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as well as AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children; and 4) to prevent the further spread of the
virus especially among high risk populations such as commercial sex workers (CSW), low income
women, and members of the armed forces. GHAIN is a partnership of eight national and
international organizations and educational institutions referred to as the Project Management team
(PMT), by Family Health International (FHI). 1 Nigeria‟s population of 120 million represents one
fifth of all people living on the African continent. According to the recent Human Development
Report of the UNDP, it is estimated that nearly four million persons in Nigeria are infected with
HIV, constituting an overall rate of over five percent of the population. This means that the HIV
problem in Nigeria has reached the stage of a generalized epidemic, affecting all sectors of the
population. Combating this very serious threat to the nation's health now requires the mobilization of
all facets of the Nigerian social system, including public, private and non-governmental
organizations, as well as massive scaling up of existing HIV/AIDS services and the creation of new
ones.
Under the GHAIN plan, the first step in scaling up services calls for rapid community assessments in
the target states of Anambra, Edo, Lagos, Cross River, Bauchi and Kano, as well as the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT). One objective is to identify organizations providing services, determine
who is being served and what kinds of support are currently being offered, and learn how these
groups operate. The relevant organizations include governmental agencies and committees, civic
associations, support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), public and private clinics,
women‟s groups, faith-based organizations (FBOs), and others, both formal and informal, involved
in AIDS related activities. Another objective is to understand the organizational networks, to find
out which groups are collaborating with each other, and how they are linked. In addition, it is
important to identify the locate “hot spots” or places where high risk activity is concentrated. Most
of those places of high risk sexual behaviors are residential areas, in which there are also
concentrations of PLWHAs and PABAs (people affected by AIDS), who are in need of care and
support. The organizations, health facilities, hotspots and other features are represented spatially on
a series of maps constructed with the help of key informants during the assessment process.
1 Other PMT members include the Institute of Human Virology/University of Maryland (IHV/UMD), The
Futures Group International (FUTURES), the Nigerian and American Red Cross (NRC/ARC), the Centre for
Development and Population Activities (CEDPA), Howard University, the German Leprosy Relief Agency
(GLRA) and the Axios Foundation.
2