Network Co-Chair Gene Bukhman visits Lusaka, as Zambia prepares to initiate PEN-Plus services

CIDRZ and Zambia NCDI Poverty Commission members with Network Steering Committee Co-Chair Gene Bukhman at a meeting in Lusaka.

As Zambia prepares to open its first two PEN-Plus clinics, NCDI Poverty Network Co-Chair Gene Bukhman traveled to Lusaka in mid-May. During his two-day visit, Bukhman met with colleagues from PEN-Plus implementing partner the Center for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) and other stakeholders from the Zambia NCDI Poverty Commission, which includes representatives from the Ministry of Health, CIDRZ, WHO, and other Zambian clinical, academic, and civil society institutions.

Zambia is one of 10 countries in the NCDI Poverty Network that are initiating PEN-Plus services in 2022, as they advance to Phase III of the Network’s four-phase theory of change. Working closely with the Zambia Ministry of Health and the Zambia NCDI Poverty Commission, CIDRZ will open PEN-Plus clinics in the coming months at two first-level hospitals – Matero Hospital in Lusaka and Matsompola Hospital in rural Central Province.

The two-day visit provided Dr. Bukhman the opportunity to meet with Zambia NCDI Commission and CIDRZ colleagues (including PEN-Plus Principal Investigator Fastone Goma and Coordinator/Project Manager Mukobe Chisunka), to familiarize himself with the details of the Zambia PEN-Plus implementation plan. Dr. Fastone also led Bukhman on an evening tour of the planned PEN-Plus clinic site at Matero Hospital.

On the second day of his visit, Bukhman and the CIDRZ and Network team also met with representatives from the WHO and UNICEF country offices, who expressed strong interest and support for PEN-Plus implementation in Zambia.