Health Connections: A Culturally Sensitive Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention Programming in Zambia

Nearly half of Zambia's population is under 15 years old, with an estimated 630,000 “AIDS orphans,” children who’s parents have died from HIV/AIDS, and are now left to survive without complete families. Zambian caregivers of these AIDS orphans have been overwhelmed with the task of providing grief counseling services to these children. Nursing professionals at the University of the Incarnate Word responded to the professional development needs of grief counselors in Zambia, and launched Health Connections in 2004-2006. Health Connections is a cross-cultural grief education program designed to educate caregivers in a rural Zambian village on how to help grieving children. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation of the Health Connections “train-the-trainers” program.