Camp to Bring Together Youth Living with Severe Conditions for Fun, Solidarity, and Support
Zambia Camp Tulibonse, a four-day event held in September 2024 for young people living with type 1 diabetes, combined art, entertainment, and sports activities with education on self-management of the condition. The camp was sponsored by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (better known as CIDRZ), along with the Diabetic Association of Zambia and the Sonia Nabeta Foundation. (Photo: Courtesy of CIDRZ)
An innovative summer camp will bring together young people living with severe, chronic conditions for a week of health education, support, solidarity, and fun in Chongwe, Zambia, from August 18 to 22, 2025.
The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), the Sonia Nabeta Foundation, and the NCDI Poverty Network will host Camp Tuli Bonse, an integrated summer camp for children, adolescents, and young adults living with type 1 diabetes or sickle cell disease. The organizations are inviting about 60 participants, with ages ranging from 10 to mid-20s. Tuli bonse in the Bemba language translates to “we are together.”
The camp participants all attend health clinics that use PEN-Plus, an integrated care delivery strategy focused on increasing the accessibility and quality of chronic care services for people living with severe NCDs—such as type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease—in rural areas of lower-income countries.
PEN-Plus is proving effective in Zambia, where more than 1,200 people with severe NCDs were actively receiving care at PEN-Plus clinics as of March 2025. That’s a dramatic increase in just a few years; when PEN-Plus data collection began in late 2022, 77 patients were enrolled.
“The implementation of PEN-Plus clinics has significantly transformed the delivery of care for chronic noncommunicable diseases at first-level hospitals, with increased patient numbers attributed to active case-finding and effective retention strategies, bringing lasting changes to how standardized clinical care is provided for chronic illnesses in Zambia,” said Professor Fastone Goma, principal investigator of the PEN-Plus Project at CIDRZ, a local partner working with the NCDI Poverty Network to implement PEN-Plus.
Zambia is in Phase 3 of PEN-Plus, characterized by initial implementation of the model and work toward a national operating plan and scale-up.
“Zambia has made amazing progress in delivering care to patients with severe noncommunicable diseases through PEN-Plus clinics,” said Dr. Colin Pfaff, associate director of programs at the Network and its U.S. co-secretariat, the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Three clinics are well-developed and another two have recently started. Zambia has exciting plans for developing further clinics across the country.”
In the same way that PEN-Plus clinics integrate care for people with different NCDs, Camp Tuli Bonse will be integrated, as well, providing education and awareness for participants with different conditions while increasing solidarity and support for all.
The Sonia Nabeta Foundation, an experienced convener of camps for children with type 1 diabetes, will bring its trademark energy to working with sickle cell warriors, as well.
“Camps were the very first expression of our mission at the Sonia Nabeta Foundation, because we believe in the power of community and the strength that comes from standing together to navigate life with type 1 diabetes,” said Vivian Nabeta, founder and executive director of the Sonia Nabeta Foundation. “At Camp Tuli Bonse, we are excited to share the proven power of this model with a broader family of sickle cell warriors because across chronic illnesses, shared experiences unite us, and warriors are strongest when they support one another.”