The Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Program (EDARP) was founded in 1993 as a Faith Based Organization (FBO) within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi by Maryknoll Father Ed Phillips and a Kenyan Nurse, Mrs. Alice Njoroge. During the early years, the focus was on care, compassion and meeting the spiritual and pastoral needs of patients as they prepared for inevitable death. In 2004, EDARP was one of the early recipients of PEPFAR funding. This brought to the eastern slums of Nairobi the advent of ART (anti-retroviral therapy) for persons living with HIV and AIDS as well as a robust program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
Currently 428 EDARP staff and 1,200 Community Health Workers (CHWs) provide comprehensive HIV and TB treatment, care and support in the eastern slums of Nairobi for 28,224 children and adults. This comprehensive, holistic treatment provides assessment and care for every individual’s physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. Additionally, EDARP provides VMMC (voluntary male medical circumcision) to reduce transmission of HIV, PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and community education and mobilization to reduce HIV transmission and related stigma and discrimination.