Community Health and Information Network (CHAIN) is an international not for profit organisation, registered as a charity and company in the UK and Uganda.  Set up in 1998, CHAIN promotes the empowerment of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS. CHAIN’s work is mostly undertaken in Africa where it has Offices in Kigali, Rwanda and in Kampala, Uganda.

CHAIN was founded by a group of African professionals resident in the United Kingdom in the wake of the 1998 Geneva World AIDS Conference.  The Geneva conference theme, "Bridging the Gap between the North & South" highlighted how Africa continues to bear the brunt of the epidemic and the burden borne by communities as a result HIV and AIDS morbidity and mortality. It brought into focus the recurrent theme of the pervasive North-South divide, and the need for persons with a foothold in both worlds to form bridges of understanding, advocacy focal points and vehicles for resource mobilisation in the effort to reverse the effects of the scourge of the epidemic.  CHAIN emerged from the realisation that this need had to be urgently met.
 
The organisation runs both national and international HIV and AIDS health programmes with a focus on capacity building and strengthening networks and partnerships of grass roots non-governmental organisations operating in the HIV and AIDS sector in Africa.  The main thrust of CHAIN’s effort is to galvanise key stakeholders in the struggle against HIV and AIDS. 

CHAIN’s interest areas are HIV prevention, treatment and care, policy development, treatment advocacy, supporting orphans & vulnerable children (OVC), monitoring and evaluation. Projects are informed by the needs of People Living with HIV & AIDS. Our programmes put a strong emphasis on engagement with the community and in particular the community leaders, youth, women, OVC & their guardians in all stages of the project cycle (needs assessment, design, implementations and evaluation). For the foreseeable future, CHAIN’S geographic priority is the Great Lakes Region of Africa.