February 2, 2017
AVAC is delighted to announce the 2017 AVAC Advocacy Fellows—the eighth class of Fellows selected from a pool of over 100 applicants from 20 countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Please join us in congratulating these seven talented advocates:
- Kennedy Mupeli at the Centre for Youth and Hope, Botswana
- Peter Mogere at KEMRI/Thika, Kenya
- Grace Kumwenda at the Pakachere Institute for Health and Development, Malawi
- Thuthukile Mbatha at Section 27, South Africa
- Moses “Supercharger” Nsubuga at People in Need Agency, Uganda
- Bathabile Nyathi and Sinikwe Mtetwa at CeSSHAR, Zimbabwe
The 2017ers will plan their projects in a busy and exciting time for HIV prevention. As we described in our recent Px Wire, there are many issues to rally around. Will more countries be able to roll out PrEP, will PrEP affect the standard of prevention of new trials? Will prevention initiatives for the growing number of young women be innovative and address their needs? Will we be able to accelerate progress towards meeting the Fast Track goals? And, where resources for sexual and reproductive health and rights may be challenged, can we work to ensure that the voices of those who have most at stake are heard?
The 2017 Fellows have bold ideas to address many of these opportunities and challenges in their Fellowship year, beginning on April 1, and we hope you’ll find ways to collaborate with them. With this incoming class, the AVAC Fellows family has grown to fifty-seven, with Advocacy Fellow Alumni from ten sub-Saharan African countries and China. Please visit the Advocacy Fellows page and follow the P-Values blog to learn more about the new Fellows’ planned work for the year and to learn about the Alumni Fellows’ ongoing work.
We thank all of the applicants and their proposed host organizations for the time and effort put into this process. We’re also grateful to the independent review committee of advocates, scientists and former Fellows and Hosts who guided the decision-making process.
A Call for Applications for the 2018 Fellows Program will be announced this June with an application deadline in August. If you would like to be notified of the 2018 Call for Applications or have any questions, please email us at fellows@avac.org.