About Us
Lighthouse is a registered public trust that exists to contribute to Malawi’s national response to HIV as a model providing a continuum of high-quality care while building capacity in the health sector. Lighthouse Trust, a World Health Organization (WHO) recognized Centre of Excellence, works in close coordination with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to deliver comprehensive high impact HIV integrated services at five HIV Centres of Excellence located in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Zomba, and Mzuzu: one on the campus of Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH), another at Bwaila Hospital under the Lilongwe District Health Office, the third at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH), the fourth at Zomba Central Hospital, and the fifth at Mzuzu Central Hospital. These patient-centered HIV clinics offer high-quality care through a strategic mix of proven approaches to address the specific requirements of people living with HIV (PLHIV).
Lighthouse also provides direct HIV service delivery and technical support to eight prototype facilities in Lilongwe, namely Kawale, Area 18, Lumbadzi, Mitundu, Nathenje, Chileka, Chitedze, KCH OPD1 including two prisons (Maula and Kachere) by rapidly taking key national policies to scale.
Lighthouse seeks to contribute effectively to the UNAIDS and Malawi HIV National Strategic Plan adopted 95 – 95 – 95 targets which are that 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of people who know their HIV- positive status are initiated and retained on treatment and 95% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads. The Lighthouse contributes to this through its comprehensive integrated HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services following three objectives:
- Objective 1: Service delivery: to enhance high-quality, integrated HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services for children, adolescents, adults and populations at high risk of HIV.
- Objective 2: Model interventions and operations research: to develop, pilot, evaluate, and disseminate innovative programs and policies across the continuum of prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV infection and its co-morbidities, both infectious and non-infectious.
- Objective 3: Capacity strengthening: to build and strengthen healthcare capacity for high quality HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services
Lighthouse Trust contributes to and aligns efforts with Government of Malawi’s implementation of goals, objectives, strategies, and action points of the National Action Framework on HIV that focus on reducing new HIV infections, improving the quality of treatment and care, mitigating the impacts of HIV on individuals and households, and supporting systems needed to achieve these goals. To do this, Lighthouse collaborates with various local and international partners, such as The Malawi Government through MOH and National AIDS Commission, United States Government through Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS – Southern Africa (IeDEA – SA), University of North Carolina, University of Heidelberg, University of Cologne, International Training and Education Center for Health, Global Health Corps, and Friends of Lighthouse – Malawi (Germany Chapter).