"My door is always open"

It was his day off, but Henry Chimtengo, a clinical assistant at Malombe Health Centre in Malawi’s Mangochi District, had just performed four voluntary medical male circumcisions. “I couldn’t turn away the boys and the parents accompanying them,” he writes. “I live at the health centre and my door is always open. Besides, I’m glad my message has got across to the community — male circumcision reduces the risk of HIV infection in males and has to be carried out at a health centre and not in unsterile conditions in the community, which has often happened in the past.” As part of the integrated health services offered at the health centre, he also counselled and tested the boys for sexually transmitted infections and HIV and talked to the older ones about condom use and other family planning options (UNICEF, 10 March 2022).