Community Systems Strengthening

Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV (ZNNP+) as a community based organization works at community level to strengthen the linkage between the community and the health facility. This is done through creating networking systems at community level through volunteers who then link with the health facility. This has enhanced the early detection of people who may be facing some challenges in terms of access to medication.

Some of the voluntary cadres were deployed by the Ministry of Health and Child Care like Village Health Workers in line with the primary health care delivery system. However they have become a bit overwhelmed and cannot cover all the diseases. This has prompted ZNNP+ to identify some cadres who are specialist in HIV and AIDS so that they also work closely with the VHWs to offer services to the community and provide linkages. Some of the cadres that ZNNP+ has worked on include:

• Clients / Mentor Mothers - they provide support services to people living with HIV and AIDS at both community and health facility level. They also assist in the following up of people who maybe lost to follow-up and link them back to the community. They capacitate people living with HIV in terms of treatment literacy and adherence among other things.
• HIV and AIDS Support Agent / Advocacy, Support Group Leaders - These mainly focus on advocacy and support access to treatment and support for people living with HIV. They also work with VHWs and other Community Health Workers to support people living with HIV
• Community Based Differentiated Access to Services – Community ART Refill Groups (CARGs) is a model of access to ART medication at community level. Members take turns to go to the health facility to collect medication for each other and distribute at community level. This has assisted in decongesting health facilities and enhancing treatment adherence among people living with HIV. Other differentiated service delivery models include family refill, club refill, fast track and outreach models.