Dr. Lawrence Kahindi

Dr. Lawrence Kahindi has 20 years of HIV clinical and program management experience in the public and private sectors. Over the past decade, he has worked at various levels in Namibia’s health system scaling-up quality HIV prevention services. His provider, programmatic, and mentorship experience have resulted in significant improvements in access to and quality of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) services in Namibia.

As chief of party for the USAID-funded Namibia Scaling up Access for Expanded VMMC (SAFE) Activity, Dr. Kahindi leads a team of 21 technical and support staff. SAFE supports the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) to increase uptake of VMMC services toward a goal of reaching 80 percent coverage among adolescent boys and men ages 15-29, while maintaining low adverse events. In Year 3, the project has enabled more than 60,000 adolescent men and boys to access safe VMMC services, including HIV testing and counselling. The project has maintained adverse event rates of less than 1 percent and a follow-up rate of more than 90 percent.

Previously, as the deputy chief of party/technical director for the AIDSFree project, Dr. Kahindi rolled out standard operating procedures for VMMC service delivery and developed a network of 70 private VMMC providers specializing in quality assurance. The project supported the MoHSS to transition on online trainings and leveraged private health facilities to contribute to the national HIV targets. In 2007, he rolled out HIV treatment services to three MoHSS rural clinics in Epembe, Oshikunde, and Oshandi, which the MoHSS voted best performing facilities in the region. As HIV technical advisor on the SHOPS Namibia project, Dr. Kahindi successfully ensured service providers’ compliance with PEPFAR and MoHSS VMMC standards by leading regular trainings and clinic visits that focused on optimal quality.

Expertise:

• HIV care and treatment
• VMMC
• Data analysis

Key Projects:

• AIDSFree Namibia
• SAFE VMMC

Publications:

• Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision Services for HIV Prevention Among 15 Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, 2020- to be published

Countries Served In:

• Kenya, Namibia