Rhoda is currently employed by Copper Rose Zambia. She was a 2023 AVAC Advocacy Navigator focused on lowering the age of consent for access to HIV prevention services. She holds a bachelor’s degree in gender studies from the University of Zambia where she was awarded best graduating student of her class and school of humanities and social sciences BA programme. As an AVAC 2024 Advocacy Fellow Rhoda will focus on the successful introduction of the Dual Prevention Pill with the goal of increasing women-controlled HIV prevention options in Zambia.
Rhoda Msiska
Natasha Mwila
Updated January 2024
Natasha is the Advocacy, Information and Research Officer at The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS. She is actively involved in advocacy and preparedness for the injectable PrEP and the PrEP vaginal ring.
Impact
Natasha successfully pressured Zambia to approve the dapivirine vaginal ring and CAB for PrEP, using both traditional and social media. She helped shape her country’s HIV Prevention Roadmap and guidelines for injectable PrEP. She also led Zambia’s PEPFAR COP process and was on the Global Fund writing team, ensuring allocations for HIV prevention.
Read about some of Natasha’s latest work in our CASPR Results Bulletin (October 2023).
Media
- Tackling HIV Among Adolescents, Times of Zambia
- Tik Tok Videos: 1, 2, 3
- Reducing HIV Infection Among Women Mwila’s Target, Zambia Daily Mail
- Guest on ZNBC Today, appearance begins at 38 minute mark
- New HIV Prevention Options: What will Zambia choose?, Zambia Daily Mail
- Zambian Women Demand Dapivirine Ring, Sunday Times of Zambia
Advocacy
Esnart Sikazindu
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.
End of Project Summary Video
Media
- PrEP Gaps Exposed, Zambia Daily Mail Limited
- How To Reduce Young Women’s HIV Risk: Go where they go, Zambia Daily Mail
- HIV Vaccines: Are You Aware?, Daily Mail Limited
Materials
Chilufya Kasanda Hampongo
Chilufya joined Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign in 2015 as a volunteer where she coordinated its ARV access program for the elderly and disabled. She used the Good Participatory Guidelines as a framework for advocacy for service delivery in health centers. She has worked in community development with a passion in research and advocacy for the marginalized. Her advocacy work also includes petitioning the government to establish viral load testing as a priority for all the people living with HIV. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies at the University of Zambia.
Why I want to advocate for HIV prevention in 2016?
There is no time to wait. Zambia needs to empower women and young girls to have control of their lives through the use of PrEP. With PrEP we can reduce new infections in order to help reach the UNAIDS 90/90/90 targets. However, there is need for awareness among decision-makers, individuals and institutions to achieve this.
Chilufy’s Media Advocacy
- HIV: Africa Gearing Towards Deployment of Vaginal Ring, Science Africa
Oliver Kanene
Oliver is the Executive Director at Business for Social Change (BfSC), Zambia. He came to the Fellows program with a wealth of experience as a journalist and development worker with experience in HIV prevention activities. Since 1986, he has used his extensive experience in media and communications to work towards confronting the stigma around HIV/AIDS on many fronts. With support from local and international organizations, he started a newspaper, AIDS & Health News. He has worked with several local, regional and international organisations, including the Zambia Institute of Mass Communications (ZAMCOM) and John Snow Training Institute and Concern Worldwide, among others. Oliver holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences degree from the University of Tampere in Finland.
Fellowship Focus
Oliver used his extensive media and HIV/AIDS experience to build a cadre of journalists who consistently, accurately and responsibly report on HIV prevention research in Zambia. He also worked toward creating linkages between researchers, civil society and media, thereby contributing to a favorable HIV prevention research environment. He used the MDP 301 trial process as a case study.
In Their Own Words
Science is worthless if it is not shared with people, but sharing can only happen if the media first understand the processes involved.
Clever Chilende
Clever is a Programs Manager with the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC). He joined TALC as a volunteer in 2008 after spending many years as a banker and private business consultant, through which he developed an interest in advocacy. Before his Fellow’s project, he worked for several years on campaigns to end ARV shortages in Lusaka and to establish an ART center in Chazanga, a densely populated and rural area in Zambia’s Eastern Province.
Fellowship Focus
Clever’s project informed national VMMC policy, and he coordinated a project in budget monitoring and expenditure tracking in the health sector. He also worked to increase community participation in the health budgeting process and was directly involved in drafting Zambia’s Country Operating Plan for PEPFAR. He joined key national working groups and formed a civil society coalition on HIV prevention through which he influenced policy and programming.
In Their Own Words
I now realize that in order to be more effective in advocacy, there is a need to identify advocacy spaces and find your way to the decision-making table. At the same time, I have learned that to be effective in advocacy you need to build a strong coalition. This is because advocacy is in numbers.