The K2 Foundation is a Canadian Charity focusing on alleviating the
HIV/AIDS pandemic in the Kasungu district, central Malawi. We operate
through our Malawi based N.G.O. partners, K2-TASO, with a clinic built
by us at St. Andrews rural community hospital and with 3 remote field
offices in the eastern part of the Kasungu district.
The project began in 2007 as collaboration between a Malawian hospital
clinician, keen to meet the challenge of AIDS and a B.C. businessman,
interested in seeing such a project develop. In 2008, the K2 Foundation
was incorporated in British Columbia to handle the funding needs of
a community based organization (C.B.O.), originally called “TIGWIRANEMANJA,” (“Lets
work together.”) that is now incorporated in Malawi as “K2-TASO,” N.G.O.
Beginning with Information, Education and Communication, we have,
through our local representatives and counselors, engaged with village
elders and chiefs, religious leaders and other respected community
individuals and with the villagers themselves, spread the message that
HIV/AIDS is a treatable chronic disease. We work to reduce misconceptions
and the consequent discrimination and stigma attached to people living
with HIV/AIDS.
We provide HIV testing and counseling, group therapy, home based care,
clinical care, nutritional support and food security through the provision
of seeds, fertilizers, pumps and by giving people goats for food, milk
and to generate income.
Originally we referred patients to the District Hospital 25 Km away,
but now we have built a clinic in KASUNGU, East, built to the specification
of the Ministry of Health, Malawi, with whom we closely work. This
clinical base makes HIV/AIDS care much more accessible for our rural
clients. No one pays for drugs and our N.G.O. will cover the hospital
expenses for those too poor to pay.
We currently have 521 people on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
(HAART), with this number growing daily.
We work on a “Home-based Care” model, and our goal is to
bring these services to the villages and homes of the people of Malawi.
Where clinical care is required, we offer transportation to the clinic.
We also provide basic medical care through our Home-based care workers,
we check for T.B. and other co-infections, provide therapeutic feeding,
hygiene products, blankets, some school fees for the younger people
living with HIV/AIDS and some income security for older people. We
assist villagers to re-roof leaking huts with plastic sheeting under
the usual grass roofs.
As our outreach into the community expands, we have been met with
immense gratitude by local populations and K2-TASO is regarded as a
model project by the Government of Malawi and has received, from the
Ministry of Health, continuous “Certificates of Excellence.”
By reaching out on foot, by bicycle, motorcycle and 4-wheel drive,
we are able to bring HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment to rural Malawi.
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The six primary areas in which the charity is now carrying
on programs to achieve its charitable purposes:
- Medical services
- Infrastructure development
- Specialized health organizations
- Food, nutrition & livelihood security
- Agriculture inputs and animal husbandry
- Training and education
