Academy for Educational Development

Zambia’s Ministry of Education is focused on protecting the health of some of the country’s most vital employees:  its teachers.

In a nation slightly larger than the state of Texas, the ministry is Zambia’s largest employer, with more than 60,000 employees, most of them teachers, spread throughout the country.  With an HIV prevalence rate of 16%, the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education workforce is being seen in high levels of absenteeism and loss of staff.  This has major implications for the overall development of the country.

On June 8th and 9th, in Lusaka, the MOE hosted the first in a series of Teachers Health Days in collaboration with several local institutions and partners and support from AED’s EQUIP2 workplace HIV/AIDS project.  Under the theme of “Healthy Teachers for Quality Education,” the objectives for the program were to provide MOE staff and their families with general health and HIV awareness messages and to offer free health services and HIV testing.

More than 2000 teachers and staff from Lusaka attended the event and took advantage of a variety of available health services.  Additionally, more than 300 people accessed voluntary HIV counseling and testing. 

“While HIV was a prominent aspect of the discussions throughout the two days, the organizers worked to incorporate broader health themes into the activities and events,” said Chad Rathner, Senior Program Manager for the AED Center on AIDS and Community Health.

Services offered at the Teachers Health Days included:

• Weight and blood pressure checks, blood sugar tests for diabetes and family planning services from the Lusaka District Health Management Board/Ministry of Health
• Dental check-ups and oral hygiene advice from the Zambian National Dental Training School
• Malaria prevention education and demonstrations of insecticide treated mosquito nets from the National Malaria Control Centre
• Voluntary counseling and testing services for HIV provided by the Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Management Programme, Society for Family Health and Kara Counseling.

“I am proud that it is the Ministry of Education now taking the lead through initiatives like this; if well replicated at all levels of our education system, we will have a crop of teachers who are aware about the importance of health in totality,” said the Deputy Minster of Education and Member of Parliament, Honourable Lucy Changwe, who was present throughout the days’ activities. 

The Ministry and AED are already planning the next event—a provincial Teachers Health Day in the Copperbelt Province in the northern area of Zambia September 7.

“We hope to continue to reach teachers and other MOE staff through quarterly Teachers Health Days next year,” said Pulé Mundende, Program Manager for EQUIP2 in Lusaka.

AED’s EQUIP2 project is funded and supported by USAID through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.