Kingsley Seth Chasanga

Kingsley is a social development specialist with 12 years of work experience in HIV and AIDS planning, management, monitoring and evaluation, and advocacy. At MANASO he was responsible for advocacy to improve access to quality HIV and AIDS services at the national and community levels. He is also a member of the Community Advisory Board of the University of North Carolina project, which leads AIDS vaccine research in Malawi. He has just completed his Master of Public Administration: International Development with University of York (UK) and holds a bachelor’s degree in Education Humanities, specialising in planning, rural development and teaching from the University of Malawi-Chancellor College.

Why I want to advocate for HIV prevention in 2016?
Malawi needs a well-informed civil society, both organisations and individuals including discordant couples and young people, to lobby for and demand the availability of PrEP from decision makers and service providers.

Amaka Enemo

Amaka is a sex worker and HIV activist, as Coordinator of the Nigeria Sex Workers Association and co-chair of Key Affected Populations in Nigeria. She is active in her country’s Global Fund process, where she helped to draft its Concept Note. She has a degree in political science from Delta State University, Abraka.

Why I want to advocate for HIV prevention in 2016:
Being a part of the sex worker community, I notice that most of the members are HIV positive. I really want something to reduce the spread of HIV. PrEP and microbicides, as part of the prevention package, could do a whole lot of good for my community considering the risk associated with our work.

Ntombozuko Kraai

Ntombozuko has been a coordinator of Wellness Foundation’s Young Urban Women project in partnership with ActionAid International. She is a human rights activist focusing on young women and sexual and reproductive health with a special interest in gender-based violence. She has mobilized and educated the community around voluntary medical male circumcision, PrEP, microbicides, clinical trial conduct and more. She has also represented community on the protocol development teams for the vaccine study, HVTN 097, and the microbicide ring study, ASPIRE 020. Ntombozuko is raising three children—two boys and a daughter—and her desire is to see them respect women and to see violence of any kind as a crime.

Why I want to advocate for HIV prevention in 2016?
In South Africa, the HIV incidence rate amongst females aged 15-24 is four times higher than males the same age. There has been a lot done on HIV treatment, care and support, despite the current challenges of antiretroviral stock-outs. Activism has been built for many years and many HIV positive heroes have changed the status quo. We can learn as prevention activists from the ARV rollout but research is still a new concept for many communities. There is a need to educate young women on new biomedical prevention methods, the importance of research and how it’s done so that they will become champions of an HIV free generation.

Chilufya Kasanda Hampongo

Chilufya joined Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign in 2015 as a volunteer where she coordinated its ARV access program for the elderly and disabled. She used the Good Participatory Guidelines as a framework for advocacy for service delivery in health centers. She has worked in community development with a passion in research and advocacy for the marginalized. Her advocacy work also includes petitioning the government to establish viral load testing as a priority for all the people living with HIV. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies at the University of Zambia.

Why I want to advocate for HIV prevention in 2016?
There is no time to wait. Zambia needs to empower women and young girls to have control of their lives through the use of PrEP. With PrEP we can reduce new infections in order to help reach the UNAIDS 90/90/90 targets. However, there is need for awareness among decision-makers, individuals and institutions to achieve this.

Chilufy’s Media Advocacy

Lepheana Mosooane

Lepheana is the founder and interim coordinator of the Key Affected Populations Alliance of Lesotho, the first and only sex workers organisation in Lesotho. He’s also the program coordinator at the Disabled and HIV/AIDS Organization Lesotho, where he coordinates an MSM project funded by USAID. He is a three-time award-winning filmmaker and social activist who uses the power of film to address issues affecting young people, marginalized communities and individuals. He has worked as a radio drama scriptwriter, a filmmaker and activist.

Fellowship Focus
Lepheana used the power of film to advocate and create demand for VMMC and to facilitate HIV education in Lesotho. He specifically focused on the issue of integration of VMMC and traditional circumcision and initiated important conversations to influence national VMMC policy and programming. He established an important civil society coalition that has continued to advocate for issues surrounding health and human rights in Lesotho.

In Their Own Words
As an HIV educator and filmmaker, I can use the power of film to advocate for VMMC so as to effectively create demand and facilitate HIV education.

My Work as a Fellow

Godfrey Ochieng Okumu

Godfrey is a social change advocate with almost two decades of experience. He currently works at Tostan International, focusing on building partnerships and monitoring and evaluation. He’s also the focal person for Tostan’s training and replication pathway, a pilot advocacy project on ending violence against women and girls. He’s been actively involved in the rollout of VMMC from the onset, playing a key role in the negotiation of buy-in from the custodians of local culture and overseeing demand creation.

Fellowship Focus
Godfrey’s project focused on advocacy to hold the Kenyan Ministry of Health and county governments accountable in VMMC implementation. He was directly involved in the development of the national VMMC communications strategy, initiating and influencing conversations on VMMC and domestic financing at the county level. Godfrey also pushed for the rollout of PrEP among adolescent girls and young women.

In Their Own Words
As a long-standing VMMC advocate, I believe that now is the time for Kenya to start taking concrete steps to ensure the current gains are not lost should donor funding end and implementing partners recede.

Godfrey’s Advocacy