Meet the 2012 Advocacy Fellows

AVAC is pleased to introduce the 2012 HIV Prevention Research Advocacy Fellows. These eight individuals were selected from a pool of 87 applicants from 14 countries. Please visit this page and subscribe to P-Values, our partners’ newsletter to learn more about their work throughout the year.

The application for the 2013 Fellowship will be available in mid-May, with an application deadline in July 2012.

Clever Chilende
Host: Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Zambia
Project: Advocacy to optimize the prevention benefits of medical male circumcision in Zambia

Clever Chilende joined Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC) as a volunteer in 2008. TALC is member organization that was founded in 2005 to lobby for equitable and sustainable access to affordable, quality HIV treatment, care and support in Zambia. During his time at TALC, he coordinated a project in budget monitoring and expenditure tracking in the health sector, and worked to increase community participation in the health budgeting process. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Zambia and trained as banker at the Finance Bank Training Institute of Zambia. Clever spent many years in banking. Thereafter, he worked as a private business consultant, through which he developed an interest in advocacy. In the past several years, Chilende has worked 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. One of his passions is making friends.

Lucy Ghati
Host: National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), Kenya
Project: Realizing the potential of ARV-based prevention in Kenya

Lucy is a graduate the University of Nairobi with a bachelor’s degree in education and has a post graduate diploma in project management from the Kenya Institute of Management. After she tested HIV positive in 2002, Lucy became passionate about working with communities to fight the pandemic. She left her teaching job in 2007 and joined NEPHAK, a not-for-profit organization governed by and for persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) in Kenya. Established in 2003, NEPHAK’s main goal is to improve the quality of life of all PLWHAs in Kenya. Lucy has been a program officer at NEPHAK working on a TB/HIV project. Lucy also serves as a community representative to the new TB vaccine working group of the Stop TB Partnership, and sits at the gender technical working group of National AIDS Control Council (NACC)-Kenya, as well as the ART for prevention working group of the National AIDS and STI Control Program (NASCOP).

Alice Kayongo Mutebi
Host: International HIV/AIDS Alliance Uganda, Uganda
Project: Advocacy to bring cutting edge HIV prevention to the fore in Uganda’s national planning processes and programs

Alice holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master of public health degree from Makerere University. She is an activist and an active participant in the health, women’s and children’s rights civil society movement and development sector in Uganda, Africa and internationally. Over the years, she has mainly focused on issues to address health, women and child rights. She is part of many successful networks of civil society including grassroots social movements in Uganda such as Tusitukirewamu women’s group; OVC committee-Kawempe caring support center; Uganda human resources for health working group. Internationally, she’s part of solidarity movements for marginalized groups like health global access project in the USA. At the time she was awarded the Fellowship, she was finalizing a campaign on ‘What’s preventing prevention of HIV/AIDS in Uganda’. Her research interests are in outcomes of advocacy and policy engagement, social movement building and exploring the impetus for community mobilization and engagement in decision-making.

Memory Makamba
Host: Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention Project-University of Zimbabwe (ZAPP-UZ), Zimbabwe
Project: Bringing women’s voices to the ARV-based prevention revolution

Memory holds a Bsc in sociology from the University of Zimbabwe and a master’s degree in peace and governance from the Institute of Peace Leadership and Governance – Africa University. Her involvement in HIV preventions began 10 years back as she worked at University of Zimbabwe – University of California San Francisco (UZ-UCSF) Research Collaboration. She then joined the Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention Project-University of Zimbabwe (ZAPP-UZ) as a social scientist for a study aimed at developing an evidence-based multi-component community intervention for HIV positive children aimed at improving their physical and psychological well-being. She is passionate about protecting the rights of ordinary women. Prior to becoming a Fellow, Memory worked at ZAPP-UZ as a research and documentation officer. In 2010, she attended the World AIDS Conference and was struck by the lack of advocacy for married women despite them bearing the brunt of the epidemic. She is keen on biomedical prevention strategies, particularly microbicides and vaccines because of the hope they offer to women.

Chamunorwa (Chamu) Jefrey Mashoko
Host: University of Zimbabwe-University of San Francisco Research Programme, Zimbabwe
Project: Advocacy to define the role of serodiscordant couples’ prevention services in the context of Zimbabwe’s epidemic

Chamu has close to a decade of HIV research experience and his personal vision is a poverty and HIV-free Africa. His involvement in research dates back to 2002 when he joined University of Zimbabwe–University of California San Francisco (UZ-UCSF) Research Collaboration as a community outreach worker. In 2007, working as a counselor in the HPTN 046 Nevirapine study (testing safety and effectiveness of daily NVP dose in infants), he was reminded of how much HIV/AIDS has a woman’s face, and was compelled to do something about it. He joined the Microbicides Trials Network’s VOICE study team to help champion the development of a prevention method women can have full control over. This past year, Chamu was a fellow of the International Research Exchange Community Solutions Program based in New York City, USA.

Lydia Mulwanyi Mukombe
Host: International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) East Africa, Uganda
Project: Understanding what prevention trial results mean for women—from 1% tenofovir gel to hormonal contraceptive impact on HIV risk

Lydia holds a bachelor’s degree in community psychology and is pursuing an MSc. in population and reproductive health from Makerere University. She has a wealth of expertise and experience in community health-related program planning and implementation, management, participatory monitoring and evaluation. She has acquired this over 6 years working in non-governmental organisations and in partnership with regional and international agencies. Her areas of specialization include adolescent sexual reproductive health, life skills development, child health and counseling, HIV/AIDS education, health rights awareness and advocacy, community engagement in health and research through health literacy. Her advocacy experiences have been directed towards universal access to HIV treatment, increased funding for reproductive health supplies and the promotion and protection of the right to health in Uganda. Most recently, she worked as Program Manager at HEPS-Uganda. She enjoys church activities, singing and listening to Christian music, dancing, social related activities, playing volleyball and table tennis.

Bukelwa Sontshatsha
Host: World AIDS Campaign, South Africa
Project: Advocacy to ensure South Africa acts on new evidence, and gets on track to achieve an AIDS-free generation

Bukelwa holds a Bsc. degree in development studies and a diploma in adult education, training and development from the University of Western Cape. She is a mother of two. She has been involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS for more than a decade – from volunteering in community based support programs to coordinating multi-sectoral teams focusing on HIV&AIDS prevention interventions. She is especially passionate about ensuring that voices of persons living with HIV/AIDS are meaningfully represented at every level of decision-making. She previously worked as a health promotion officer for the local municipality. She runs a support group for the Red Cross Children’s Hospital for parents and children who are HIV positive, and sits on the Community Advisory Board of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, the board at Phakama community health project and the St Luke’s Hospice board.

Jacqueline Mwangi Wambui
Host: Health Gap/National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), Kenya
Project: Making treatment as prevention part of the political landscape in the run-up to Kenya’s next election

Jacqueline’s education background is in HIV counseling and training. She is an HIV positive activist who has for long worked in the community to encourage others to live positively by sharing her story with them. She has a special interest in sexual and reproductive health for young HIV positive women and girls and advocating for their rights. Her dream is to see an HIV free-generation. At the time she was awarded this Fellowship, she worked at the AIDS Law Project (ALP) in Nairobi. ALP is a non-governmental organization that deals with legal issues on HIV/AIDS in Kenya. It provides legal services, counseling and information that affects PLWHAs in Kenya.