Training Day(s)

Field Workers and Nurses learning about HIV Counseling

OK.  So just a little background on CMMB’s TB project before I get into the important part of this post.  CMMB started their TB project, which involves door-to-door screening for TB and HIV testing aiding in the South African Department of Health’s intensified TB case finding campaign, in late August and really had to hit the ground running.  Approval for the project was wrapped up in red tape for quite some time (shocking, I know) so as soon as it was approved there was a lot of ground to make up from the original plan.  Because of this, there was little time to prep our field workers and nurses leaving most of them to have the bulk of their training on the job. 

Mama Gwiji Demonstrating how to collect Sputum

In order to make sure all the teams were on the same page and adequately armed with the information about HIV and TB, a mass 3-day training was held last week for all of our field workers and nurses.  Topics included a review of HIV and TB symptoms and disease processes, counseling methods, HIV testing procedures, specimen collection, etc.   Questions were addressed and solutions for some of the issues being experienced in the field were implemented. 

Overall it was an extremely successful training.  Our Field workers are so motivated and were so enthusiastic about participating in the training sessions.  I think they all left with a much better picture of HIV and TB as well as the impact they can have on their communities through CMMB’s project.  I am really excited to see the progress we make over the next year!