Download the application here or click the link on the right of this page.
The Advocacy Navigator is an AVAC initiative combining training and mentorship to young and emerging advocates in the field of HIV prevention advocacy. Mentors will serve as advisors to the Navigators, supporting them as they go through their coursework and while they design and implement their Community Advocacy Project. More information at www.avac.org/navigator.
Download the application here or click the link to the right of this page. Please note, you will need to download and fill the application on a laptop or desktop computer. It is not possible to use a mobile phone to fill out the application.
The Advocacy Navigator program is open to any individual interested in HIV prevention advocacy currently residing in Southern or Eastern Africa. This is a six month program with a three to four hour weekly time commitment. AVAC will provide online coursework in HIV prevention and advocacy and match participants with a mentor. Participants will receive a small project grant. More information at www.avac.org/navigator.
The Advocacy Navigator program is open to any AVAC Alumni interested in serving as a mentor to emerging HIV prevention advocates currently residing in Southern or Eastern Africa. This is a six month program in HIV prevention advocacy. The mentor time commitment should be approximately one to two hours per week with the Navigator program participant. A modest communication and mentorship stipend is available. More information at www.avac.org/navigator.
Avac Event
AVAC and REACH for the Cure hosted a webinar to discuss how the environment may impact HIV cure strategies. During this webinar, both organizations explored how clades, co-infections, early treatment, and other factors can help inform existing approaches to HIV cure research. Dr. Adam Ward of Weill Cornell Medicine shared the latest data followed by an informal conversation.
There is a new special issue of the magazine POSITIVELY AWARE, co-edited by Kenyon Farrow, AVAC’s communications director, and Jim Pickett, AVAC’s senior advisor and lead of the Choice Agenda, that explores the impact of long-acting injectable treatment and PrEP.
In many ways the world is entering an era of HIV prevention that many of us have spent the last 40 years fighting for— there now exists multiple options for preventing HIV that are safe, highly effective and easy to use. 2012 saw the introduction of the first ARV-based prevention option—daily oral PrEP. And over the past two years, WHO recommended, and several national regulatory agencies have approved, injectable ARVs for treatment and prevention, as well as the dapvirine vaginal ring.
While these advances are something to celebrate, this is far from the end of the road. Technological gains only go as far as people’s awareness of them, desire to use them, and access to them. And this is where we — as a public health community and as a planet of humans — struggle. Just like with the first ARV therapies in the mid 1990s, and the first PrEP pill for prevention a decade ago, we’re now four years into the FDA approval of the first long-acting ARV therapy and we are several years away from scaling up these long-acting medications and truly seeing the impact they can have on the lives of people (whether living with HIV or in need of PrEP), and on the HIV epidemic itself.
It takes the HIV response far too long to move these innovative inventions to the point where they become medical miracles, experienced by everyone who needs and wants them, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex assigned at birth, pregnancy status or income.
There is a new special issue of the magazine POSITIVELY AWARE, co-edited by Kenyon Farrow, AVAC’s communications director, and Jim Pickett, AVAC’s senior advisor and lead of the Choice Agenda, that explores the impact of long-acting injectable treatment and PrEP. The articles, including a piece co-authored by John Meade, AVAC’s senior policy manager, and Danielle Campbell of PrEP in Black America and longtime AVAC partner, speak to the humans involved in downstream research, and what their experiences as patients, researchers, advocates and medical providers of long-acting treatment and PrEP teach us about how these products could be transformative. These stories make clear how far we still have to go to change our health systems so that they can meet their maximum potential.
AVAC will continue our work to advocate for global equity in access to prevention and treatment in all their current and future forms. We celebrate this issue of POSITIVELY AWARE as one collection of voices helping to point the way towards a more equitable future.
Avac Event
The new director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo joined AVAC Executive Director in conversation.
Avac Event
Join us for an overview of the newest cycle of the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network! This webinar will highlight ATN 165: Linking Youth to PrEP Services (LYPS) which tests an innovative mobile delivery and mHealth intervention to optimize PrEP adherence and persistence among sexual minority men, ATN 167: Legal, Economic, and Affirming Peer Support (LEAP) for transgender and gender diverse youth, and how the network prioritizes and amplifies the voices of youth directly impacted by the ATN’s pivotal research.
Speakers Include:
Avac Event
Thursday January 11, 8:00AM/4:00PM EAT
This webinar provided an overview of cervical cancer including what cervical cancer is, who is impacted, and prevention and treatment options.
Speakers included: Helen Kelly, Shona Dala, and Maribel Almonte Pacheco, WHO and Michelle Chevalier, US Department of State—Bureau of Global Health Security & Diplomacy/PEPFAR
Recording / Helen Kelly Slides
Thursday January 18, 8:00AM/4:00PM EAT
During this webinar, we heard from advocates on how they have used their voice to bring more attention to cervical cancer and its impact on communities.
Speakers include: Tamika Felder, Cervivor and Karen Nakawala, Teal Sisters Foundation Zambia
Recording / Tamika Felder Slides / Karen Nakawala Slides
Thursday January 25, 8:00AM/4:00PM EAT
During this webinar, speakers discussed options for screening and treating cervical cancer along with ongoing research.
Speakers include: Fred Wyand, American Sexual Health Association/National Cervical Cancer Coalition and Bothwell Guzha, University of Zimbabwe
Recording / Fred Wyand Slides / Bothwell Guzha Slides
Thursday February 1, 8:00AM/4:00PM EAT
This webinar explored how cervical cancer impacts key populations and those vulnerable to HIV infections.
Speakers include: Samiya Mahmoud, Association for the Prevention of Septic Abortion, Bangladesh (BAPSA) and Shona Dalal, Helen Kelly, WHO
For over a decade, the AVAC Advocacy Fellows Program has played a role in shaping the landscape of HIV prevention by strengthening leadership skills and building a growing and evolving network of fierce and unstoppable advocates. Last year, AVAC released A Legacy of Impact: The power and reach of AVAC’s Advocacy Fellows to tell the story of the Fellows program and to share testimonies of impact from research to policy, and beyond.
Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day dedicated to the importance of advocacy to influence change, AVAC honors its nearly 100 Fellow alumni and applauds our most recent class which closed out their fellowship in December.
Read on for testimonies from the AVAC 2022/2023 Fellows and explore their work in their individual pages.
Learn about Ruth’s work around the approval and rollout of the dual prevention pill (DPP) in Uganda here.
Learn about Onward’s work with engaging religious institutions on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe here.
Learn about Prince’s work ensuring access to injectable CAB for PrEP for trans people in Malawi here.
Learn about Catherine’s work in the rollout and implementation of the dapivirine vaginal ring for adolescents and young women (AGYW) in Tanzania here.
Learn about Natasha’s advocacy for the approval of the dapivirine vaginal ring and injectable CAB for PrEP in Zambia here.
Learn about Peter’s work with differentiated service delivery of PrEP and expediting new PrEP tools in Lesotho here.
Learn about Elizabeth’s work advocating for sex workers and people who use drugs (PUD) here.
Learn about Liyema’s work on advocating and implementing the decriminalization of sex work in South Africa here.
Get to know the full AVAC Fellows community by exploring the full alumni database and stay tuned to meet the 2024/2025 class to be announced in April!