Nyamiganda Village was 30 minutes from the AAH-I offices in Kasonga aboard one of the field vehicles on the calm morning of Friday 5th August. We carried the necessary materials for the exercise (blood testing kits, syringes, needles, VCT registers, a box of condoms, disposal containers and many others) plus a bench and chair. The team comprised 2 youth workers (Amani and Nepo) who are refugees that I latter discovered had begun this kind of work some years ago as volunteers in the settlement. These vibrant youth workers are a great resource; they speak Swahili, Kinyabwisha, English, Luganda and therefore are better channels of communication with the refugees. Ivan, the HIV counselor who also took the blood samples and ran the tests was such a skilled and energetic young man. I helped with the registration while Deo; the HIV coordinator helped with the post-counseling and the mobilizing of clients with assistance of the two youth workers.
Aboard the field vehicle was a barely 16 year old pregnant refugee girl that we gave a lift to Kasonga Health Center II- a sign that much is to be desired in improving reproductive health. Along the way, Nepo impressed with his multi-lingual skills on a mobile loud speaker that is wired inside the field vehicle, announcing the free services that were to be offered in a short while at Nyamiganda village trading center. On the reaching the village trading center, we had to quickly look for an ideal work station that we raised in one of the unfinished mud house. The arrangement was such that; clients lined up outside the “operation room” and received VCT clients’ cards that captured their details and a code was assigned to each client. Nepo and Amani did some sensitization and pre-counseling while the clients waited to enter the “operation room” to be registered and tested. I was surprised by the client turn up considering the less intensive mobilization that was done. The age and sex mix of the clients was commendable as I noticed that some of the clients were school pupils plus middle aged and older women and men. A total of 68 clients (36 males and 32 females) ranging between 16 and 56 years were tested that day. Slightly above half (35) of the clients had tested before. I was happy to notice that some of the clients showed up as couples to be tested. The clients never seemed to fear the needle pricks and were patient and eager enough to get tested. The health counselor was readily equipped with 3 types of testing kits; Determine, Stat pak and Uni-gold. However, clients are advised to return for VCT in roughly 3 months when the team plans to return for similar services.
There was a high demand for the condoms which were readily dispatched by the youth workers. Friday however, is a shorter work day since work normally ends at 2.00 pm and therefore we had to set off at around that time considering the AAH driver who had waited for close to 15 minutes for us to board the vehicle that was now crowded with patients being referred to Kituti Health Center III from Rwenyawawa Health Center III.
