By Starphel Sithole
Recipients of care in Kasungu and Dedza districts have embarked on advocating for change in the challenges that they face when receiving treatment. Citizen Science Life Maps (CS-LM) organized a joint meeting between Citizen Science Community Led Monitoring and Advocacy (CS-CLMA) data collectors and CS-LM participants.
One of the agenda items at the meetings was to outline the challenges experienced and map the way forward. During these meetings recipients of care said some of the challenges faced include lack of privacy and delayed viral load results.
One of the CS-LM participants, Natasha Phiri in Kasungu district said that the communities need to take lead in addressing the problems that they face.
“CS-CLMA has empowered us to take lead in the matters that concern us and we have been empowered on how to tackle these issues. As recipients of care, we are the ones whose lives are at risk and we cannot always wait for the government to deal with our problems but rather we should be the solution to our problems.” Phiri said.
“We will organize meetings with Village Heads and other policy holders within our capacity to initiate change, like on the issue of privacy we will engage the village heads to help us organize the community members on how we can start making bricks to build a room for ART. We will also call a meeting with ART Coordinators to help us find partners that can help in building the ART infrastructure at the facilities.” She added.
In the month of May 2021 CS-CLMA data collectors in Kasungu district initiated an engagement meeting with the service providers, recipients of care, religious leaders, chiefs and other implementing partners in the district aimed at understanding the gaps hindering access to quality health services between recipients of care and service providers. Among the problems outlined and discussed, compromised privacy due to small ART infrastructure was one of them. The ART Coordinator convened a meeting with the Good Hope which later funded the ART building.
An online journal titled Let Communities Lead in the fight against HIV published on 6 November 2023 states that the 2023-2024 World AIDS Day theme ‘Let Communities Lead’ is not just a catchphrase but an urgent call to action, urging communities to step up and take charge in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Communities, being at the epicenter of this struggle, possess insights and understanding of the specific challenges faced by the affected. Empowering them implies tailoring interventions to their unique contexts and needs thereby ensuring an effective response to the virus.
