24 Feb “COVID-19 HAS NOT CHANGED HOW I FEEL ABOUT WORK”

“My name is Grace Lamola, I work as an administration clerk at Reagile Clinic on the Youth Health Africa program following a period of unemployment. I am currently placed with the Aurum Institute. During the internship program I have learned that young people are very important in every facility, because we encourage the youth in our age group to be free when visiting clinic, young people now find it easy to visit facilities because the comfort of being assisted by people who can relate and understand, youth can now be free to talk to without feeling judged.

I have gained a great working experience, and some awesome skills one of which is working under pressure, which it was a previous weakness of mine. My family and the community in which I come from are very supportive of the work I do. If I ever met the president, I would tell him that this internship program is important and educative to the youth and the communities around them because there is a lot of information to learn and work experience to gain. I would encourage the president to consider sponsoring the program on a larger scale so that a lot more youth could be exposed to this opportunity.

Some of the great skills I have learned from the Aurum Institute and the different colleagues I work with include how to use HPRS, file patient files, file results and treat patients with utmost respect. I always tell the youth that HIV is not a deadly virus, as long as you take your medication properly. With TB, once you adhere to treatment over the full period that you are administered the treatment for, you will get healed and live a healthy life because TB treatment is only for 6 months.”

COVID-19 has not changed how I think about work. Technology has improved the way we are able to work in that we can communicate with different people remotely, this means that general health consultations may even take place outside the facility setting. After the completion of the internship program I would like to see myself as a permanent administration clerk within the Aurum Institute or to start a career within the Department of Health.