Zola Ncube uses storytelling to ease the stigma facing young health workers with HIV
The Western graduate worked on a book showing what frontline workers living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa face every day.
Zola Ncube, MSc’24, studies young health-care workers in sub-Saharan Africa who are living with HIV while treating others with the disease. In the region, HIV/AIDS is the second leading cause of death in young people. Ncube was born in Zimbabwe and moved to London, Ontario, with her family as a little girl.
With colleagues from Paediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa, she helped create a book that presents the research findings visually, in the Face of Care Project. She says the workers are underappreciated and face multiple layers of invisibility, with inadequate resources, information and tools.
Her mother, a long-time HIV/AIDS advocate, inspired her work. In high school Ncube began volunteering with an HIV/AIDS organization, where she led programming and events. She hopes stories can shift attitudes and improve conditions for the workers and others.
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