2002, August 18: The Friends Women’s Association (FWA) is founded by a group of women in Bujumbura, Burundi, during a two-day workshop focusing on the trauma of war and HIV/AIDS. They choose to focus their work on the national struggle against HIV/AIDS and malaria, working through community participation and improving the health of mothers and of their children.
2003, May 31st: Friends Women’s Association is officially recognized as a not-for-profit organization in Burundi.
2004: A medical clinic opens in Kamenge to treat malaria, HIV/AIDS and opportunistic infections, to provide pre- and post-HIV test counseling, as well as to assist orphans and other vulnerable children. Considering the violence that Kamenge has faced over the years, the need for peace education and trauma healing is evident.
2006, April: FWA’s lease ends. It is decided that the clinic should move to a more permanent location on property owned by FWA. Through two construction cycles aided by AGLI’s workcamps in the summers of 2008 and 2009, the FWA clinic gradually grows to offer more services. Currently, the clinic has a consultation room, the social worker’s room, the doctor’s consultation room, a laboratory, a pharmacy, psychosocial counseling room, a maternity ward, and a large conference room.
2010, October: FWA receives its Centre de Santé status by the Ministry of Health.With the addition of the equipment procured by Project CURE, FWA will hopefully receive accreditation to administer ARV’s to HIV positive patients in 2011.