WINDHOEK – Twenty-eight-year-old Maria Makuni Mandondo who lives and works in Musese, a village about 85 kilometres west of Rundu, is making an impact in the lives of communities in the area. She works as a field officer for the Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) and Total Control of the Epidemic (TCE).
Her daily activities involve working with the community by offering counselling and testing, providing referral services between the community and health facilities, promoting voluntary medical male circumcision to protect against HIV, counselling services to protect against HIV, to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV and to promote adherence to HIV treatment medications.
Mandondo hosts a weekly HIV/Aids youth group at a local school where she directly engages with youth.
She meets with in-school and out-of-school young people and discusses difficult subjects such as condom use, safe sex, gender-based violence, teen pregnancy and poverty alleviation.
The life skills teacher at Olavi Combined School, Vilho Shikukumwa, is one of the teachers who have come to appreciate the efforts of Mandondo.
“Maria is young and friendly and pupils are more likely to be open with her and talk about these issues. The pupils prefer to talk to Maria, whom they see as their peer rather than a teacher,” says Shikukumwa.
Mandondo travels weekly on a mukoro, a dugout wooden canoe, across a tributary of the Okavango River to work with a community support group of people living with HIV/Aids and vulnerable children affected by Aids.
This group of more than 28 people work in a garden on the lush river’s bank and grownutritious foods that are vital for the health of those taking antiretroviral medication. nutritious foods that are vital for the health of those taking antiretroviral medication.
The group grow tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions and mutete, a type of wild spinach, which are shared among the group members. This food keeps them healthy and is an encouragement for them to take their medication regularly after they eat well. They are also urged not to compromise their treatment by drinking alcohol.
As a trained DAPP TCE field officer, Mandondo has the necessary skills and expertise to work in her community supporting those who require her services. She is confident about addressing the challenges of working in her community on HIV/Aids issues including HIV testing and counselling, a flagship DAPP programme. The training is financially supported by the United States government through the PEPFAR programme and is organised by DAPP.
The DAPP TCE field officers are recognizable in their red shirts and have become popular and well respected in rural communities where it is difficult for residents to travel to clinics, sometimes more than 50 kilometres away. It has become Mandondo’s daily activity to go door to door to provide HIV testing, counselling, referral services and follow-up support.
When conducting HIV testing and counselling for couples during home visits, Mandondo focuses on providing clear information to prepare them for the test results. HIV results could be negative, positive or discordant. She discusses the meaning of the results, the importance of the partners supporting each other and the importance of prevention, treatment and care depending on the outcome of the test results.
A special aspect of the DAPP programme is that people like Mandondo are able to provide individualized follow-up care and support in the homes of people who are less likely to seek care or get tested at a public health facility, which might be several kilometres away.
Mandondo stays in regular communication with HIV-positive men, women and children in her community and encourages them to adhere to their HIV treatment regimes.
She also counsels those people who are HIV negative about ways to protect themselves from becoming infected with HIV.
Mandondo explains that she will continue to provide assistance to pregnant women to ensure that babies in her community are born HIV-free.
Home-based HIV testing with DAPP field officers is a unique service, one that values privacy, confidentiality, easy access, quality testing and face-to-face counselling.
Mandondo is working around the clock to save lives in her community and her community and her efforts are contributing to an Aids-free generation in Namibia.