The Redeemed AIDS Program Committee (RAPAC) is a faith-based NGO established in 1998 by the Redeemed Christian Church of God to empower communities to lead healthy lives. RAPAC operates in 6 Nigerian states and provides services like HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, malaria prevention, poverty alleviation, and adolescent health. The author interned at RAPAC for 7 months, working in HIV/AIDS counseling and testing, malaria prevention during pregnancy, and project planning. The internship experience provided exposure to data management, project design, policy review, and discussions on public health issues. The author recommends extending internship durations to allow interns to gain more experience.

1. Title: A Report on the Internship at
The Redeemed AIDS Program Committee (RAPAC).
KM 48, Lagos- Ibadan Express way. Ogun State.
Duration: 7 Months (February- October, 2016)
Prepared By: Oyekanmi, Olalekan Oriyomi
Matric No: 188325
Submitted To: Department of Health Policy and
Management, University of Ibadan
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE GRADUATE
DEGREE IN HEALTH POLICY AND MANAGEMENT
NOVEMBER, 2016

2. Overview:
The Redeemed Aids Program Committee is a Faith Based, Non Governmental Organization
managed by the Redeemed Christian Church of God. It was established in May 1998 as the
Public Health arm of the mission. Its mission is to empower the church and its communities to
live a healthier life through spiritual support system, strategic behavioural change
communication and access to health information and support services as well as quality
economic empowerment and educational interventions. The organization aims to provide
services that will ensure that the members of the mission and all the communities surrounding
them will be able to lead healthy lives through the provision of Spiritual, health, economic and
social support.
Branches
The Redeemed Aids Program Committee (RAPAC) is present in 6 states within Nigeria and they
include: Lagos, Oyo, Edo, Abuja, Benue and Ogun state.
Program Areas
 Food and Nutritional support
 Poverty Alleviation Scheme
 Basic Care for People Living with HIV/AIDS (Pre Counselling, post counseling and
management)
 Prevention of Mother to Child transmission of HIV/AIDS
 Family Planning, Sexual and reproductive health counseling/education
 Behavioural Change Communication
 Counselling and support in crisis situations e.g. Rape, couple crisis, etc)
 Adolescent health
 Health Policy Formulation and implementation
 Orphans and Vulnerable Children care
 Mental Health
Although, not all these services are available at all the centres, the cases can be referred to
the headquarters where there is more capacity to address all these issues.
Funding: RAPAC receives funding and support from three major sources. They are FHI360,
The Redeemed Christian Church of God and Special support free giving.
The Family Health International (FHI360) provides the technical support for the HIV/AIDS
program being done by providing the machinery and equipments used to test the patients. They

3. also provide various forms and monitoring and evaluation tools which is being used to monitor
the management of the client. They also organize periodic trainings and workshops for the
organization to enhance their skills and expose them to current best practices.
The Redeemed Christian church of God statutorily provides the financial provision for the
organization. At the start of every financial year, the organization sends its budget, based on the
various programs it engages in, to the mission, and the budget is reviewed and provided for. It
also pays the salaries of the staffs and interns.
Occasionally, RAPAC sends out letters and requests to various organizations, individuals and the
government for funds. This is a free gift request and some of these source category send in their
support gifts which the organization judiciously expends to carry out its mission.
The mission has gained international recognition of its work in rural communities, partly because
of the work being done in RAPAC.
My Internship Experience
Upon acceptance into the Internship program, I met the administration personnel of the
Organization who explained to me that I would work in various programs that the organization
would involve in during my stay. The programs I worked in are as follows:
1. HIV/AIDS Counselling and Testing: Throughout the period of my internship, I was on
this program area. The clients came on Tuesdays and we worked with them all day. On
the average, RAPAC had about 350 clients enrolled in the HIV care. Majority of them
were not residents within the area but came from far distances for their treatment. I
worked with another colleague as a monitoring and evaluation officer. We attended to the
new intakes on the HIV/AIDS program. The program procedure was to first do a
confirmatory test of the CD4 count of the client and upon receiving the result, we would
register them in the FHI360 data sheet. They would come once in a month for their drugs
and would receive counseling and encouragement to continue the daily drug.
Challenges: It took some time to fully understand the data register. Majorly because it
had volumes of data which had to be followed up in order to correctly tag each client. I
overcame this by getting my colleague who had been on the job to explain to me.
Knowledge gained: Data management and collation.
2. Prevention of Malaria in Pregnancy: RAPAC works closely with the Maternity Centre
of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to attend to Pregnant Women who have been
infected with the HIV virus, and to also prevent Malaria in Pregnancy. During the
internship, we distributed over 100 mosquito nets to the pregnant women.

4. 3. Project Planning and Design: A major challenge on the Redeemed Camp is Malaria.
While I served as an intern, I led a team of three to collect secondary data from the
hospitals and maternity on the camp on the number of Malaria cases presented by the
residents on the camp. We used this data to prepare a proposal on a project to clear out
the big canal that housed a very large stagnant body of water on the camp and also to
mandate every one of the about 5000 residents on the camp to ensure they maintain a
clean environment without stagnant water around them. Although the program had not
received approval till I left, it was a worthwhile task that helped me put to use all the
training I had received.
4. Board Meeting: I was allowed into one of the program planning board meetings with the
Head of Departments. I was able to learn from that session the role of politics in
planning. I learnt that there are hierarchies of the most pressing need and the most funded
or likely to be funded programs. In some cases, the most funded program is not the most
pressing need. For example, on the Redeemed camp, some mentally derailed individuals
roam on the street. These individuals, we later gathered, either just walked into the camp
premises by their own free will or they were brought there by their relatives with the
thought of leaving them there to get healed Spiritually. RAPAC has a duty to locate these
people and evacuate them to the mental centres but this is not the most funded or easy to
do program. Therefore, sometimes, this program is overlooked in favour of other
programs.
Knowledge gained: I understood the political process of actors, contexts, contents and
process and how it came to play in decision making of what to do or what not to do.
5. Policy Review: I was able to review the health policy documents of The Redeemed
Christian Church of God. Although, the review was simply to know more about the
organization, it afforded me the opportunity of seeing the policy ideas and aims of the
mission towards their health. In this capacity, I’d say, no knowledge gained is lost.
6. General Knowledge: During the course of my internship, I was able to partake in
various arguments and discussions on public health issues. Our discussions usually
centred around policy, funding, government and entertainment. I was able to hear and see
various points of view that everyone had about all these topics and I was able to gain
more knowledge which are needed for my professional career in Public Health.
Recommendation: The internship period is a very important phase in our training. I want
to recommend that the internship duration be longer and maybe up to 1 year in order to
allow the intern gain more experience. Some of my colleagues would have been able to
intern with other big organizations but the organizations would only want interns who
would be there for a year or more.

5. Conclusion: I was able to learn a lot from my internship experience. Though short, yet
quite impactful. I would eagerly put in for another opportunity if the opportunity comes
knocking.