Meet Philis Kerubo Orero, counselor at Kinondo Kwetu Medical center!

As a HIV testing service provider (HTS), Philis makes sure that HIV positive clients get access to treatment. One very important aspect of her work is to provide for family testing, in order to prevent transmission and make sure partners and children of HIV infected persons get tested and receive care, if positive.

 There are still many women in Kwale County that do not attend antenatal care and that give birth at home. So children that are born by mothers with an unidentified HIV infection run a high risk of getting infected, which may not be discovered until the child start developing AIDS. So, Philis’ work includes outreach to the villages to encourage family testing, as well as tracing back HIV positive patients who have missed appointments or missed to come back for medication. 

 Another aspect of Philis’ work is to follow up on patients to make sure that they are doing well physically and mentally and to identify possible challenges that need to be addressed. Adolescents living with HIV are facing many challenges and Philis and her colleagues are in charge of support groups, where issues such as positive health dignity and prevention are discussed.

 Before coming to Kinondo Kwetu Medical Center, Philis worked for Kwale Girls Project, with life skills training for young mothers, and for Plan International program on Life Skills Training for adolescents in school.