Staff Reporter 

WINDHOEK – The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), yesterday handed nutrition equipment valued at N$1 million to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

According to a media statement by the US Embassy in Windhoek, the equipment, which consists of 100 body weighing scales, 100 height-measuring boards, 50 food scales and 15 000 special measuring tapes to identify malnutrition, was procured by USAID’s Global Health Supply Chain Program and will be distributed to health facilities across Namibia.
The equipment will particularly benefit children, pregnant women and people living with HIV, including those who are co-infected with tuberculosis.

 About a year ago, Namibian health facilities received through the program a donation of therapeutic and supplementary food equivalent to about 6,000 patient-months of treatment, as well as support to integrate therapeutic and supplementary food in the country’s pharmaceutical supply system. 

Pepfar is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative – a comprehensive approach to combating HIV/AIDS around the world. 

Pepfar employs the most diverse prevention, treatment and care strategy in the world, with an emphasis on transparency and accountability.

In Namibia, Pepfar is led by the U.S. ambassador and programmed by an inter-agency management team chaired by the Pepfar coordinator that includes USAID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Peace Corps.