Dignitas International

For other uses, see Dignitas (disambiguation).

Dignitas International is a medical humanitarian organization which works with communities to increase access to life-saving HIV/AIDS-related treatment and prevention in resource-limited settings. Dignitas was founded by James Orbinski and James Fraser, two former doctors with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders), along with other international experts in the field.

Dignitas places an emphasis on the development of community-based approaches to HIV/AIDS-related programming in order to extend the reach and impact of existing health facilities. Community-based care enables communities to overcome the lack of healthcare workers in regions overwhelmed by the AIDS pandemic. Dignitas's work is based on the notion that that by creating links between hospitals, health centres and communities, patients will have better access to with life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) therapies. Dignitas tries to develop and refine community-based approaches for HIV/AIDS-related treatment and prevention so that the lessons learned can be disseminated to other parts of the developing world overwhelmed by AIDS.

Dignitas also conducts research in collaboration with the University of Toronto and other partners to monitor and evaluate effectiveness, improve programming, and inform the work of other stakeholders.

Since October 2004, Dignitas has been working particularly in Zomba District, Malawi in partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health, providing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to thousands of children and adults in the country.

External links

• Dignitas International