Network of Journalists Living with HIV (JONEHA) has emphasized the importance of community-led monitoring efforts in dispelling misconceptions about the funding freeze in Mulanje and Phalombe. According to Hastings Mwanza, advocacy and mobilisation officer at JONEHA, community engagement is key to addressing fears and misconceptions surrounding the funding freeze.
“We have been working closely with communities to address fears and misconceptions surrounding the funding freeze,” Mwanza said. “Through our community-led monitoring, we ask communities what they hear to learn of misconceptions and share light information contained in Ministry of Health Circulars.”
Mwanza revealed that JONEHA has interfaced with 24 groups of communities composed of 240 people to clarify the impact of the funding freeze. “Many community members were afraid that ARVs would run out of stock, but we have been orienting them on the assurance of availability of ARVs as communicated by the Ministry of Health,” he added.
Mwanza emphasized that most communities misinterpreted the funding freeze to mean the stoppage of ARVs medicine dispensing, which is not the case. “ARVs are procured by the Global Fund, and we are working to ensure that communities have the right information about services,” he said.
To address the issue, JONEHA is including indicators in their community-led monitoring tools to assess how the funding freeze impacted health facilities and following up on government circulars on how they are being implemented on the ground. “We are advocating for addressing existing gaps and hope to conduct radio programs and sensitization with healthcare workers to ensure that recipients of care have accurate information,” Mwanza concluded.
