Every Thursday, 19-year-old Ibrahim visits the adolescent HIV clinic at Bugiri Hospital in East Central Uganda. Ibrahim is living with HIV and relies on daily anti-retroviral treatment to stay healthy. On this day, though, Ibrahim is not visiting the adolescent HIV clinic as a patient. He is counseling fellow adolescents living with HIV on the importance of treatment adherence—a topic he knows very well. 

Ibrahim struggled for years to take his medicine consistently, often rejecting his medication altogether. “I was being stigmatized by teachers and students at school for taking medication. So, I stopped taking my medication,” he says. Without treatment, Ibrahim’s HIV viral load level increased, putting his health at risk. Ibrahim’s health care service providers, aware of his treatment adherence challenges and high viral load, enrolled him in a one-week Warriors Camp organized by USAID Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in East Central Uganda (RHITES-EC) and Makerere University John Hopkins University (MU-JHU) Young Generation Alive.

The Warriors Camp aimed to improve viral suppression rates of 40 adolescents receiving care at 20 RHITES-EC-supported healthcare facilities. The camp used team-building activities to emphasize the importance of treatment adherence and promoted Intensive Adherence Counselling by trained peers and health care service providers. The camp also provided a platform for the Warriors—as they called the participants—to share their experiences with HIV care and treatment and to express the challenges they face in adhering to treatment and achieving viral suppression. Fellow Warriors encouraged Ibrahim to share his story and create a plan for taking his medicine. 

After attaining viral suppression, Ibrahim transitioned from a Warrior to a Champion and began counseling his peers at Bugiri Hospital to adhere to treatment. At the end of each clinic day, Ibrahim sorts the adolescent patients’ files and lists the names of any patients who missed their appointments. He visits these missing patients at their homes and involves their caregivers so that together they bring them back into care. “Since December 2018, I have counselled and followed-up 47 Warriors who had missed appointments,” he explains. “Twenty-five are now virally suppressed!”

“Today, I take the right medicines, in the right dosage, at the right time and in the right way, thanks to the camp that I attended,” he says. “I now travel with two pills in my bag every day to ensure that I do not miss my medication. I am no longer shy to take my drugs or tell people that I am HIV-positive, and my viral load is now undetectable.” His turnaround happened just four months after attending the Warriors Camp. 

After six months, 26 of the 40 participants have achieved viral suppression and become Champions. The fourteen who are not yet virally suppressed continue to receive improved counseling services and psychosocial support to promote treatment adherence. Ibrahim is grateful to the Warriors Camp for the critical role they played in getting his health back on track. “If it was not for the Warriors Camp, I would be dead today,” he says. Determined to improve the health of his peers, Ibrahim and the 25 other Champions volunteer at their parent healthcare facilities providing support and counselling to their peers. In total, the network of Peer Champions is supporting around 616 adolescents to achieve viral suppression.