What Lontia Mweemba had to say about Charles Chishala

He has ensured that adolescents are treated with special care. At one point, ART services at our clinic were provided on a single day together with adults on ART, which caused some stigmatization and self-discrimination to us adolescents, but he ensured that ALHIV had a special day on which ART services were provided so that adolescents were free to express themselves and this, in turn, showed a reduction in several lost-to-follow-up and unsuppressed adolescents.

As an ALHIV there’s nothing more frustrating than a health worker with a bad attitude towards me because this leads to an increase in the number of unsuppressed and lost-to-follow-up adolescents. Sometimes we, as adolescents, come from broken homes and face other social issues that may be affecting us, and we need someone to talk to because access to good and quality health delivery is what we need not just for our physiological need but also psychologically. He not only provides us with medication and other ART services, which people think are the only things we need, but he goes beyond reminding us about sexual reproductive health (SRH) which is key to our sexual well-being. With this good attitude many ALHIV are retained back into care.