Join us on April 6, 2022 10am ET for a special webinar on the Ubuntu trial, hosted by the COVID Advocates Advisory Board (CAAB) and our Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR). Led by the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), Ubuntu is a new, landmark COVID-19 vaccine trial in sub-Saharan Africa investigating the efficacy of mRNA vaccines in people living with HIV against the omicron variant.

Register here.

While there are a number of resources that address stakeholder engagement in COVID-19 research, some may not adequately reflect the needs of advocates. Join a conversation reviewing resources for advocates’ needs and shaping future resources!

This discussion will be moderated by AVAC’s Jessica Salzwedel.

• Role of Advocates in Prevention Trials — Chilufya Kasanada, TALC
• Essential Principals and Practices for GPP Compliance — Cathy Slack, HAVEG
• GPP Resources & Implementation in Solidarity — Nina Gobat, WHO

Register here.

Join us on March 16, 2022 10am ET for a special webinar on the Ubuntu trial, hosted by the COVID Advocates Advisory Board (CAAB) and our Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR). Led by the COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), Ubuntu is a new, landmark COVID-19 vaccine trial in sub-Saharan Africa investigating the efficacy of mRNA vaccines in people living with HIV against the omicron variant.

Register here.

AVAC is delighted to announce the 2022 AVAC Advocacy Fellows, marking the 12th class of the flagship Fellows Program. This group of eight advocates will participate in an 18-month program that supports their advocacy efforts, invests in the further development of their skills, shapes the agenda for HIV prevention research, and influences how quickly new interventions move into policy and programs in their communities and countries.

In response to the success of the program in its first decade and a comprehensive evaluation to expand and improve on that foundation, the program will now run for 18 months, enabling extended support to Fellows’ advocacy priorities. In addition, the program will strengthen the role of the alumni network in the program and strengthen the linkages between organizational partners.

The 2022 Fellows were selected from a pool of 140 applicants from 12 countries. The 2022 Advocacy Fellows and their host organizations include:

• Ruth Akulu, International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa, Uganda
• Onward Chironda, Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
• Catherine Madebe, Mulika Tanzania, Tanzania
• Prince Mikel Juao, Lesbians Intersex Trans and other Extensions, Malawi
• Natasha Mwila, The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS, Zambia
• Peter Ntheri, Lesotho Network of AIDS Service Organization, Lesotho
• Elizabeth Onyango, Coast Sex Workers Alliance, Kenya
• Liyema Somnono, Passionate Unlimited Peers in Action, South Africa

Please visit the Advocacy Fellows page to learn more about their planned work for the year. We hope you’ll find ways to collaborate with them in 2022 and beyond.

We are also extremely proud of the important achievements of the recently graduated Fellows of 2020/21. Their evidence-based advocacy focused on critical areas and marked significant progress to help accelerate ethical research and equitable access to HIV prevention options. Advocacy like this overcomes historic barriers to HIV prevention and represents a foundation the field must continue to invest in to finally end the epidemic. Keep watching this space to learn how the 2022 Fellows and the alumni Fellows carry this vital work forward.

Thank you to all of the applicants and their proposed host organizations for the time and effort put into the application process, and to the independent review committee of advocates, scientists and former Fellows and hosts who guided our decision-making.

The AVAC Advocacy Fellows Program, launched in 2009, fosters a network of deeply-informed, skilled and confident advocates to strengthen and expand advocacy for HIV prevention locally, regionally and globally. In the decade since its launch, 83 advocates from 14 countries in Africa and Asia have been through this program and have gone on to use their evidence-based advocacy to help accelerate ethical research and equitable access to HIV prevention options.

AVAC is tremendously proud of its 2020/2021 class of Fellows whose tenure in the program began during a time of great uncertainty in HIV prevention and in global health. Their tenacity, passion and unwavering commitment to bringing HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health options and choices that their communities want and need are central tenants to recalibrating global health equity.

Read on for more on their achievements and accomplishments as AVAC Fellows.

Josephine Aseme, Heartland Alliance, Nigeria
Josephine’s advocacy for PrEP rollout in key populations is exemplary; her accomplishments speak to her drive and grit. As an oral PrEP-taking sex worker and founder of Greater Women Initiative for Health and Rights, she has taken the helm, steering Nigeria’s key populations (KP) community to accelerate access to HIV prevention. She trained almost 300 KP champions across select districts in peer-to-peer PrEP education and charted an increase of 23,000+ PrEP referrals as a result.

She successfully worked with the Ministry of Health and her host Heartland Alliance to secure PrEP inclusion in the National Consolidated Service Delivery Guidelines on HIV and STIs for Key Populations, in Nigeria’s National HIV/AIDS Prevention Plan, and in Heartland Alliance’s Peer Educators’ Manual, a nationally recognized compendium. And, as a KP representative to PEPFAR’s country planning, she convinced her peers as well as implementers to add language on the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring and cabotegravir injectables to Nigeria’s country operating plan in 2021.

Chisomo Chaweza, MANERELA+, Malawi
As a KP ally, Chisomo strategically selected MANERELA+, a network of religious leaders, to host him through his Fellow project. This reflects Chisomo’s big-tent approach to advocacy, tapping into all the key sectors to push for accelerated PrEP rollout in key populations. Specifically, he rallied demand for the release of the long-overdue PrEP Guidelines—finally launched in September, 2021.

And when the MOH was not forthcoming with where to find PrEP dispensing sites, Chisomo rallied pressure on PEPFAR to reveal this information. He handled the media as an advocacy tool from both sides—engaging them to consistently and accurately cover HIV prevention and also developing his own blog, Liberty, and writing opinion pieces. He drafted a policy brief Making up for Lost Time: Increasing Access to PrEP and HIV Self-testing for Key Populations in Malawi, which continues to be employed as an advocacy tool today by others such as the incoming 2022 Fellow.

Mandisa Dukashe, Wits RHI, South Africa
During her Fellow’s project, Mandisa became a renowned face of U=U, after launching South Africa’s first treatment as prevention campaign in the Eastern Cape. And she’s well on her way to leading regional advocacy to popularize and formalize the uptake of U=U to promote treatment, adherence and viral load suppression as a way to destigmatize and sexually disinhibit people living with HIV.

Mandisa established alliances with UNAIDS, prominent political leaders and South Africa’s National AIDS Council and collaborated closely with the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society and Prevention Access Campaign to promote U=U. Her work culminated in the organizing of a U=U Satellite session at the SA AIDS Conference and in the formation of the U=U Africa Forum she co-founded with AVAC Fellow Alumni Kennedy Mupeli from Botswana. They continue to advocate for ministries of health to officially implement U=U.

Winifred Ikilai, The National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS Networks in Uganda
Wini was the first AVAC Fellow to integrate COVID into her advocacy targets and the pay-off was huge. She successfully engaged social media in spearheading a campaign to secure ARVs, food, hygiene packs and other services and supplies for 2,700 households in 115 districts under lockdown. Her advocacy earned her the 2021 Omololu Falobi Award for Excellence in HIV Prevention Research Community Advocacy while also garnering opportunities to collaborate with IAVI, aidsmap, Aljazeera and others.

What’s more, Wini won big gains for improved HIV treatment literacy and counseling through her creation of the Beyond My Pill Campaign. As part of her advocacy for improved treatment services, she organized a national level dialogue on test and treat, revitalizing the voices of PLHV networks and mobilizing for further PEPFAR spending. She won both recognition and funding to enhance treatment programs, reflected in Uganda’s National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan 2021/21–2024/25.

Joyce Ouma, National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya
Joyce methodically threaded her way through all relevant power centers to influence large-scale integration of SRH and HIV. First, she built a cadre of young women champions who contributed to her successful campaign to win Machakos county-level budget for SRH/HIV integration, and to win further national commitment from PEPFAR COP 21 and Global Fund 2021–2024.

She sat on Kenya’s national HIV/SRH integration working group where they spearheaded the one-stop-shop piloting in five counties. In the midst of Joyce’s Fellow project, the WHO green lighted the Dapivirine Vaginal Ring, so, naturally, Joyce co-convened a civil society taskforce to fast track its introduction. All the while, she penned two opinion pieces in Kenya’s national daily Star speaking of the continued need for a robust HIV prevention pipeline.

Esnart Sikazindu, Community Based TB/HIV AIDS Organisation (CBTO), Zambia
Esnart’s advocacy for differentiated PrEP services played out through social and traditional media. As Zambia moved PrEP out of ART clinics into more youth-friendly spaces, she saw an unfulfilled need to let young women know about PrEP and where to find it. Thus, she spread the word and built demand via social media.

She also took to the airwaves and print to let the general public know about PrEP as well as forthcoming HIV prevention like the PrEP ring and injectable. And not least, Esnart drafted a policy brief Too Little for Far Too Long: A Gap Analysis for Adolescent Girls and Young Women, which continues to be employed as an advocacy tool today.