Posted on 1 December, 2014

Photo by Libuseng Marekimane/MSF

“I have fun during our monthly meetings because we share ideas on how to stay healthy and eat right together with taking our ARVs correctly.”

Name: Mampolai Ntsoha
Location: Lesotho

For HIV patients like Mampolai, above, being part of a Community Antiretroviral Treatment Group (CAG) means she has a safe place to meet other people who also live with HIV and to find support from peers. In meetings, members make sure everyone has been taking their drugs by counting each other’s remaining pills. They also share troubles they have encountered. CAG members rely on each other to take turns traveling often long distances to the clinic to pick up everyone’s treatment. Patients having trouble with their treatment are referred back to the normal procedure of coming to the clinic once a month, so they can be monitored by a health professional. They can rejoin the CAG once treatment is working well again. On World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, MSF is calling for health providers to adapt treatment to realities of patients’ lives: https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/world-aids-day-portraits-my-life-my-hands