Health Programs

HIV/AIDS has had a profound, long-term impact on Zambia's socio-economic landscape, largely by attacking the most productive segment of the workforce and increasing poverty levels. With a high prevalence rate that has, at times, exceeded 11% among adults, the pandemic has strained public services, reduced household incomes, and hampered agricultural and industrial productivity.

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HIV has significantly affected adolescents and young people through stigma, inadequate or lack of comprehensive information on HIV prevention, delayed testing/treatment, social/family barriers, cultural beliefs conflicting with SRH messages, and risks such as early sexual debut.

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HIV statistics for adolescents and young people (15-24 years) show higher prevalence in young women (around 5.6%) vs. young men (1.8%), with 3.8% overall, but alarmingly, young women and girls bear a disproportionate burden (up to 3x higher new infections), and recent data from 2024/2025 highlights rising cases, with adolescents making up a third of all new infections, emphasizing critical needs for prevention and integrated services.

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To address these challenges Primrose Community Health Organization developed the “Link Me, I Am Unique Model”. The Link ME, AM Unique model is a five step, community-led model designed to build communities’ capacity to address health, economic empowerment, education, climate change mitigation and resilience, water, sanitation, and hygiene disparities through inclusive engagement and mobilization of marginalized and vulnerable communities.

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The model was developed in the context of gender inequalities, poverty, as well as socio-economic exclusions of marginalized and vulnerable communities including persons with disability who often are deprived of their fundamental human rights and frustrates their access to health and social protection services.

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Fundamental to the model is a critical analysis identifying the underlying social, economic, and environmental forces that create health and social inequities in a community. The goal is to provide communities with the framework necessary to acquire the skills and resources to plan, implement and evaluate health, economic empowerment, education, climate change mitigation and resilience, water, sanitation and hygiene related actions and policies.