The Aurum Institute

24/12/2025

from Aurum!

Wishing you and your family a safe, restful, and joyful festive season.

Here’s to renewed purpose in the year ahead.

17/12/2025

Led by Health Economist Don Mudzengi and Aurum colleagues, with contributions from Reach Digital Health, this publication shines a light on the design and development of mHealth tools, a space where evidence is still limited but urgently needed.

The study unpacks the development of Shesha, a WhatsApp-based chatbot that supports TB household contacts, offering valuable lessons for digital health innovation in South Africa.

🔗 Read the full publication here: https://formative.jmir.org/2025/1/e71793

Congratulations to the study team for advancing this critical work. We are proud to have collaborated in building Shesha and strengthening the evidence base for digital TB care.

12/12/2025

12/12/2025

Friendly Reminder!

Please make sure you refill your treatment and have enough medication to last you through the holiday clinic break.

Our POP INN clinics will be closed as per the dates below, and all sites will reopen on 05 January 2026.

To avoid interruptions, kindly collect your refill before your site closes.

Your health matters to us stay stocked, stay safe, stay on treatment .


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10/12/2025

Catch Kagiso Pulane tomorrow in Motsweding FM educating us on male contraceptive and family planning is men’s role too.

10/12/2025

Community, Evidence and Action

Our week at brought together powerful voices from communities, government, technical partners, and civil society, all united in strengthening the response to Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) across Africa.

At our Communities Reimagining AHD Care cocktail event, hosted with Afrocab, FAC, GNP+, Matchboxology and Paediatric - Adolescent Treatment Africa, we launched the Accra Declaration and the Community Connector Toolkit, reaffirming that communities want more than consultation, they want leadership, accountability, and meaningful participation in shaping AHD services.

This continued at our hybrid session, Shaping AHD Service Delivery Through Responsive Delivery Models, where speakers from DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Unitaid and Matchboxology shared early lessons on improving early diagnosis, strengthening TB/CrAg/OI screening, and advancing responsive, people-centred AHD pathways.

Together, these spaces underscored a single message: AHD progress depends on collaboration, community leadership, and evidence that drives action.

Thank you to all partners and delegates who joined us in Accra.

Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) Solthis ICASA 2025

06/12/2025

Programme Manager, Ernestina Sam presents findings from Ghana’s Public-Private Mix intervention for TB control, implemented in partnership with NTCP across 26 districts. The initiative strengthened 170 private health outlets, trained 375 healthcare workers and mobilized 37 TB Champions to expand case finding and improve linkage to care.

From April 2024 to March 2025, the programme screened 253,947 clients and detected 875 TB cases with a treatment initiation rate of 98.9 percent.

Persisting gaps, sputum-collection challenges, limited digital X-ray access, cartridge shortages and staff attrition, shape the next phase of work focused on expanding diagnostic access and stabilizing service delivery. ICASA 2025

05/12/2025

Get to know and Aurum Institute Ghana at !

Across both spaces, we’re highlighting the power of innovation, partnership, and community-centred approaches in strengthening Africa’s health systems.

IMPAAC4HIV is showcasing early lessons and tools shaping the future of Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) care across six countries, including the Connectors Tool-Kit: Community Action For AHD.

Aurum Ghana is sharing work on upscaling TB detection through innovation and partnership and strengthening One Health surveillance and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) response.

We look forward to connecting with delegates throughout the week. Come meet the teams, explore our work, and see how we’re advancing people-centred health solutions across the continent.

Unitaid Solthis Paediatric - Adolescent Treatment Africa Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi)

05/12/2025

Country Director, Nana Kofi Quakyi will present results from a 2024 mixed-methods landscape analysis examining the institutional readiness of key-population-led organizations in Ghana.

The study, conducted across four regions, found that KP-led CBOs face major structural and operational barriers: limited capacity, inconsistent service delivery, weak advocacy platforms and increased risks following recent legal developments.

The poster outlines concrete next steps, including capacity audits, tailored training, catalytic grants, strengthened coordination and advocacy for a safer legal environment, all geared toward enabling KP-led organizations to advance Ghana’s 30 60 80 HIV targets. ICASA 2025

05/12/2025

IMPAAC4HIV – Community Advocacy Highlight at

Patrick Agbassi, Aurum Community Engagement Manager, joined Lesley Odendal (Fight AIDS Coalition (FAC)) to spotlight the essential role of communities in advancing the Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) agenda.

Their discussion reminded us that meaningful progress in AHD care requires more than consultation, it demands community leadership, lived experience, and active participation at every level of decision-making.

Key themes included:
· Strengthening advocacy opportunities for AHD across Africa
· Ensuring community voices shape policies, programmes, and funding priorities
· Building collaboration between civil society, implementers, and governments
· Advancing people-centred models of care through IMPAACT4HIV’s community partnerships

Community involvement is not an add-on, it is the foundation of a responsive, equitable AHD response.
We are proud to stand with partners across the continent who continue to ensure communities lead the way.

Unitaid Solthis Paediatric - Adolescent Treatment Africa Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) ICASA 2025

05/12/2025