The Rwanda Network of People Living with HIV /RRP+ held a two-day series of regional consultative meetings across four provincial locations, from October 23rd to 24th, 2025. Participants included representatives of People Living with HIV (PLHIV), District Health Directors, Joint Action Development Forum (JADF) representatives, health facility staff, and RRP+ team.
The meetings, held simultaneously in Musanze, Rubavu, Kayonza, and Huye districts, aimed to enhance community engagement through peer education in the HIV response and to identify strategies to strengthen its effectiveness and sustainability and sharing different innovative approaches with stakeholders.
Speaking during one of the sessions in Rubavu district, RRP+ representative from Ruzizi district Louis Ndayiragije highlighted that peer education is important in empowering people living with HIV through sustainable community engagement. He expressed optimism in such meetings toward sustainable collaboration with local authorities and other stakeholders in HIV response.
“We have witnessed Peer education playing a vital role in ensuring that information on HIV prevention and treatment reaches everyone, especially at the grassroots level. I am hopeful that these consultative meetings shall help us share lessons, align our efforts, as we identify areas where we can do even better,” said Ndayiragije.
Throughout the sessions, participants reviewed progress and challenges in the implementation of peer education programs in HIV prevention, care, and treatment, documented lessons learned, challenges, and promising practices in community engagement, strengthening collaboration and communication among PLHIV representatives, RRP+, and health facilities, and how to enhance the peer education approach and improve reporting of peer education activities.
Esther Mujawayezu, a participant in the Kayonza meeting and a Nurse Mentor at Rwamagana Hospital, believes that when peer educators and health service providers collaborate smoothly, challenges faced by people living with HIV are more easily identified and addressed through comprehensive reporting from home visits and other community activities.
“I find Peer education to be best when health workers and community members work hand in hand. As nurse mentors, we believe that once this partnership is strengthened, recipients of care stay on treatment and live healthier and more hopeful lives”, Mujawayezu said.
Many of the PLHIV representatives also agree that such platform give them a voice, opportunity to learn from each other’s experiences and feel supported by both health service providers and local community leaders.
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