On 2 and 3 March 2026, the National AIDS Commission, in collaboration with the University of Glasgow, Art and Global Health Center Africa (ArtGlo) and the Department of HIV and Viral Hepatitis, led module development workshops in Lilongwe for community health promoters in Malawi.
Stakeholders from the Ministry of Health (Department of HIV and Viral Hepatitis, Health Promotion Division, and Community Health Department), the National AIDS Commission, the University of Glasgow, various CSOs, and local leaders gathered to co-develop an ethical and culturally sensitive training module.
The module builds on insights from the research “Awiri Sayenda Asadapangane: Rethinking Public Health Approaches to Community Engagement in the Management of HIV and AIDS in Malawi” by Dr. Sharifa Abdulla. Following a multi-stakeholder dissemination meeting in May 2025, partners recognised the need to strengthen how biomedical information about HIV is communicated within local contexts.
The new module will promote dialogical approaches that respectfully bring together biomedical knowledge, indigenous knowledge systems, and lived community experiences, with the goal of improving uptake of services such as condoms and HIV treatment.
Opening the workshop, Holystone Kafanikhale, Deputy Director in the Ministry of Health responsible for Community and Promotive Health, emphasised that contestations around biomedical messages are real, noting that health communication works best when it engages with, rather than confronts, local knowledge systems.
Together, partners are shaping tools that will help health promoters foster meaningful dialogue with communities — because awiri sayenda asadapangane
