Victor Lakay

Victor is a community activist with a strong desire to build a society that offers a better and just life for all. At the time of his Fellowship project, he was a member of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (formerly the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality), an organization that challenged discriminatory provisions that governed South Africa and won equal rights for LGTBI persons. He was also a member of the Alternative Information & Development Center (AIDC), an organization contributing to the development of alternatives to the challenges of the currently dominant global economic system. As a student, he actively participated in the fight against apartheid, something in which he takes great pride. He has previously worked as a consultant for the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, the Equality Project and the South African National AIDS Council.

Fellowship Focus
Victor brought extensive community organizing experience to projects related to prevention research advocacy. His project focused on male circumcision, microbicides, and PrEP. He effectively advocated for the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their right to access a comprehensive prevention package of care. He also worked to develop leaders among PLWHA and women within the Treatment Action Committee who advocated for the right to access quality social services, treatment and prevention. Additionally, he worked toward improving science-based knowledge on health, health rights and policy literacy through research, and toward strengthening advocacy and leadership at the local, district and provincial levels in South Africa.

In Their Own Words
I’m learning all the time. And I’m not learning only from my mentors but also from those who have elected me to this role of leadership because I constantly have to figure out, “What is it that is expected of me as a leader? And how do I deliver on that?”.

Charles Brown

Charles is the Executive Director of Preventive Care International, an NGO he founded after his Fellow’s project, and still works on various PrEP efforts at his host organization, the Infectious Diseases Institute. At the time of his project, he had been associated with HIV clinical trials for more than seven years. He worked on the HSV2/HIV study, Partners PrEP study and the Partners Demonstration Project. His focus was on HIV counselling and testing and adherence support and community education for serodiscordant couples and key populations.

Fellowship Focus
Charles advocated for the rollout of PrEP with high-risk groups. He worked with Uganda’s AIDS Commission to include PrEP in its National Strategic Plan and laid the groundwork for the development of guidelines for PrEP rollout.

In Their Own Words
I’m happy that it’s no longer “Charles Brown for PrEP”, but it’s now civil society for PrEP, where I’m part of the civil society.

Charles’ Media Advocacy:

Teresia Njoki Otieno

Teresia currently works for the Center for Multicultural Health, a community-based organization in Seattle, where she provides direct services to African-Americans and African immigrants and refugees. She’s a member of the ATHENA Network, the Ryan White Planning Council and the US People Living with HIV Caucus steering committee. She is an accomplished advocate for HIV-positive women, with experience in counseling, testing and community engagement. She is living with HIV and in a discordant relationship. She has fought for the sexual and reproductive rights of women in Kenya and in international forums, and has worked with other women living with HIV to fight their forced and coerced sterilization.

Fellowship Focus
Teresia worked with discordant couples and sex workers to shape the PrEP agenda in Kenya by increasing their participation in HIV prevention forums and committees at the county and national levels. She worked closely with Fellow Everlyne Ombati to ensure that new HIV prevention options for women, including PrEP, are part of the conversation in discussing Kenya’s future planning for prevention. She documented perceptions of PrEP in the target communities and her advocacy informed the inclusion of PrEP in the Kenya National Strategic Plan. She also engaged in national and international discussions and influenced research to better understand the possible connection between hormonal contraceptive use and HIV risk. She has been directly involved in conversations before, during and after the ECHO trial.

In Their Own Words
We’ve seen major breakthroughs in HIV prevention, treatment and even cure research over the last several years. Science continues to deliver – now it’s time for us as advocates, service providers, governments and funders to effectively implement what’s been delivered to us as we work towards new possibilities for tomorrow.

Paul Sixpence

Paul is a development and humanitarian projects manager with expertise in media advocacy and communications on biomedical HIV prevention and treatment, the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), access to justice, community legal empowerment and human rights. he has done extensive work on the use of media as an advocacy tool to push for policy support around new HIV prevention science. Specifically, he’s been involved in efforts to muster more resources for demonstration studies and rapid rollout of biomedical prevention interventions through the public health system.

Fellowship Focus
Paul’s work focused on advocacy for PrEP regulatory approval and development of guidelines for use in Zimbabwe. His advocacy influenced PrEP policy and guideline development in Zimbabwe in addition to demonstration projects and eventual rollout among adolescent girls and young women, discordant couples and key populations. He also worked with the media to help create an enabling environment for key populations to enjoy their health and human rights in Zimbabwe.

In Their Own Words
It is critical that we as civil society work with all other partners to create alternative spaces for discussion, and also allow young people themselves to discuss among themselves and articulate their challenges and determine solutions for their challenges.

My Work as a Fellow

  • Truvada as PrEP: A new HIV prevention option on the table for Zimbabwe? In this piece that ran in The Zimbabwe Chronicle, and also featured on AVAC’s blog, P-Values, Paul calls for PrEP rollout for young women, sex workers and sero discordant couples in Zimbabwe.

Carolyn Njoroge

Carolyn is a sex worker, rights activist and is living positively as an accomplished advocate for health issues including comprehensive HIV prevention treatment, care and services in Kenya. Her current advocacy focuses on capacity building and community and economic empowerment with sex worker-led organizations in Kenya. She’s been involved in microbicides and PrEP research endeavors among sex workers, and through these experiences, has built a community profile and a strong network among fellow sex workers and allied organizations.

Fellowship Focus
Carolyn advocated for research on microbicides and the rollout of PrEP among key populations, particularly sex workers in Kenya. She ensured that sex workers have access to information on PrEP to empower them to make decisions. She also engaged with researchers, policy makers and funders to bring sex workers’ voices to the forefront of PrEP programming. She advocated for change in laws that criminalise sex work in Kenya since they increase sex workers’ vulnerability to new HIV infections. Carolyn continued her advocacy after her Fellowship and is a strong voice for HIV prevention and the rights of key populations in Kenya and the region.

In Their Own Words
Laws that criminalize sex work in Kenya and all over the world make sex workers vulnerable to new HIV infections. PrEP and microbicides could help empower them to protect themselves from HIV in these climates of hardship.

Carolyn’s Media Advocacy

Cai Lingping

Lingping currently runs the China HIV/AIDS Information Network (CHAIN), the organisation that hosted her during her Fellowship project and the most important HIV/AIDS resource hub in China. At the time of her project, she had spent more than ten years working in social development, particularly in HIV/AIDS prevention and care in China. She has extensive knowledge of the operations of China’s health system at different levels. As a manager at CHAIN, she was responsible for the publication of the annual directory of INGOs and domestic NGOs working on HIV and AIDS in China. Lingping also served on the Country Coordinating Mechanism of the China Global Fund AIDS Project as well as its NGO Advisory Group and on the board of the China Alliance of PLHIV from 2009 to 2011.

Fellowship Focus
Lingping prepared the way for PrEP in China, working with researchers, policy makers and MSM. She organized Beijing’s first PrEP dialogue and published three newsletters, providing the most updated information on PrEP and global advances in new prevention strategies. She collected perceptions, opinions and concerns about PrEP from potential PrEP users to help inform her advocacy with policy makers and others.

In Their Own Words
Chinese officials and researchers are not likely to communicate with the community. An independent NGO can play a very important role in the middle, providing the knowledge and skills to both sides.

Josephine Kamarebe

At the time of her Fellowship project, Josephine was a program officer at HDI, where she was in charge of advocacy and policy monitoring. She has been involved in various advocacy campaigns for the decriminalization of LGBTI people, sex workers and abortion and has advocated for health and development for potter communities. Prior to her Fellowship year, she coordinated the SHARE project, which aims to empower youths with knowledge about sexual and reproductive health.

Fellowship Focus
Josephine helped create a favorable environment for the rollout of PrEP among the most at-risk populations. She worked with policy makers to include PrEP in the national guidelines. She built a civil society coalition to facilitate demands to policy makers and other key stakeholders. In addition to PrEP, Josephine advocated for treatment as prevention in the country’s national strategic plan and monitored VMMC rollout.

In Their Own Words
For those working with the key populations, it is better to empower them to speak on their own. It gives an added value and augments the policy and decision-makers to act accordingly.

Peter Michira

Peter is a Technical Advisor at Partners PrEP Scale-Up Project in Kenya. At the time of his Fellowship project, he had more than 12 years of experience working in HIV/AIDS programs. He has been involved in the coordination of field activities at the Partners in Prevention clinical trials site in Thika since 2006. He also worked as the focal point for the community within the Partners PrEP HIV discordant couples study, the largest study to date involving 4,758 HIV discordant couples.

Fellowship Focus
The positive results of the Partners PrEP study gave Peter the insight to lobby for the adoption of PrEP as an HIV prevention strategy in Kenya. In his project, Peter built a favorable environment and partnerships with key stakeholders. He formed a PrEP advocacy coalition within civil society and succeeded in getting PrEP funded through the Global Fund. Peter also worked with the media to cover the need for PrEP and its place in the HIV management continuum of care.

In Their Own Words
The Future Fellow will take over the mantle through close association with the various stakeholders and through the newly formed coalition.

Alice Kayongo

Alice is the Regional Policy and Advocacy Manager at AHF where she is involved in health policy and advocacy work in Lesotho, Malawi and East and West Africa broadly. She also leads a team of volunteers within a not-for-profit initiative called “We Rise and Prosper” (WRAP) with the aim of contributing toward poverty reduction, improved health outcomes and fairness in society. Alice is an activist and an active participant in the health, women’s and children’s rights civil society movement and development sector in Uganda and internationally. She is part of many successful social movements and coalitions in Uganda. At the time of her Fellowship, Alice was finalizing a campaign on “What’s preventing prevention of HIV/AIDS in Uganda?”.

Fellowship Focus
Alice’s objective was to influence policy on Treatment as Prevention. She led efforts to adopt a national treatment program based on universal access to HIV/AIDS treatment and education, to increase health funding for HIV/AIDS and intensify the fight against corruption, to attract and retain health workers evenly in all parts of the country and to implement a combination of interventions for HIV prevention such as VMMC, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and PrEP. Her coalition-building work solidified civil society’s role in influencing the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollars through PEPFAR’s Country Operational Plans and the Global Fund in Uganda and globally.

In Their Own Words
With greater political and financial support, the Treatment as Prevention approach can make a big difference.

Grace Kamau

Grace is currently the Regional Coordinator of the Africa Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA). Before her Fellowship project, she was involved in HIV prevention programs with the Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme (BHSP), which supports a membership of more than forty thousand sex workers, and where she worked as project officer coordinating sex workers across Kenya. She was the Secretary of the Sex Worker Alliance for Kenya and sits on the Kenya Technical Advisory body for sex workers.

Fellowship Focus
Grace engaged sex workers and bar hostesses to better facilitate acceptance and engagement with PrEP and microbicides research. She explored the issues and concerns about possible future access to these interventions for sex workers and bar hostesses. As Fellow, she engaged policy makers on the benefits that these potential HIV prevention interventions could have for high-risk groups.

In Their Own Words
Sex workers are an easy target in a time of crisis. Clients feel they can take advantage of them, and law enforcement think they can use them to show that they are implementing COVID-19 measures.

Media