Youth Group Community Outreach
Our Hope Ambassadors visited people in the Kachulu area; along Lake Chilwa in Zomba.
They performed music, drama and dance at the event which aimed at disseminating messages of HIV prevention and the promotion of ART (antiretroviral therapy) medication uptake by those people who are HIV positive.
Previous research in Malawi indicates that there is a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in areas along the lakes in Malawi. The transitional nature of fishing communities tends to influence casual sexual relationships, increasing the risk of the spread of HIV. Therefore our outreach activities and condom distributions are key to these communities.
One of our Ambassadors shared a story of his friend who is HIV positive and is living a healthy life now since he follows medical advice of taking ARTs daily.
Our HIV counselors accompanied the Hope Ambassadors and were able to conduct HIV tests for people in the community.
Village headman Likapa was very pleased with our visit and he remarked, “Thank you for this visit, I request that you should link up with our youth of this community and work hand in hand with them, this will enable them to gain the skills from Hope Ambassadors and in the end they can disseminate these messages remotely.”
The chief asked our team to continue the good work it is doing in Zomba district.
The day was a huge success and we even managed to distribute condoms to the towns we traveled through on our way to the lake.