By the time Matunkha Centre community nurse Ineke Selles visited Oswel Zgambo at his home in Lupoka Village, Zgambo weighed a mere 120 lbs (54 kg).  Zgambo – or Chief Lupoka, as the group village headman of Lupoka, T/A Chikulamayembe, is more commonly known – was so weakened by the HIV virus that he could barely walk.  With Selles’ help, the two traveled together to the nearest hospital in the area, northern Malawi’s Rumphi District, so that Chief Lupoka could begin anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment. 

The chief regained his physical strength by taking ARVs and supplementing his meals with Likuni Phala, a nutritional porridge that the Matunkha Centre provided to him.  Yet back at home, he felt debilitated by stigma. “Discrimination is another disease, apart from HIV,” he observed.  Determined to overcome this challenge too, Chief Lupoka joined the Kutemwa Support Group, a project of the Kanyerere community based organization (CBO), which is one of the 13 CBOs affiliated with the Matunkha Centre.

 “The group’s members were very interested that a chief had joined their group,” Chief Lupoka recalls – especially since he was the first chief in the area to become involved in a people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) group.   Through Kutemwa, Chief Lupoka found strength and comfort in the company of fellow members, who participate in group therapy sessions, organize outreach activities, and provide home-based care and childcare to community members.   He found meaning in the “memory books” that group members are encouraged to create, documenting their life stories and outlining their wishes and living wills.  

The Matunkha Centre, a 2009-2011 Pact Malawi grantee, strengthens the capacity of local service providers in the rural areas of Rumphi West and Mzimba North to scale up their HIV prevention programs for youth and their comprehensive care/support programs for the 300+ PLWHA and 2500+ orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in the area.  Matunkha works towards this goal by partnering with local CBOs, each of which has subcommittees on OVC, home based care (HBC), PLWHA, and HIV prevention and behavior change.  As part of their care and support programs, each CBO runs a PLWHA support group that meets on a regular basis and is assisted by the Matunkha Community Programs Manager, who visits the groups once a quarter. 

 Although there are currently 130 members of the CBO support groups, Matunkha believes the number of eligible members to be much greater.   With funding from the United States (U.S.) President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and capacity building support from Pact, Matunkha aims to scale up CBO support group membership by 150% by the end of 2010.  This would mean reaching out to more community members – and to more village headmen like Chief Lupoka.

 Impressed by his level of involvement, Kutemwa Support Group has since made Chief Lupoka its chairman.  He has taken advantage of this mantle to encourage his fellow chiefs to become involved.  “Nowadays, because I’ve been talking to people, other chiefs who are HIV-positive have joined support groups.”  Chief Lupoka says.  “Joining a group is very important, because you share knowledge, you talk to one another, you tell people about what has been paining you – this is another cure for HIV.”