentrated in high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, and intravenous drug users. However, a lack of knowledge about HIV, widespread stigma of the disease, limited access to health care, poverty, and migration all contribute to the region’s vulnerability to a growing HIV epidemic.

IntraHealth International has worked in Latin America since 1998, with an initial focus on improving health care for women and children. In 2006, under the global Capacity Project, IntraHealth broadened this focus to include efforts to ensure that health workers across Central America were equipped with the knowledge and skills they needed to deliver high-quality HIV treatment, care, and support for all people living with HIV.

With funding from USAID, the project worked to:

  • Reform the medical school curriculum at universities in four countries to include better information about HIV treatment and care and educate faculty about HIV
  • Assess health workers’ knowledge and skills in offering comprehensive HIV treatment and care
  • Collaborate with governmental and nongovernmental agencies to fill knowledge gaps
  • Better manage income-generation projects for people living with HIV.

Central America Capacity Program

IntraHealth leads the Central America Capacity Program. Using the Performance Improvement approach designed by IntraHealth, the program has worked with staff at 54 hospitals in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama to assess and improve their HIV knowledge and skills. The program also employs IntraHealth’s innovative Learning for Performance methodology, a training approach to help hospital management staff quickly and cost-effectively teach and reinforce essential information and skills and to prepare health workers in training for the tasks they will perform on the job. To create a sustainable learning environment, the program is also training selected health workers to become trainers themselves.

In coordination with the Guatemalan Technical Diploma Course Commission—and in partnership with Rafael Landívar, Francisco Marroquín, and San Carlos universities—the program is exploring innovative methods to train health workers by using eLearning and mobile devices. The universities offer online courses for health workers in basic HIV prevention and treatment. The program is also helping to develop and test methods that will enable workers in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica to review information they learned in previous trainings and receive text message updates.

The program works with staff at local, regional, and national health facilities to ensure that at-risk people receive a full range of HIV prevention, referral, and treatment services. Additionally, the program is helping communities to support HIV testing, treatment, and care; and to discourage stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and the most at-risk populations. This work is funded by USAID.

Other Previous Projects

  • PRIME and PRIME II projects (both in El Salvador) (funded by USAID, led by IntraHealth)

Contact

Dr. Yadira Villaseñor
Chief of Party
Central American Capacity Program
yvillasenor@intrahealth.org

More information is available in the country brief.