From November 4-10 in Nicaragua, Capacity Project staff Dr. Bruno Benavides and Dr. José Enrique Zelaya participated in the Central American Conference on HIV/AIDS.

The biennial event is considered the most important meeting of its kind in the region, and provided an excellent opportunity to share Project activities. Dr. Zelaya gave presentations on TB-HIV coinfection, opportunistic infections and income generation for people living with HIV (PLHIV). María Margarita Alvarez from CONTRASIDA, an El Salvadoran organization, led a well-attended workshop on income generation for PLHIV, in which she presented the Project’s approach. The Project is strengthening CONTRASIDA’s capacity to design and manage an income generation project for local PLHIV.

In addition, Dr. Solón Chavarría from the Costa Rican Social Security presented the advances of performance improvement for decentralized HIV services—work that is being supported by the Project. Three Costa Rican hospitals and a total of 17 in the region are taking part in this innovative initiative.

December 2007