CIDRZ Showcases Adolescent Health Research at the 9th International Workshop on Adolescence, SRHR & HIV 2025 in Botswana

The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) continues to contribute to the global scientific dialogue through its active participation in the 9th International Workshop on Adolescence, SRHR & HIV 2025, taking place in Botswana from 1 to 3 October. The workshop has brought together researchers and health experts from across the world to share groundbreaking evidence, innovations, and progress on adolescent health.

CIDRZ’s Esther Hamweemba presented findings from the ongoing Zambia, Informed, Motivated, Aware and Responsible Adolescent Girls and Young Women (ZAIMARA) randomised control trial (2024-2028). Her presentation explores the best recruitment strategies to employ to identify adolescent girls and mother figures for family-based HIV prevention programmes in Zambia.

Kasapo Lumbo, also from CIDRZ, shared insights on the lessons learned from theatre testing the ZAIMARA curriculum among adolescent girls and their mother figures in Zambian communities.

The ZAIMARA curriculum focuses on strengthening communication between adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and their mother figures (MF) to make healthy sexual decisions, to learn more about HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). The topics in the curriculum focus on effective communication, mothers talking to daughters on sex, HIV, STIs and PrEP.