The Zambia Therapeutic Art (ZTA) has trained 12 health care workers in therapeutic art as a tool to use to address trauma experienced by adolescents living with HIV in the government health facilities supported by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ).

The 12 that were trained include three adolescent focal point nurses and nine adolescent peer educators from three government health facilities including Matero level 1 hospital, Chawama level 1 hospital and George rural health centre.

The 4-day ZTA children and young people’s course is a novel approach that combines the use of a supporting and non-judgmental environment using clay, paper, paint, pencil etc. to enable children and adolescents to express their thoughts and feelings; and thereby aid recovery from the impacts of traumatic life events.

The hands-on experiential training covered a wide range of therapeutic art activities which the trainees could implement in practice such as the use of stories and the engagement of the senses in using art materials.

Other topics covered include;

• Adverse Childhood Experiences
• How to conduct Therapeutic Art with clients
• Childhood trauma (Cultural and historical understanding of childhood trauma, treatment paths and recovery).
• Complexity-Special Needs and living with HIV
• Zambia Therapeutic Art (ZTA) and sister organisation ‘Therapeutic Art Zambia’ (TAZ)
• Global and African initiatives on Therapeutic Art approaches.