Neliswa Nkwali

Neliswa is a community advocate. She comes from the Eastern Cape Province where she became involved in politics in high school, as president of the student movement. Eastern Cape was marginalized in terms of job opportunities, so she moved to Cape Town, seeking work during a time of heightened struggle against the HIV epidemic. She joined TAC after listening to their volunteers at a clinic. She was touched when hearing about the statistics of people who had died because of HIV-related illnesses with no interventions from the state.

Fellowship Focus
Neliswa tapped the Treatment Action Campaign’s national network to spread the word about PrEP, creating demand among young women with the ultimate goal of PrEP provision in all public health facilities. She also worked with young women, preparing them for new HIV prevention options such as the dapivirine ring, long-acting injectables and multi-prevention technologies.

In Their Own Words
Advocacy for comprehensive HIV prevention services for the young adolescents, ages 10-17, is still a hard area, especially coupled withThe level of engagement from young women on PrEP is amazing; they are asking questions about PrEP, such as its availability and why the government is taking so long to give young girls access to PrEP. Uptake of PrEP has been increased, and we are starting to see a demand for it, even from male partners. Discussions with young women about PrEP are helping to identify gaps and inform policy. Young women feel strongly to speak out against such gaps.

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Ulanda Mtamba

Ulanda is the Country Director for AGE Africa, the organization that hosted her during her Fellowship. At the time of her project, she had more than 12 years of experience in national and international non-profit-focused programming and implementation, with an emphasis on organizational development, governance and behavioral change and communication. Before joining the Fellows program, she managed the STEPS project, a program aimed at improving the quality of life for people living with HIV. She has served in different roles at national and international organizations such as the United Nations for Development Program (UNDP), GOAL Malawi and NAPHAM.

Fellowship Focus
Ulanda’s advocacy for investment in HIV prevention for young women is broad and deep, and marks her as a recognized national leader engaging with the Ministry of Health and ethics and regulatory committees. Her work resulted in increases in PEPFAR and Global Fund investments, input into research protocols and enhanced civil society organization research advocacy in Malawi, the establishment of a dapivirine ring task team and scenario plan and the creation of a CSO advocacy forum in the southern Malawi region. Ulanda also regularly appeared on radio, TV and in print media.

In Their Own Words
Advocacy takes time to realize gains, therefore it is important to celebrate the small wins. All objectives sometimes cannot be achieved in your year of Fellowship, but you initiate the process. Knowing and working with your allies is essential when pushing an advocacy agenda. Advocacy is different from project management.

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William Rashidi

Rashidi is the Director of Equality Triangle, managing a key populations treatment facility in Delta State, Nigeria. He’s also a steering committee member of the Open House for Health and Human Rights, a key population network. He is an alumnus of the International Human Rights and LGBT Program at the Swedish Federation for Sexuality Education, the MenEngage Africa Training Initiative and the International Human Rights Training Programme, Canada. In addition, William is an alumnus of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative and a Tony Elumelu Entrepreneur.

Fellowship Focus
Rashidi translated Nigeria’s PrEP guidelines to the real world by creating demand for PrEP within the LGBTQ+ communities in Abuja and Lagos and through outreach to the media. Specifically, he organized community dialogues that supported a sustainable forum, and he cultivated relationships with journalists to facilitate consistent and accurate media coverage.

In Their Own Words
Young leaders working in the field of HIV prevention and treatment are changing the landscape with advocacy for prevention choices, and this includes PrEP in the near future. I see the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) coming up with a national roadmap on PrEP availability and accessibility in the country.

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Bridget Jjuuko Ndagaano

Bridget currently leads Acts101 Uganda, an organisation she founded after her Fellowship. Acts101 focuses on health and developmental programs for children, adolescents and youth. Her recent HIV/sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) work has involved targeted advocacy for accelerated engagement of adolescent girls and young women in HIV programs and research both national and globally. At the time of her project, she had over six years of experience in adolescent SRHR services delivery, psychosocial and behavioral support for children and youth and HIV/AIDS and key and priority population programming.

Fellowship Focus
Bridget led a campaign for the acceleration of PrEP rollout for young women in Uganda. She successfully advocated for the integration of PrEP (and other HIV prevention) into the national education curriculum and the integration of HIV prevention into SRHR services as a PEPFAR priority. She also pressured the National AIDS Council to finally develop its PrEP communications plan. Bridget was instrumental in bringing PrEP and prevention information to young women at the Naguru Teenage Information Center.

In Their Own Words
Advocacy for comprehensive HIV prevention services for the young adolescents, ages 10-17, is still a hard area, especially coupled with the policy environment that doesn’t favor access to family planning services for adolescents.

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Consolata Achieng Opiyo

Consolata is the Vice Chairperson for ICWEA. She’s also on WHO’s Women Living with HIV Advisory Group and represents the TB constituents in Kenya on the Glocal Fund country coordinating mechanism. She’s a project assistant for the Global Partnership for Action to end all forms of HIV- Related stigma at GNP+. She is an activist, public and motivational speaker, facilitator and trainer of trainers. She acquired HIV through vertical transmission,and her main interest has always been the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls and young women.

Fellowship Focus
Consolata prepared Kenya and the wider region for the ECHO trial results. As a member of the ECHO National Taskforce team and the Communications Subcommittee, she helped plan for various scenarios following possible trial results. When the ECHO results were released after her Fellows project, Consolata was central to the dissemination and deciphering of the results in Kenya and beyond. She also played a primary role in reviewing and validating Kenya’s guidelines on Dolutegravir as a treatment choice for women.

In Their Own Words
We cannot speak about HIV without considering sexual and reproductive health and vice versa and that is why during my fellowship I pushed for the integration of the two in the healthcare setting.

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Deloune Matongo

Deloune is a public health programmer, researcher and SRHR youth advocate, who recently served as the Assistant National Youth, VMMC and Condom Coordinator under the National AIDS Council of Zimbabwe. During the same period, he was Secretariat to the National Young People’s Network on SRH, HIV and AIDS, a consortium of all the youth-serving organizations in the national response to HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe. Deloune has been an Executive Committee member of the Health Promotion Association of Zimbabwe (HEPAZ) since 2015 and a member of the National ASRH Coordination Forum of the Ministry of Health and Child Care. In 2017, he published two public health research papers.

Advocacy Accomplishments for the Year
Deloune created demand for PrEP while fostering a supportive environment for LGBTQ HIV prevention programming at the national level. His accomplishments include the development of Zimbabwe’s first National Key Population Implementation Plan, which increased the number of KP-receptive services to 24 from 6; the development of the Key Populations Manual for Healthcare Providers, which was drafted together with the KP Minimum Service Package; and he influenced the ministry of health to implement the country’s first MSM size estimation.

In His Own Words
“When the fellowship project commenced, I did not believe I had the capacity to influence government at high level and persuade them to consider my suggestions. I, however, learnt that there is power in diplomacy when it comes to advocacy. Most of my achievements were as a result of diplomatic engagements with the powers that be.”

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Lilian Benjamin Mwakyosi, MD

Lilian is a youth advocate who for the past four years has volunteered at TAYOA (Tanzania Youth Alliance) as a peer educator and counselor for a national health hotline, providing information, counseling and referral services to clients. Lilian also served as a differentiated care youth champion, advocating for different ART delivery models for young people living with HIV in Tanzania. She strongly believes in the meaningful engagement of young people to bring out positive change including preventing new HIV transmission and ending AIDS. Lilian attained her medical degree in 2017 at Hubert Kairuki Memorial University based in Dar es Salaam.

Advocacy Accomplishments for the Year
As the first AVAC Fellow in Tanzania, Lilian blazed a trail successfully pushing for the transition of PrEP from demonstration to scale-up, as reflected in COP 2019. She secured a seat in the PrEP and HIV self-test technical working group, where she advocated for the amendment of The Tanzania HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act 2018 to pave the way for HIV self-testing and a lower age of consent for HIV testing from 18 to 15 years. Additionally, Lilian’s social media presence and her direct training of hotline operators helped introduce PrEP and self-testing to scores of uninitiated Tanzanians.

In Her Own Words
“I feel like a widely knowledgeable advocate now. There were things I never knew in terms of evidence and research-based information, and different advocacy tactics. So, this year has been a series of practical lessons to improve my knowledge base and applying different advocacy tactics.”

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