On Call Africa and the Making of (Tonga) Teen Corners

When we first met the team from On Call Africa in late 2022, we thought we were talking about a one-off project: a single youth-friendly room beside a rural clinic where adolescents might finally have space to speak freely and seek care without fear. On Call Africa was already hard at work on infrastructure projects in Southern Province. We arrived with a very specific concern for young people who did not feel they could walk into the general clinic and talk about sex, contraception, pregnancy or addiction, let alone get the medical support they needed in these areas. What turned that first conversation into a long-term partnership was a shared conviction that the youth centers had to be more than painted rooms acting as social spaces. They truly had to sit inside a stronger, more resilient health system and act as catalysts for a better life for Zambian Youth in rural areas.

On Call Africa came with a clear systems approach. Through their Community Health Improvement Programmes (CHIPs), they work with communities, clinic staff and government to identify, with data and self-assessment, where the biggest gaps in coverage and support lie. Their Facility Infrastructure Improvement Programme then tackles those gaps, pairing youth-friendly spaces with other essential additions such as delivery wards and hygiene facilities so that adolescent care is woven into the daily life of the clinic rather than left on the margins. A third strand, their Community Health Improvement Programme, builds the capacity and ownership of local staff and volunteers so that, once the initial work is done, the system can carry itself.

Into that framework, Tonga Teen Corners brought a very focused concern: adolescents and young adults, in all their vulnerability and promise. Together at Simonga, we sat with nurses, youth and community leaders and asked what it would take to create a living practice of peer-led education around sexual and reproductive health.

On Call Africa helped us think through the full pathway: the physical youth corner, the identification of young community leaders, and a structured training programme for 40 teen ambassadors in the first year. By July 2023, the first center in Simonga was built from the ground up, and training was completed. We formally handed over the site to the Ministry of Health, with On Call Africa and Tonga Teen Corners remaining in a supporting role.

Vision and mission as guiding principles on the walls of the On Call Africa offices

As the months passed, data from Simonga and the quiet observations of nurses and youth leaders confirmed what we had hoped. Teen ambassadors trained in that first cohort continued to walk out into surrounding villages, offering education sessions, distributing condoms and other contraceptives and talking with their peers about “living a positive life”. Building on that experience, On Call Africa and the district health authorities shaped a second generation of training in Chidi, the site of the second Teen Corner.

This time, the youth curriculum was fully government-led and informed by the Ministry of Health, with a five-day training for young community leaders that has resulted in a group of adolescents who meet regularly and hold the space as their own. At Chidi, teen births have already begun to decline, with some months recorded without a single adolescent delivery. With an eye to the future, On Call Africa has also secured additional funding to purchase sewing machines, weaving income-generating skills into the life of the youth corner so that it remains busy and meaningful well beyond the initial project period.

A reporting on the opening of the Chidi Health Center, handed over by On Call Africa to the government in June 2025, including the youth space funded by Tonga Teen Corners

Our partnership continues to evolve. In Mapatizya, an almost five-hour drive from Livingstone, where On Call Africa’s headquarters are located, On Call Africa has led a major renovation that includes both a youth-friendly space and auxiliary health facilities such as a delivery ward. Learning from Chidi, they will use the same government-led training model for peer educators once the youth room is furnished with chairs, a television and other elements in early 2026. These elements make the space more enjoyable and comfortable for young people to spend time there. 

“It has been great,” says Kasonde Mulenga, project coordinator at On Call Africa, reflecting on three years of work together.

“We have been working with different partners in the past, and with Tonga Teen Corners, we have really been aligned since the very beginning. They are very curious, ask questions and are always in communication, which makes it much easier.”

From our side, the feeling is mutual. Tonga Teen Corners remains a small, volunteer-run association in France. On Call Africa is the experienced Zambian NGO that makes it possible for a modest circle of friends and family to contribute to a carefully thought-through effort to bring adolescent-friendly care as close as possible to young people’s homes.

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The youth corners in Simonga, Chidi and Mapatizya are the visible signs of a deeper shared project: a rural health system where adolescents are welcomed, listened to and equipped to shape their own futures. And this is just the beginning, as we are already planning for a further two centers in Batoka and Mabuyu.