Posted on March 01, 2017
Source: Frontline Health Workers Coalition
"It’s delicate work, talking with clients who’ve stopped taking their HIV medicines, says Loide Iikuyu, a community health worker at Onandjokwe Hospital in remote northern Namibia.
'I talk with them so peacefully,' she says. 'You must talk, slowly by slowly, to find out what are the reasons they are defaulting on their medications.'
Part of Loide’s job is to seek out clients who, according to Onandjokwe Hospital’s records, have stopped coming in to collect their HIV meds. And she has to convince them—in her naturally quiet, gentle voice—to start back up, both to stay healthy and to avoid transmitting the virus to others. And she has to do it without chastising them, or making them feel worse than they often already do."
