SAfAIDS with funding from the Medical Aid Films (MAF) is implementing the SCREEN Project in Kabwe and Kapiri Mposhi districts in Central as well as in Senanga and Mongu districts in Western provinces. The SCREEN project is a three-year project aimed at using film to significantly increase remote and rural Zambian communities’ access to care by scaling up the dissemination of health education content addressing critical health gaps. The project will bring measurable improvements in care seeking behavior and practice, and contribute to improved health outcomes for adolescents in Zambia. The health promotion content will focus on teenage pregnancy, mental health, male involvement and gender, all targeting adolescents and young people primarily and secondarily the influential people in their societies such as parents/guardians, community leaders etc.

During the period under review, SAfAIDS Zambia conducted a 3-day training and pilot testing exercise for data collectors for the Screen baseline survey. The training was held from 13th – 15th September, 2021 and was attended by 12 participants (7 females and 5 males). The training was aimed at building capacity of enumerators in the data collection tools and questionnaire for the Screen project baseline survey. The training aimed at achieving the following;

  • To enhance understanding of the questionnaire and terminologies in the survey
  • To introduce the program to enumerators so that they are able to effectively address sensitive topics with survey participants
  • To identify gaps and make recommendations to enhance the data collection
  • To test the questionnaire consistency and flow

Presentations, group discussions and plenaries were utilized to conduct the training. Sessions on the introduction of Screen, purpose of the survey, community entry, consent seeking as well as traditional and cultural dynamics among others were conducted among other.

Following the training, SAFAIDS supported the implementation of a baseline exercise in 4 districts namely Kabwe, Kapiri, Mongu and Senanga District, in each district SAfAIDS targeted 4 schools and 5 facilities were other projects are currently being implemented. A total 688 interviews were conducted against a target of 684, data has since been shared with CIDRZ a partner on the project of cleaning and analysis. A report will then be share with MAF and SAfAIDS after it’s completed.