With funding from ViiV Health Care through the Pregnant Parenting Girls (P2G) project, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) held a 4-day economic empowerment training at the Golden Zambezi Hotel in Lusaka.

41 peers from 12 district health facilities across Lusaka were successfully trained under the CIDRZ Adolescents health program. The health facilities represented include; George, Matero, Kanyama Main, Chawama, Kamwala, Chilenje, Chainda Main, Bauleni, Mtendere, Chaise, Chipata and Mandau.

The main objective of the training was to make sure that 2000 HIV pregnant adolescents and adolescent mothers aged between 10 to 19 years old are economically empowered to become resilient and independent through the provisions of a comprehensive package which includes: Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR), Skills Empowerment, Financial Literacy, Mental Health, and Gender Based Violence Counselling Package.

This program also aims at ensuring 95% treatment adherence and viral load suppression of HIV positive adolescent mothers, enrolled on the program, through Tingathe mother-baby pairs by 2024.

P2G under the CIDRZ adolescent training project also aims at training 500 adolescent mothers in leadership through the Girls 4 Girls (G4G) mentorship by 2024.

The program is all inclusive as 65% of young fathers have been involved in antenatal and postnatal clinic visits for adolescent mothers enrolled in the program.

Other topics discussed at the training program include:

• Tingathe model
• Index testing
• Adherence counselling
• Elimination Mother to Child Transition (EMTCT) and Prevention Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)
• Men’s clinic
• District Health Information System (DHIS2)

Mental health in partnership with strong Mind