Table 1.

Summary of close-to-community providers’ views within the emerging themes

Themes/provider	Dispensaries	Drug shops	Home-based care volunteers	Village AIDS committees	Social workers	Village health workers	Traditional birth attendants	Traditional healers	Youth clubs
ARH knowledge, beliefs attitudes and practices	We do not give antenatal care services to women without husbands Adolescents are promiscuous Adolescents fear us No facilities to offer confidential youth-friendly services	Adolescents are promiscuous We can't give condoms to young adolescents as they are not old enough to have sex	Adolescents should stop bad behaviour of sexual intercourse	We can reveal to parents when their children ask for condoms We are a close-knit community, my nephew can't ask for condoms and I keep quiet	Adolescents shouldn't have sex when still young	It is our prerogative to decide what RH services adolescents can access, a child is raised by the village	No reported negative attitude among the participating traditional birth attendants	We can't give fertility information to adolescents because they're still young	No reported negative attitude among the participating youth clubs
Services offered	Syndromic STI diagnosis and treatment Contraceptives including VCT Antenatal and postnatal care Referral Health education	Sale of drugs including antibiotics, condoms Advice on medicines and dosages Limited referral to formal health services Health education and promotion	Guidance Palliative care Counselling HIV test ART adherence counselling Referral	Condom and family planning education Advice and referral to health facilities	Home visits Palliative care Counselling	Education Counselling Health education and promotion Distribution of condoms Referral	Home delivery Midwife duty Assistance at dispensary Pregnancy education and referral	Herbal remedies Counselling Infertility treatment Abortions, home births, treatment of STIs	Condom distribution Peer-counselling and education Advocacy
Main RH needs of adolescents	Family planning, HIV prevention (mainly condoms) STI treatment Delivery, abortion	Condoms Pregnancy information STI treatment	Condoms, counselling Welfare support	Condoms AIDS information	Condoms AIDS information	Condoms, information, leaflets on AIDS	Pregnancy care Mostly maternal delivery services	Fertility inquiries and STI treatment	Condoms and leaflets on AIDS
Unmet RH needs of adolescents	Youth-friendly services, abortion (illegal), complex FP, HIV testing, ARV initiation	STI testing, FP, abortion	FP	FP, counselling	FP	FP, STI treatment	HIV-related services, home-based antenatal care. Maternal delivery of first or fifth birth	None	HIV counselling, FP
Community referral	We refer patients to drug shops when there are no drugs at the dispensary, to health centres for complicated services	We refer to dispensaries for prescriptions	We refer to dispensaries and village health workers	We refer to dispensaries	We refer to dispensaries	We refer to dispensaries	We refer to dispensaries	We don't refer People come to us from dispensaries	We refer to dispensaries and village health workers
Preferred referral intervention	We want to control delivery of all RH service delivery All should refer to us	Our contribution to PHC should be recognised We need formal integration with dispensaries	More connections with the dispensaries Referral forms are not confidential	Dispensaries should raise awareness We need an ambulance service	We need outreach activities in the communities conducted by health facilities	We need transport facilitation to accompany patients to dispensaries	We need training and resources to conduct home deliveries	We need formal recognition by the health services	We want more health education in the communities, and facility support for youth initiatives

ARH, adolescent reproductive health; ART, antiretroviral therapy; ARV, antiretroviral; FP, family planning; PHC, primary health care; RH, reproductive health; STI, sexually transmitted infection; VCT, voluntary counselling and testing.