Seke District Young People Share Their HIV Story Openly

 

By Elizabeth Nyaguyo

As the country is trying to end new HIV infections by 2030 Seke District’s Kunaka clinic has come up with a programme called ‘HIV Treatment Support’

 

 

 

 

The programme has adolescence who are living positively with HIV so that they offer peer support to other peers living with HIV.

 

 

 

 

These adolescences who provides peer support are called the Community Adolescence Treatment Supporters (CATS) and they are being supported by Afraid Zvandiri.

 

 

 

 

This programme was introduced so that young people will share their grievances openly because they will be working with people of their age with the same statutes as theirs.

 

 

 

 

In an interview with Sly Media during a media tour organized by National AIDS Council (NAC)Zvandri mentor Loveness Kandengwa said that these CATS offer services that are crucial to their peers who are HIV positive so that they will open up.

 

 

 

 

“We have realized that these adolescences some of them are not living with their biological parents but secondary care givers like aunties so they are not able to open up to them but to these peers they can open p and share their problems.

 

 

 

 

 

“These CATS they provide what we all peer support to other peers who are living with HIV who take their medicines the medicines on each and every facility.

 

 

 

 

“What they do is they do home visits where they will have time to interact with adolescence on challenges they are facing on treatment.

 

 

 

 

“They actually do adherence where they will be reminding adolescence to take their medicines, come for their drug pickups,”said Kandengwa.

 

 

 

She added that, as Africaid Zvandiri they have their main goal which is to install hope, health and happiness in these young people who are living with HIV.

 

 

 

 

“As Africaid Zvandari our main goal is to provide hope for these young adolescences, there must have health, hope and happiness.

 

 

 

 

“We also do what we call mental health screening and TB screening to make sure that every adolescence is having comprehensive support from the health facility and the community,” she added.

 

 

 

 

Kandengwa said that, apart from these CATS offering support to their peers they also do home visits and talk to parents of young people who are HIV positive so as to educate them on the dangers of not disclosing important information on HIV statuses to their children.

 

 

 

“Parents are not left out we do some discussions with them mostly parents of those children living with HIV on what type of support these adolescences want from them and to compliment the effort they doing in their lives.

 

 

 

 

 

“Teachers, church leaders and schools we also include them in discussions and we talk to them concerning the challenges that these adolescences are facing and what kind of support they want from these stakeholders,” said Kandengwa.