25 February 2023- FACT Zimbabwe family took time to bid farewell and celebrate the achievements and contribution of the organizations’ Founder Dr. Geoff Foster who has been in Zimbabwe for the past 40 years contributing immensely to the health sector of Zimbabwe envisioning healthy and empowered communities.
Since 1985 Dr. Foster has worked as a pediatrician for the government of Zimbabwe leading on health care and other forms of support for children affected by HIV and AIDS.
In 1987 he founded Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT), one of Africa’s first AIDS service organizations, after diagnosing children with HIV and AIDS. As FACT Director, he piloted community care and prevention responses and shared lessons learnt through regional training programs for NGOs and through publications. He initiated innovative research around orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and piloted model community based OVC support programmes resulting in numerous publications.
Geoff contributed immensely to national and international organizations in strategic planning HIV and child health and welfare services, funding of civil society responses, and disability and faith-based responses. He was a co-chair of the Joint Learning Initiative on Children and AIDS and since 2011 has led the Eliminating Pediatric AIDS in Zimbabwe project sponsored by the World Health Organization, that reported in 2017. He is now engaged in research on tuberculosis that is now is the most common infection causing death and is the sixth most common cause of death in children.
Geoff Foster, MD, serves on the Firelight Advisory Council since 2002 and the Firelight Board since 2009.