Thusi outreach point in Umzingwane District, has about 150 Recipients of Care. It has a total of eight functional Community ART Refill Groups (CARGs). Led by Duduzile Moyo, Sincedisaneni CARG is one of the longest standing groups. The CARG has 10 members in total, 8 females and 2 males.
During her regular scheduled clinic visits, Duduzile was advised by the facility Opportunistic Infections (OI) nurse of the DSD facility as an option. The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the USAID funded TASQC program reached out to Recipient of Care (RoC) around communities through facility nurses recommending all willing stable clients LHIV to form CARGs. When Sincedisaneni CARG was formed, they chose Duduzile to lead them as she had been instrumental in the recruitment of PLHIV into the CARG.
Duduzile keeps a register of the CARG members which show names and dates for ART refills. She supports discordant couples and those at risk in the community by linking them to the health facility for PrEP. Working with the Community Outreach Agent Coordinator (COAC) in the area, they are following up on a client in the diaspora who is in the Omalayitsha DSD model and is consistently supported through her family for ART refill, she plans for her Viral Load sample collections yearly upon visiting Zimbabwe. She has also been reporting successes in encouraging WLHIV (25-49) to get yearly VIAC screening. Remarkably, the best practice reported in this community is that there are no ART defaulters in the catchment covered by the COAC with support from Duduzile.
The use of CARGs is evidently fostering adherence and keeps track of any risk to defaulting within group. This serves as evidence-based interventions which are tailor making care and treatment across communities. To date, Umzingwane has 989 clients who are enrolled in 112 registered functional CARGs.
Out of Facility Community Art Distribution Model
Meet Mr. Ronald. Nkomo, one of our USAID funded TASQC program Community Outreach Agent from Insiza, who has made efforts in supporting the Out of Facility Community Art Distribution (OFCAD) model.
Mr. Nkomo covers 4 villages Angle CB, Bolo C, Bolo D and Xalanga B and is now responsible for manning an OFCAD site located at his homestead which distributes ART medicines to PLHIV. His home has earned the term “A Safe Space” in the community. When clients come, he does TB symptom screening and for those that are suggestive of positive TB symptoms, he navigates them to the clinic. The OFCAD started operating in May 2022 and has already enrolled 52 clients with support from MOHCC and the USAID funded TASQC program Community Health Services Nurse.
He also checks for recipients of care that are due for Viral Load and TB Preventive Therapy and links them to the Community Health Services Nurse (CHSN) for further service provision. The CHSN and District Community Coordinator make use of Mr. Nkomo’s Community register to update records at
the facility. At Mr. Nkomo’s homestead (OFCAD Site), he was provided a desk and two chairs where he serves the clients in the comfortable “Safe Space”. He also has a lockable medicine trunk that he stocks ART medicines for distribution to clients within the community, In order to do community support to his clients (as a COA) the program equipped him with a bicycle so that he navigates easily around 4 villages he supports.
The Out of Facility Art Distribution is championing the retention of PLHIV on ART. The effectiveness of this tailor-made model has aided in suppressing the viral load for patients on ART by supporting the uptake of ART religiously. This model also sees to it that everyone has access to Care and Treatment in the most convenient way possible and community-based health outreach projects have proved to empower the HIV/AIDS community to become more involved in health care and treatment within their community
We keep winning through our Community Outreach Agents implementing the DSD Models!