On 14th February 2010, AIC marked 20 years of quality services in Uganda. AIDS Information Centre (AIC) offers HIV testing, counselling, and AIDS support services to people living in Uganda. Established on February 14th Valentine’s Day 1990, AIC has become internationally recognized as being the first organization of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

The need for HIV testing and counselling services in Uganda was articulated long before the AIC was actually established. In 1988, at a meeting of the Patient Care Sub-committee of the National Committee for the Prevention of AIDS, representatives from Red Cross/Uganda, Nsambya Hospital in Kampala and the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) discussed how knowing one’s HIV status can lead to behavior changes towards safer sexual practices. They decided to establish an H1V testing center in Uganda.

The group wrote a proposal advocating that such a center should be formed at Nsambya Hospital, where some HIV testing facilities already existed. Further discussions about this center, however, concluded that it should not be located in a hospital since the center would not be for people who were sick, but who wanted to know their HIV status and receive counselling. On April 5, 1989, Professor Watson Williams from the Nakesero Blood Bank wrote to Uganda’s AIDS Control Programme confirming that the Blood Bank would accept the responsibility for testing blood donated to the Bank. Some people began donating blood to determine their HIV status, indicating a demand for testing services.
 
Then, Inter-Aid/Uganda, an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working on development and relief, obtained US $25,000 from Germany to establish a testing center, and approached the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Kampala for co-financing. Meanwhile, many different initiatives to confront the problem of AIDS were already underway in Uganda. World Learning, a US- based international NGO, active in international development and NGO capacity building, was conducting AIDS awareness training through the USAID-funded AIDS Education and Control Program; the Uganda AIDS Control Programme (ACP) had an AIDS training initiative; and The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) and the Federation of Uganda Employers (FUE) were providing AIDS support services.

As the momentum to start an HTV testing center grew among AIDS education and support groups, representatives from USAID, World Learning, TASO and the FUE travelled to the United States to study what was being done there in the way of AIDS prevention and HIV testing. The team visited San Francisco, California, met with key participants in AIDS awareness in the private and public sectors, and observed confidential HIV testing and counselling sessions. Then the team flew to Washington, DC to discuss with the USAID/Africa Bureau the desperate need for AIDS awareness funding in Uganda.

Upon returning to Uganda, the team met with others and decided to establish the AIDS Information Centre even before they had found core funding for the project. A management committee was formed, with representatives from various organizations. In 1990, ten institutions — USAID, World Learning, Inter-Aid, the World Health Organization (WHO), UVRI, Nakesero Blood Bank, TASO, AIDS Control Programme under the Ministry of Health, Red Cross/Uganda, and Makerere University collaborated to form the AIC; its office was established in four rooms in the basement of the Baumann House in downtown Kampala. Mrs. Lydia Barugahare, from the Family Planning Association of Uganda now Reproductive Health Uganda, was hired as AIC’s first director. Two small grants (the $25,000 from Inter-Aid and $50,000 from USAID) covered start-up costs and Mrs. Barugahare’s salary, testing was provided by the Nakesero Blood Bank, test-kits were donated by the World Health Organization, and World Learning managed financial operations from its offices. Representatives from each of these organizations formed the AIC Board of Directors.

On AIC’s opening day, Uganda’s Vice President the late Mr. Samson Kesekka and the US Ambassador Mr. John Burroughs were in attendance and witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the ten collaborating institutions. On the first day one man came, was given pre-test counselling, and left. The second day two men came to take an HIV test. Soon over 100 people a day were crowding into the basement. By February of 1991, one year after opening its doors, the AIC had served over 13,000 clients - nearly tripling its goal to serve 5,000 clients per year. Today AIC sees over 2000 clients a day in all its testing centres. The project has been replicated in many countries in Africa.

Join AIC this 14th February 2010 as they mark 20 years of quality HIV counseling and Testing services in Uganda.

Details can be got from informationdesk@aicug.org