Josephine Chinele

Josephine is multi-award winning journalist. She has been in the profession for 13 years and has done numerous health journalism fellowships, specializing in HIV/AIDS, general health and human rights. Josephine has also traveled extensively in pursuit of various journalism trainings and fellowships. Notably in 2018, she was selected to train in HIV science reporting and covered the International AIDS Conference held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Why I Want to Advocate for HIV Prevention in 2019, and what I Plan To Do
My advocacy started from my work as a journalist pursuing investigative reporting and feature writing with a strong advocacy voice. This work exposed key policy issues such as the need for young women to access PrEP. In 2019, I will take aim to influence the Malawi government so that policies elevate adolescent girls and young women as a priority population for PrEP rollout. Specifically, I will advocate for an enabling environment for PrEP introduction, accurate and effective media coverage of HIV prevention, community engagement around ongoing research in Malawi and preparation for the potential introduction of the dapivirine ring.

Media

David Ita

David is a community HIV prevention advocate, trained by NHVMAS, with 7 years of experience working with vulnerable communities in Nigeria. He started as a peer educator and rose up the ranks to become the programme officer for Action for Community Development. David worked with orphans and vulnerable children in the Evbuotubu community in Edo State to ensure there was access to adequate information about safer sex practices. He also worked with women living with HIV to help prevent vertical HIV transmission in the Okhukugbo community. David was a monitoring and evaluation officer for Journalists Against AIDS in 2018. His work with NHVMAS reiterated his passion for promoting adolescent sexual reproductive health and rights in Nigeria.

Why I Want to Advocate for HIV Prevention in 2019, and What I Plan to Do
Due to the prevalence of HIV among adolescents in Nigeria, it is imperative for them to be adequately informed about comprehensive sexual education and have access to HIV and sexual reproductive health services. Currently, there isn’t enough focus on HIV prevention in Nigeria. I aim to integrate HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education in Lagos State, advocate for policy lowering the age of consent for access to services while building a coalition of informed youth to sustain HIV prevention mobilization.

Media

Materials

Cleopatra Sheilla Makura

Cleopatra Sheilla Makura is a youth advocate who has volunteered at SAYWHAT for the past three years as a peer educator providing information, counseling and referrals to peers in tertiary institutions. She also served as the SAYWHAT National Coordinating Chairperson, engaging parliamentarians and other key stakeholders for students’ sexual and reproductive health and rights. Additionally, Cleopatra served as a PrEP champion advocating for its acceptance in communities. She strongly believes in meaningful engagement and participation of young people in tertiary institutions to bring out positive change including the prevention of new HIV infections and ending AIDS. Cleopatra attained her degree in psychology in 2018 at the University of Zimbabwe.

Why I Want to Advocate for HIV Prevention in 2019, and What I Plan to Do
There are tools to prevent HIV such as PrEP and more are potentially on the horizon, such as the dapivirine ring. This gives me more power to advocate for HIV prevention. I want to influence my government to strengthen health services for HIV prevention, especially among young people. Specifically, my project aims to include PrEP in Zimbabwe’s university clinics as part of the minimum HIV/SRH package of services. I will also mobilize demand for PrEP on campus and engage students around ongoing research in Zimbabwe.

My Work as a Fellow

Mercy Mutonyi

Mercy is a Project Manager for the BHESP Global Fund/Kenya Redcross project for female sex workers. She is actively engaged in the national key population, PrEP and adolescent girls and young women’s technical working groups. She is a young advocate with over seven years of experience in HIV prevention programming, working with female sex workers and vulnerable young women in Kenya. She was a co-investigator and lead PrEP ambassador in the IPCP-Kenya PrEP demonstration pilot and was also the project manager of DREAMS Innovation Challenge at BHESP. Mercy participated in the development of PrEP and HIV self-testing guidelines in Kenya.

Fellowship Focus
Mercy influenced the implementation of ethical assisted partner notification services (APNS) among sex workers as part of Kenya’s shift to index testing. She identified barriers to APNS for sex workers and ensured that the new national assisted partner notification/index testing guidelines included them. She also influenced PEPFAR to provide guidance on index testing that respects human rights—something that is now part of implementation monitoring. She amplified the voices of young women and sex workers in HIV prevention research and implementation and in the decriminalization of sex work.

In Their Own Words
The protection of the human rights and the safety of sex workers should be a top priority as the community of female sex workers at different levels participate in index HIV testing. HIV prevention is not about numbers and targets–sex workers’ rights and dignity should be upheld.

Advocacy

Media

Sarah Nabia

Sarah is currently pursuing an MPH/MBA dual degree student at Bloomberg School of Public Health and Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University. She has worked among female sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgender persons across Southern Karnataka in India. Her work has focused on advocating for the inclusion of PrEP as part of combination prevention in the national HIV prevention policy. Sarah has also implemented a community-led approach to battling tuberculosis.

Fellowship Focus
While PrEP has been well received in India’s demonstration studies, it has also cultivated a groundswell of demand among the sex worker community at large. Sarah built political and community support for broader PrEP rollout. She mobilized stakeholders and directly participated in the development of India’s draft PrEP policy and guidelines, helping to ensure that they were inclusive of sex workers’ needs. She trained leading sex worker advocates in five states to pressure their State AIDS Control Societies for PrEP rollout and sensitized national media to report on the need for PrEP.

In Their Own Words
Map your field–allies, obstructures and the indifferent. Know their strengths and weaknesses. Every person can be a useful contributor in your efforts. There are no permanent friends or foes in advocacy.

Shakirah Namwanje

Shakirah is Programs Officer at UNASO. She is a survivor of child sexual abuse and a young woman living with HIV. She is an advocate for positive living and HIV prevention, and works tirelessly to see to it that “my HIV ends with me”. Shakirah leads peer education and counseling of young people through experience sharing, music, dance and drama. She is also an activist for the end of sexual abuse in Uganda, especially against girls and young women, and uses radio and talk shows to tell her story to inspire more girls to speak up about their challenges and seek help.

Fellowship Focus
Shakirah supported young people in Uganda to engage with and influence ongoing HIV prevention research in Uganda; she strengthened PrEP and microbicides awareness and created demand for PrEP among young people. She also pushed for policies that protect against gender-based violence and that support HIV and sexual and reproductive health integration. She established an inter-university coalition to provide a platform for student leaders to discuss HIV related issues in eleven universities across the country.

In Their Own Words
For me, to give a young person out there any chance to a better life is important and is the source of my strength to advocate for HIV prevention.

Media

Materials

Ntokozo Zakwe

Ntokozo is an HIV prevention and women’s health rights advocate. She currently works with Community Media Trust (CMT) as the DREAMS Safe Spaces Facilitator. Her passion for advocacy for women’s well-being has been intensified by her personal experiences as a young woman in South Africa who has struggled to stay HIV-negative, withstanding all the challenges and factors that leave women vulnerable to HIV. She has worked for the NGO Health Systems Trust, serving as a District Administrator in their DREAMS program and was chairperson of the UMgungundlovu District AIDS Council Youth Sector.

Fellowship Focus
Ntokozo’s project sought to influence young women’s access to gender-based violence (GBV) prevention, care and support in their communities as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention package in South Africa. She successfully spearheaded the inclusion of PrEP in centers that care for survivors of violence in KwaZulu Natal. She established a coalition of young women warriors who understand and influence GBV and HIV prevention policies and programs and she advocated for a roadmap for comprehensive GBV services and care in HIV prevention research in South Africa.

In Their Own Words
We must advocate and fight for the vulnerable populations and to ensure that the next generation does not go through half of the things we went through and that they won’t have to fight the same battles we’ve had to fight.