Dignitas International is a medical humanitarian organization

Aid agency

An aid agency is an organisation dedicated to distributing aid. Many professional aid organisations exist, both within government , between governments as multilateral donors and as private voluntary organizations...

 which works with communities to increase access to life-saving HIV

HIV

Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...

/AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

-related treatment and prevention in resource-limited settings. Dignitas was founded by James Orbinski

James Orbinski

James Jude Orbinski, OC, OOnt, MSC is a Canadian physician, writer, and humanitarian activist. He is an associate professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs. In January 2011, he also assumed the Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana...

 and James Fraser, two former doctors with Médecins Sans Frontières

Médecins Sans Frontières

' , or Doctors Without Borders, is a secular humanitarian-aid non-governmental organization best known for its projects in war-torn regions and developing countries facing endemic diseases. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland...

 (MSF/Doctors Without Borders), along with other international experts in the field.

Dignitas places an emphasis on the development of community-based approaches to HIV/AIDS-related programming in order to extend the reach and impact of existing health facilities. Community-based care enables communities to overcome the lack of healthcare workers in regions overwhelmed by the AIDS pandemic

AIDS pandemic

The acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic is a widespread disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus .Since AIDS was first recognized in 1981, it has led to the deaths of more than 25 million people, making it one of the most destructive diseases in recorded history.Despite recent...

. Dignitas's work is based on the notion that that by creating links between hospitals, health centres and communities, patients will have better access to with life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) therapies. Dignitas tries to develop and refine community-based approaches for HIV/AIDS-related treatment and prevention so that the lessons learned can be disseminated to other parts of the developing world overwhelmed by AIDS.

Dignitas also conducts research in collaboration with the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 and other partners to monitor and evaluate effectiveness, improve programming, and inform the work of other stakeholders.

Since October 2004, Dignitas has been working particularly in Zomba District

Zomba District

Zomba District is one of twelve districts in the Southern Region of Malawi, surrounded by the Districts of Chiradzulu, Blantyre, Mulanje, Phalombe, Machinga, Balaka and the Republic of Mozambique to the east...

, Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

 in partnership with the Malawi Ministry of Health, providing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to thousands of children and adults in the country.