Priority Focus Area
Fostering healthy and empowered individuals and communities is a national imperative to break the vicious circle of poverty and ill health that affects a large number of Kenyans, especially women and young people affected by HIV. Thus, investing in research and well-integrated program interventions to improve individual and community health is an effective way of securing the future prosperity of individuals and communities.
IRDO has steadily invested in adolescents, young girls and boys, women, adult men, widows, and Key Populations [including Female Sex Workers (FSWs), Men who have Sex with Men (MSM), and People Who Inject Drugs (PWIDs)] over the past two decades.
It has made considerable progress in HIV prevention, care, and treatment among these populations, immensely contributing to the national and global fast-track goals of ensuring that by 2030, 95% of the HIV-infected persons know their status, 95% of those identified as positive are initiated on ART, and 95% of those on ART attain viral suppression.
Nevertheless, many young women, men, and girls, especially the key populations still lack the support they need for their health and development including information on and access to preventive initiatives.
Additionally, new threats such as non-communicable diseases and the rapidly changing socio-economic circumstances, further pose considerable challenges, especially for young people and priority populations.
Because public health approaches seek the highest possible levels of health and well-being for the populations being served, IRDO will continue to implement approaches that focus on major public health issues challenging the populations being served, and will ensure that the programs being implemented and researches being conducted are relevant and effective in addressing major health issues.