Meet the 2010 Advocacy Fellows
After a thorough selection process involving
a pool of 112 applications from more than 20
countries in Africa, Asia and South America,
AVAC and GCM awarded 9 Fellowships to
individuals from six African countries.
Below, you'll meet the Fellows and
have a glimpse of what they worked on in 2010.
Click
here to learn more about where the fellows are
today.
Click
here to see the award each Fellow received at
the end of the Fellowship.
Host: University of Zimbabwe-University of California San Francisco Collaboration (UZ-UCSF), Zimbabwe
Project: Effectively engaging the Zimbabwean media in the prevention research field
Managing Institution: Global Campaign for Microbicides*
Munyaradzi is a media practitioner with close to 7 years electronic and publications production experience. He got involved in microbicides in 2005 whilst producing a radio show on HIV/AIDS, subsequently attending Microbicides 2006 in Cape Town, South Africa. During the conference Munyaradzi noted and appreciated the role that advocacy and advocates play in microbicides trials. After having the opportunity to attend a Track D session: “Beyond Involvement: Civil Society’s role in making ethical progress towards a microbicide,” conducted by the late Omololu Falobi, Nigeria HIV Vaccine and Microbicides Advocacy Group, Munyaradzi felt he was challenged to do something about the lack of advocacy initiatives in the Zimbabwe microbicides research landscape.
Munyaradzi’s Fellowship project mainly addresses how the media reports on and is engaged in HIV prevention trials in Zimbabwe. It will identify needs and opportunities to improve the media’s ongoing balanced, accurate, consistent and reliable reporting on HIV prevention trials in Zimbabwe. The project will engage the Zimbabwean media in the coverage of ongoing microbicides clinical trials in Zimbabwe. Training and resources will be provided to journalists, editors and community advisory board members.
Keep up to date with Munya’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
2. Nomfundo "Nono"
Eland
Host: Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC),
South Africa
Project: Re-energizing
advocacy around HIV prevention in a feminised
epidemic in South Africa and engaging national
stakeholders around PrEP research.
Managing
Institution: AVAC
Nono is the National
Coordinator for the Women’s Rights Campaign
at the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) in South
Africa. She has extensive experience in issues
around sexual and reproductive health, health
care, and has special interest in gender-based
violence, particularly violence against women.
Nono is raising her son, Warona and his nephews
to respect women and to see violence of any
kind as a crime. Her dream is to see them
understand issues of gender and sexuality, and
hopes that the future will see more men
understand and appreciate this more. She is
also a strong advocate for ensuring access to
affordable interventions for women in
developing countries, for instance access to
HPV vaccines and different HIV prevention
options.
Nono will bring her extensive
community organizing experience to projects
related to South African community engagement
with key prevention research advocacy topics
including male circumcision, PrEP, clinical
trials conduct, microbicides and other issues.
Her project aims to re-energize advocacy around
HIV prevention in a feminized epidemic in South
Africa and engaging national stakeholders
around HIV prevention research.
Keep up to date with Nono’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
3. Richard
Hasunira
Host: HEPS-Uganda,
Uganda
Project: Preparing
communities for results of HIV prevention
trials: the case of communities participating
in MDP 301 in Masaka and MTN 003 [VOICE] in
Kampala, Uganda
Managing Institution: AVAC
Richard wears
many hats - he is an economist, policy analyst,
journalist, and passionate HIV/AIDS advocate,
and before the Fellowship was Communication
Manager at HEPS-Uganda, a health rights
advocacy civil society organization. He holds a
bachelors degree in Arts, an M.A. in economic
policy and planning, and other qualifications
in journalism, communication and business
management. Richard is experienced in writing
for the media on issues of policy, health and
the economy. He has been team leader of policy
advocacy research studies for the International
Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) and the
Regional Network for Equity in Health in East
and Southern Africa (EQUINET) for the past
several years. Richard’s advocacy work for
HIV prevention research started in 2007 when he
was part of a media and advocacy mapping study
for new prevention research in Uganda. He is
keen on biomedical research into microbicides
because of the hope they offer women, who
remain vulnerable to, and are
disproportionately affected by
HIV/AIDS.
For his fellowship, Richard is
analyzing the community engagement mechanisms
of the MDP 301 and MTN 003 [VOICE] studies as
case studies in documenting community
experiences, perceptions, and lessons learned
in order to: contribute to a better
understanding of the effects of closure of HIV
prevention clinical trials on communities;
identify best practices that should be emulated
in future trials; and highlight areas that need
improvement and advocacy. Richard also aims to
contribute to a better understanding and
appreciation of biomedical HIV prevention
research and advocacy within trial communities
and the broader community of civil society at
the national level in Uganda.
Keep up to date with Richard’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
4. Victor Frank
Lakay
Host: Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC),
South Africa
Project:
Strengthening expertise on biomedical
prevention interventions among South African
activists and facilitating stakeholder
engagement around PrEP, male circumcision &
rectal microbicides
Managing
Institution:
AVAC
Victor is a community activist
with a strong desire to build a society that
offers a better and just life for all. He is
currently pursuing a B.A. in development
studies from the University of Western Cape,
and works as the National Community Health
Advocacy Coordinator for the Treatment Action
Campaign (TAC) based in Johannesburg. Victor is
a member of the Lesbian and Gay Equality
Project, formerly the National Coalition for
Gay and Lesbian Equality, an organization which
challenged discriminatory provisions that
governed South Africa and won equal rights for
lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual and
inter-sex (LGTBI) persons. He is 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. This is done through
research, information production or
dissemination, popular education, campaigning
and coalition building. As a student, he
actively participated in the fight against
apartheid, something that he takes great pride
in. He has previously worked as a consultant
for the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, The
Equality Project and the South African National
AIDS Council in different capacities.
Victor will bring extensive
community organizing experience to projects
related to South African community engagement
with key prevention research advocacy. His
project will focus on advocacy efforts on male
circumcision, microbicides, and PrEP. He will
also conduct a situational analysis of the
application research findings and prevention
methods in culturally appropriate manners. He
aims to effectively advocate for the rights of
people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) and their
rights to access a comprehensive prevention
package of care. He also works to develop
leaders among PLWHA and women within TAC who
advocate for the right to access quality social
services, treatment and prevention.
Additionally he is working towards improving
science-based knowledge on health, health
rights and policy literacy through research,
and strengthening advocacy and leadership at
the local, district and provincial levels in
South Africa. His vast experience of working
with TAC and sitting on different boards will
be very useful.
5. Magret Cynthia
Mungofa
Host: Zimbabwe Women Against
HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Violence
(ZWAAPV),Zimbabwe
Project: Community advocacy
program on promoting access to sexual and
reproductive health services
Managing
Institution:
Global
Campaign for Microbicides*
Cynthia is the eldest in a family
of four, and a mother of three (two boys;
Sacha, 16 years, Zivai, 11 and a girl; Tendayi,
10). She holds a B.Sc (Hons) degree in Politics
and Administration from the University of
Zimbabwe and a masters degree in Development
Administration from the Australian National
University. Before the Fellowship, she worked
as a Program Manager at ZWAAPV. Cynthia is also
a publisher, and has written several articles
including; “The Corporate Public Sector”
and “Tapping the Economy’s Hidden
Potential” (Business Herald); “Performance
Management in the Public Service” and
“Budget 2000: Some Lessons” (Financial
Gazette), and “Gender Dimensions of
HIV/AIDS” (Gender Forum
Magazine).
Cynthia has also worked for
the Public Service Commission, IRED-Development
Innovations and Networks and the Zimbabwean
Ministry of Youth Development, Gender and
Employment Creation.
Cynthia is a
singer-songwriter with a keen interest in the
Afro-jazz music genre.
Her Fellowship
will sensitize high risk groups and
marginalized women on microbicides and other
viable HIV prevention options. She will work
towards initiating dialogue about HIV
prevention tools such as microbicides which
would empower rural women, like those in Murewa
where her project is based. Cynthia believes
that advocacy around the need to expand HIV
prevention tools controlled by women needs to
be strengthened. Her Fellowship is primarily
focusing on exploring what rural women know
about these tools, specifically microbicides,
and on empowering them through initiating
dialogue on these strategies.
Keep up to date with Cynthia’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
6. Patrick Mwai
Muchai
Host: Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium
(KANCO),
Kenya
Project: Developing a
culturally-appropriate prevention research
training curriculum for community
members
Managing Institution: Global Campaign for
Microbicides*
Patrick has
been involved in HIV prevention programs with
Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium (KANCO) for the past
four years and his passion has been working
with the community to understand their
reproductive health problems.
Patrick
currently serves as the Chairperson of the
Kenya Medical Research Institute-University of
Washington Community Advisory Board (CAB) in
Coast Province, and is the coordinator of the
Coast Vaccine Support Network in Kenya. In this
capacity, he links the research institutions
and the community by repackaging the
information on HIV vaccine awareness in an easy
to understand language.
A graduate of
the University of Nairobi, Patrick holds a
bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Sociology
and Communication. He also holds a diploma in
Management Information Systems from Strathmore
University-Nairobi.
For the Fellowship,
Patrick’s main interest is in community
advocacy where he seeks to develop a curriculum
to educate Kenyan men who have sex with men
(MSM) and female sex workers about
participation in clinical trials of
microbicides, PrEP and HIV vaccines. He will
develop a curriculum to educate MSM and female
sex workers about conduct of clinical trials of
microbicides, PrEP and HIV vaccine. He will
also conduct media sessions with the CAB to
talk about their involvement in research, use
workplace structures to reach community members
as well as document beliefs of the local
communities in relation to clinical trials and
conduct forums to develop messages in Kiswahili
to address these beliefs and in the process
form new coalitions to advocate for more
education of priority groups.
Keep up to date with Patrick’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
7. Jauhara Nanyondo
Host: Makerere University Walter Reed
Program (MUWRP), Uganda
Project:
Development
of Training Modules for Media Engagement in HIV
Prevention Research in Uganda
Managing
Institution:
AVAC
Jauhara works
and lives in Kampala, Uganda. She holds a
bachelor’s degree in Adult and Community
Education, and has five years working
experience in public health. She was part of
the Makerere University Walter Reed Project
(MUWRP) team that successfully recruited and
retained over 2000 cohort participants. She
worked on the program’s community outreach
department where she was charged with
mobilization and sensitization of different
stakeholders including, community leaders,
health professionals, media and community
advisory boards (CABs) in relation to HIV
vaccine research. Previously, Jauhara worked
with Plan Uganda and the Makerere University
Case Western University as a community
mobilization volunteer and a home visitor. She
has reached diverse communities during efforts
to build HIV vaccine literacy and drafted CAB
by-laws to streamline operations of the CAB in
Uganda.
In her Fellowship, Jauhara is
working to develop a standard HIV prevention
research training guide for the media in
Uganda. The guide will help streamline the
content and scope of such training. In
Uganda, there have been efforts to build media
capacity to report effectively on new HIV
prevention research, but the content and scope
of such workshops have been limited. The media
is a strong advocacy tool, and she strongly
believes that with standard training, an
informed community base of advocates for HIV
vaccine research and other new HIV prevention
technologies can be built in Uganda.
Keep up to date with Jauhara’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
8.
Alliance
Nikuze
Host: Institute of Human Virology of
the University of Maryland School of Medicine
(UMSOM-IHV), Rwanda
Project:
Engagement of
civil society in the national implementation of
Medical Male Circumcision in
Rwanda.
Managing Institution: AVAC
Alliance
was born in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, but moved to Rwanda to
complete her studies in biological sciences.
When she was studying for her bachelor’s
degree, Alliance provided home support to
people living with HIV/AIDS. Before starting
the Fellowship, she worked at the Institute of
Human Virology of the University of Maryland
School of Medicine (UMSOM-IHV), an institution
with extensive experience in HIV/AIDS. She
worked with church members/leaders to empower
them, and to support linkages between churches,
hospitals and community clinics to increase
access to healthcare, promote health and
prevent diseases.
Alliance lost three
members of her family to HIV/AIDS. She believes
continuous commitment of government,
organizations and individuals will help to
continue slowing the pandemic. She is
interested in HIV biomedical prevention
interventions because of their potential to
empower women.
Alliance’s Fellowship
project will be centered on the rollout of
medical male circumcision (MMC), an
intervention planned to be implemented at the
national level in Rwanda as an additional HIV
prevention strategy. Male circumcision is not a
generalized practice in Rwandan communities and
the cost of MMC is not affordable for the
poorest. Alliance will engage civil society
groups, exploring the opportunities and
challenges associated with male circumcision
implementation in Rwanda. She’ll explore
issues of MMC acceptability and involvement of
partners in health – both crucial issues for
the successful implementation of this strategy.
Keep up to date with Alliance’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.
9. Gift Trapence
Host: Centre for the Development of
People (CEDEP), Malawi
Project: Facilitating
dialogue and increasing knowledge around
Medical Male Circumcision for MSM communities
in Malawi.
Managing Institution: AVAC
Gift is a Programs Manager for
Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a
Malawian NGO working on sexual health and human
rights of minority groups. He is an HIV/AIDS
and human rights activist especially on issues
of sexual minorities. He holds a B.A. in
Development Studies. Gift has worked
extensively on men who have sex with men (MSM)
sexual health and HIV prevention projects since
2005. He contributed to the pioneering of the
first HIV Sero-prevalence study among the MSM
community in Malawi. He was one of the
principal investigators of the study, HIV Prevalence, Risks for HIV
Infection, and Human Rights among Men Who Have
Sex with Men (MSM) in Malawi, Namibia, and
Botswana which was published in PLoS ONE,
an online journal.
In this fellowship
program, Gift is interested in exploring
knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and
willingness of African men who have sex with
men (MSM) towards circumcision as an HIV
prevention strategy. He is also exploring the
participation or the willingness of African MSM
in ongoing circumcision studies. The
information gathered from these discussions
will help Gift to develop communication
materials that will provide adequate
information to African MSM on medical male
circumcision as an HIV prevention strategy, and
will help to guide engagements with researchers
and policy makers on implementing such studies
for the benefit of African MSM, and HIV
prevention research broadly.
Keep up to date with Gift’s
activities by visiting the Fellows'
Activities at a Glance page. This page will be
updated quarterly.