By Joseph Ganthu
Twelve members of communities around targeted health facilities in the Cyclone Freddy hit district of Phalombe pledged to strongly advocate for health rights after a two-day intensive training in Community Led Monitoring (CLM) which among other areas included human rights.
Hastings Mwanza; an Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation Officer at JONEHA took participants who were largely Expert Clients (EC) as representatives of Health Center Management Committees (HCMCs) through the topic on human rights with a focus on health rights. This was aimed at helping participants understand their entitlements as regards to accessing health services. Expert Clients are people living with HIV trained in proving peer support on HIV and AIDS services in a given locality. Expert Clients have over the years have provided a key linkage role between Health Providers and recipients of care.
Mwanza said there is a “Right to life, Right to participate on health issues which affect them, Right to demand equity or leaving no one behind in accessing health services, Right to privacy and confidentiality, Right to demand quality health services and related entitlements,”. Thereafter he pointed out some factors that affect access to quality health services such as stigma and discrimination, long distances, health worker attitude, privacy and confidentiality and low treatment literacy.
On the Right to Privacy and Confidentiality the 2018 HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Management) Act on Part 5 stipulates that a person living with HIV has the right to privacy and confidentiality with regard to information concerning his status. It adds that it shall be the duty of every health service provider to strictly observe confidentiality in handling all medical information concerning a person living with HIV.
The Advocacy and Resource Mobilization Officer explained that some recipients of care population groups like people with disabilities face double stigma for living with HIV and being a person with disabilities. Such population groups have limited access to information because of stigma and discrimination and limited spaces for their voices.
In an interview after the training; some participants said they will ask relevant authorities to share copies of human rights tools to enable communities effectively advocate for health rights. The training was conducted from 20th to 21st October 2023 by the Network of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under the COMPASS Africa initiative.
In promoting human rights; the Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP III) 2023-2030 has placed communities at the heart of service provision through the reform on integrated platforms of care which will aim to achieve holistic and client focused care. The HSSP III also aims to empower communities to take charge of their health through the introduction of equitable and community led domestic financing mechanisms. It also emphasizes strengthened community oversight of local health care delivery as a strong component of the proposed governance mechanisms in the HSSP III.
