Adam Mitamba has been a community health volunteer in central Tanzania since 2015. He has been working with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) since 2019, and currently serves at the Dodoma Referral Regional Hospital in Tanzania’s capital city. Adam is passionate about motivating people to practice health-seeking behaviors and improving their ability to do so.
During a radio broadcast, Adam explains how to self-test for HIV and encourages listeners to learn their HIV status. Photo by Jennifer Kayombo/Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 2022
Over the past eight months, Adam has personally engaged with more than 500 people at both the facility and the community levels—reaching them by speaking to community groups and through the media. He educates the public about HIV, gender-based violence, male-friendly services, and COVID-19. He has been supported in this work by the USAID Afya Yangu Northern project, which trained him to communicate effectively to groups as well as engage with individuals and couples.
During his sessions with clients, Adam saw the need increase dialogue around topics often brushed over in clinics. He introduced a special segment when providing education at the Care and Treatment Centre to remind them that living with HIV never has to mean the end of someone enjoying their sexual life.
This segment has become a client favorite, and Adam now also shares it on a community radio station that is estimated to reach more than 1 million people. The radio segment, Afya ya Familia (Family Health), addresses topics like sexual relationships and personal hygiene. Through the radio, Adam has managed to link six couples living with HIV to care over the past month.
Adam explains that due to community stigma, people living with HIV also have to fight self-stigma. Shame can lead to risky or self-destructive behaviors. Some people living with HIV decide to stop visiting the clinic. They may take their medication irregularly and engage with multiple sexual partners as a result of self-stigma.
Through Afya ya Familia, Adam encourages couples to be a team and maintain positive health behaviors that will help them stay on treatment, reduce self-stigma, and prevent transmission of HIV in the community. He encourages individuals to stay strong and access peer counseling at the clinic.
Adam talking to community members. Photo by Jennifer Kayombo/Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 2022
“I enjoy my work and see the great potential of my role as a community health volunteer in contributing to health-seeking behaviors while creating a network of young people I am serving,” says Adam.
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During a radio broadcast, Adam explains how to self-test for HIV and encourages listeners to learn their HIV status. Photo by Jennifer Kayombo/Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 2022
