Alliance Nikuze

Alliance has been directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, having lost family members to AIDS-related complications. Although her primary advocacy has centered on female empowerment and prevention options to prevent penile-vaginal transmission, over the past decade she has become increasingly interested in the need for rectal microbicides, as well. Alliance believes that the continuous commitment of government, organizations and individuals supports the slowing of the pandemic. Her interest in HIV biomedical prevention interventions is grounded in their potential to empower women.

Fellowship Focus
Alliance mobilized civil society groups to inform and influence the rollout of voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) for HIV prevention in Rwanda. She explored issues of VMMC acceptability and involvement of partners in health, both crucial issues for the successful implementation of this strategy.

In Their Own Words
We are more than seven billion people on this planet; we surely don’t and can’t have one way of having sexual intercourse. Our diversity is our wealth. Our sexuality as human beings is not supposed to be defined by the available prevention tools, but all the HIV prevention tools have to be adapted to our sexuality.

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.

IAVI B004

IAVI B002

IAVI B003/IPCAVD 004

Safety Study of the PrePex Device for Non-Surgical Adult Male Circumcision During Phased in National Implementation in an Effort to Prevent the Spread of HIV (RMC-07)

Comparing the PrePex™ Device to Surgical Circumcision for Rapid Scale Up of Male Circumcision in Resource Limited Setting

HIV-V-A004/ IPCAVD-009 (APPROACH)

IAVI 010

IAVI V001