Meet the 2022 Healthcare Provider Champions - Zambia
Ngosa Musonda, nominator
Why did you nominate your healthcare provider?
Whenever I see her, I do not see just a nurse, but a saviour and mother to all. It has been less than a year since she arrived at Chazanga Health Centre and she has already helped a lot of parents and caregivers. Most adolescents have been adhering to treatment because of the love she offers them.
She loves being around adolescents and young people, and it is easy to share our stories and experiences because she is jovial and always smiling. Parents and caregivers of children living with HIV find comfort in her when faced with challenges or complicated issues concerning their children. She is always there to offer mental health support and one-on-one psychosocial support to adolescents and young people showing signs of unhealthy thoughts.
During our weekly support group meetings, she offers guidance and support to adolescents and young people. She quickly finds a way to resolve issues within the group, and her level of confidentiality gives most adolescents and young people the ability to trust her and open up about issues that affect them personally.
All adolescents and young people love her, not only those living with HIV, because of the love she offers. I enjoy the way she undertakes the adherence counselling sessions in a free and calm manner. She always starts counselling sessions by sharing stories and cracking jokes and this helps her build a good rapport with clients and caregivers.
She always says, “I don't want to see anyone die of negligence, non-adherence or denial.” She encourages everyone to adhere to treatment because she knows how it feels to be living with HIV.
Betherida Lukalanga, nurse
I am “doing the right thing” because…
I have compassion for humanity and a sense of duty. Always acknowledging adolescents' and young people’s feelings requires taking an interest, and I treat them the way I would have liked to be treated.
What was the turning point?
I noticed poor health outcomes in adolescents with a high viral load. Clients with high viral loads had poor health-seeking behaviour, which they attributed to the fear of being seen seeking ART services. To change this narrative and improve the outcome for these clients, providing a stigma-free environment was a necessity.
Peter Mwila, nominator
Why did you nominate your healthcare provider?
I nominated my peer supporter, Cephas Nkandu, because he is passionate about working with adolescents; he has helped those on ART, as well as those who are not. He has helped adolescents living with HIV accept their status and live a healthy lifestyle. He has helped adolescent mothers living with HIV understand the change in their life and how to take care of both themselves and their babies. He has helped adolescents understand their sexual reproductive health by linking them to health services. Cephas is an adolescent game changer, a role model and an inspiration.
What makes this peer supporter different is that he is hard-working and socializes with everyone. He is able to work under pressure, always has time to help and is a good listener.
He knows how to connect with young people and he leads the team in a peaceful way. He can work without supervision and uses his spare time to visit adolescents in the community.
He makes the facility better simply because he is friendly and makes adolescents and young people feel at home when they visit the health facility. Cephas assists the facility when staff need a hand, makes sure that all the needed reports are up to date and ensures that everything is in order in the office. He encourages and comforts the adolescents when needed and makes the facility and community better by getting involved in community and school sensitization.
Cephas Nkandu, peer supporter
I am “doing the right thing” because…
I feel that young people and adolescents living with HIV and any other health condition need a lot of support and information so that they do not feel sad about themselves or feel isolated or stigmatized.
What was the turning point?
I chose to provide stigma-free and adolescent-friendly health services because I observed that the number of young people and adolescents who came to access health services was very low. I did some research and found out that a lot of young people and adolescents feared being judged and rejected by the public. So I thought of creating a safe space for them so that they can be free to access services.
Thandiwe *, nominator
Why did you nominate your healthcare provider?
Monica Mutondo is different from other healthcare workers. She is so welcoming when I am at the clinic and always has time to ask how I am doing and how life is. Adherence is the important thing she talks about with me every day, and she always encourages me to live positively. With her around, I feel so open and safe at the health facility, and she makes me fit in the environment so well. She is the adolescent focal point who makes sure that we, adolescents, are in good health and have a suppressed viral load, encouraging us to join support groups and referring us to various departments to access services.
She has also helped adolescents living with HIV deal with stigma and discrimination. She makes sure that all adolescents living with HIV are fast-tracked during our drug refill appointments; this has helped me because I do not have to queue up for long hours during my drug refill appointments. She also involves me in many activities happening at the health facility. She has helped me realize and understand that I can be whoever I want to be in life regardless of my HIV status, and this means a lot to me. She is also my mentor.
Monica Mutondo, clinic general officer
I am “doing the right thing” because…
I care for humanity, adolescents and young people living with HIV. It is my role as a healthcare provider to ensure that adolescents have access to health information and knowledge of services that should be provided to them. They are vulnerable as they are going through so many changes that affect them physically and mentally. They do not always know how to handle changes, such as sexual desire, how society places them between childhood and adulthood, or how they relate with their peers.
What was the turning point?
One of my relatives is an adolescent who was born with HIV, and I saw the struggle she went through to cope with her status and adjust to societal demands as she grew up.
* To protect the identity of the nominator, a pseudonym is used.
Lontia Mweemba, nominator
Why did you nominate your healthcare provider?
I nominated Charles Chishala because he is understanding, welcoming and a committed professional. He is knowledgeable about adolescents living with HIV, considers each adolescent unique and ensures that they are treated with special care. Some time ago, ART services at our clinic were provided on a single day along with adults on ART, which brought about stigmatization and self-stigma to us adolescents. But he ensured that adolescents had a special day on which ART services were provided so that they were free to express themselves. As a result, there was a reduction in the number of lost-to-follow-up and virally unsuppressed adolescents.
As an adolescent living with HIV, there is nothing more frustrating than a health worker with a bad attitude because this leads to an increase in the number of virally unsuppressed and lost-to-follow-up adolescents.
Sometimes, adolescents come from broken homes and have other social issues that may be affecting us; we need someone to talk to and help us to access good quality health delivery, not just for our physical well-being, but also for our mental well-being. Mr Charles not only provides us with ART services, which some people think are the only things we need, but he also reminds us about sexual reproductive health, which is key to our sexual well-being. With this good attitude, many adolescents are retained in care.
Mr Charles and our supporting partner, the Pride Community Health Organization (PRICHO), have ensured that the majority of my fellow adolescents are equipped with vast knowledge about HIV. PATA’s ABCD (Ask, Boost, Connect and Discuss) project, which was initiated at our health facility through PRICHO, encourages positive thinking for young mothers living with HIV. It would not have been a success without the help of Mr Charles, who was instrumental in engaging other healthcare workers at our facility. With his commitment and dedication, he has made Chikupi Rural Health Center a better health facility.
Charles Chisala, registered nurse
I am “doing the right thing” because…
Adolescent health programmes have created a demand and a medium through which adolescents and young people living with HIV have been able to share their views about their health and have a role in the healthcare they receive. I was given the opportunity to be trained in the HIV management of adolescents and young people living with HIV and attended the PATA SUMMIT twice. This has really given me a wider perspective on the provision of quality health services to adolescents and young people living with HIV.
This unique age group requires me, as a healthcare provider, to be empathetic, cater to their level of understanding, and create an environment suitable for the provision of quality, acceptable healthcare services.
What was the turning point?
Good adherence and viral suppression to undetectable levels are some of the key elements in the management of HIV in adolescents and young people living with HIV.
Previously, we did not realize that the provision of ART services on the same day to both adults and adolescents and young people led to an increase in the number of unsuppressed adolescents and young people living with HIV and lost to follow up. Providing these services on the same day increased stigma, self-stigma and discrimination.
As an adolescent focal point person and member of the health facility management, I chose one day, every Tuesday, to provide ART services to adolescents and young people. This also includes interventions such as fast tracking and community sensitization through our supporting partner, PRICHO. These changes have led to an increased number of adolescents and young people retained in care and their viral loads reduced to undetectable levels.