People of AMPATH: Dr. Edith Apondi, USAID Dumisha Afya, Deputy Chief of Party

Dr. Edith Apondi is the Deputy Chief of Party for USAID Dumisha Afya. She began working with people living with HIV after completing her internship in 2003 and previously served as a technical advisor for pediatric and adolescent care programs for USAID AMPATHPlus. She is a consultant pediatrician working with MTRH.

Dr. Edith Apondi

My interest in adolescent work grew after completing my masters in pediatrics, when I came back to the AMPATH HIV program to support pediatric HIV care. By then, most of the children I had worked with had grown into adolescents, and there was a need to tailor services to their needs. It became my task to model the care and programming to their needs and to support the facilities in the eight counties supported by the program to provide friendly services to this population. That opportunity came at a time when nationally and internationally there was a huge focus on adolescence, with data showing their poor outcomes. I did this with the support of various highly experienced mentors and supervisors.

Adolescents in Kenya face many challenges including having a high risk of getting HIV. Adolescence is a period of onset of various mental health illnesses particularly anxiety and depression, as well as a period for developing habits that could lead to various chronic diseases. The health care system in Kenya, and globally really, for a long time did not recognize the special needs of this population, and failed to reach them with preventive, curative and rehabilitative services. Adolescents thus feel lost and are unsure how to participate in health services.

Currently, I work for USAID Dumisha Afya. However, while I was with USAID AMPATH Uzima, we built various care models tailored toward young people. We developed training modules for health care workers on various aspects of adolescent care, ranging from HIV, sexually transmitted infections, sexual and reproductive health, maternal and child health, mental health and substance use among others. We trained staff on adolescent health. We advocated for adolescent safe spaces and budgeting and financing of adolescent targeted services. We developed a robust peer mentorship program – HIV specific peer program (for youth living with HIV), street youth peer program (for homeless youth), LGBTQ peer program, maternal and child health peer program (for pregnant and lactating youth) and a PrEP peer mentorship program (for youth using PrEP). We built the capacity of the peers, and they linked us with their peers. These were supported through USAID/PEPFAR funding and various research grants as well as donations.

The recent Adolescent and Young People (AYP) Symposium organized by USAID Kenya, brought together counties and partners working with adolescents and young people, and AYP peer mentors from various facilities in Kenya to showcase best practices as well as to build capacity on subject areas of relevance. This was key in showcasing the voices of the youth in HIV programming and supporting programs to meet the need for AYP programing.

Working with the AYPs is very rewarding. I have witnessed growth in this field and seen firsthand the impact on health outcomes of targeted programming on the lives of our young people. I have witnessed AYP born with HIV transition into fulfilled and happy adults pursuing their dreams; witnessed street youth transition into responsible adults with families; seen young women who were cast out of families because of unplanned pregnancies go back to school and achieve and join their peers in the job market.

The AMPATH partnership is special. We have seen the MTRH and Moi University teams work seamlessly--it’s difficult to tell the differences in their employers. The various partners from North America have blended the work culture in this part of Kenya, grown research, care infrastructure and human capacity and have in turn taken back to their countries vast experience that they would not have encountered back in their countries. The partnership has grown careers and changed the landscape of research and care in this region.

Dr. Everline Ashiono and Dr. Apondi at the recent AYP Best Practices Symposium