The global health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought existing inequalities to the forefront, has exposed transgender and gender-diverse communities to a heightened risk of social exclusion, stigma and discrimination, has reduced access to health care and has caused financial insecurity.

“COVID-19 has created an existential threat to many transgender people in Asia and the Pacific. But trans-led organizations and groups have found creative ways to assist their communities, to offer support against social isolation and to support trans and gender-diverse people, especially those unable to work due to COVID-19. We recognize the importance of trans leadership and their response to communities greatly affected by the pandemic,” said Joe Wong, Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN).

When COVID-19 reached India, Maya, a young transgender woman living with HIV volunteering at Basera Samajik Sansthan, a transgender-led community-based organization in Uttar Pradesh, was living in rented accommodation after being rejected by her family. “During the COVID-19 outbreak, my friends and I had to leave our homes because we couldn’t afford the rent,” she said. Basera Samjik Sansthan provided her and her friends with shared accommodation and supplied them with food and medicine. The community-led organization also established a peer support programme to help homeless transgender young people and provide them with hand sanitizer, masks and access to free HIV and COVID-19 testing.

Her testimony is part of a collection of stories published in Dignity amidst COVID-19: Trans Youth Leading The Response, developed by APTN and Youth LEAD, and supported by the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, to bring visibility to the voices and experiences of transgender and gender-diverse youth leaders and showcase the efforts of transgender-led organizations throughout the region during COVID-19.

“Many transgender people living with HIV were not able to afford transportation to medical centres to receive treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Della, a young transgender woman living with HIV from Indonesia who works for the Srikandi Sejati Foundation, whose testimony is also collected in the Dignity amidst COVID-19 series. The Srikandi Sejati Foundation established a community support programme that covered transport costs to medical centres to ensure that transgender people could access HIV services. It also implemented local workshops to support and empower transgender women in five districts in Jakarta with knowledge on COVID-19, HIV, mental health and adherence to antiretroviral therapy.

In Thailand, measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19 and the consequent decline in tourism have forced many entertainment shows and venues to close, leaving many transgender people out of work. “The decline in tourism has heavily affected not only businesses but sources of income for transgender people. Many trans women have returned to rural areas to be with their families due to loss of employment,” said Garfield, a young transgender woman working for the Sisters Foundation, a transgender-led organization in Pattaya that provides a range of HIV services to transgender people, including check-ups for general health, HIV and sexually transmitted infections, hormone therapy and harm reduction. As described in the collection of stories, since the beginning of the pandemic, Garfield and other volunteers have been at the forefront of the COVID-19 relief efforts, distributing food supplies and hygiene products to transgender women.

Basera Samajik Sansthan, the Srikandi Sejati Foundation and the Sisters Foundation are all beneficiaries of the COVID-19 Community Support Fund established by APTN to support transgender people and community-based organizations to ease the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. APTN provided grants to 22 transgender-led and transgender-inclusive community groups and organizations across 14 countries, enabling them to assist more than 2300 people across Asia and the Pacific. The grant supported various initiatives, including access to essential supplies, food and personal protective equipment, social and mental health relief support, financial assistance and funding support to sustain organizations.

The community-led initiatives and outcomes of the response to COVID-19 are summarized in the Trans Resilience Report—Stories of Hope, Pain, and Survival from the Trans Movement during the COVID-19 Pandemic, developed with financial support from the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific, and in APTN’s multi-week social media campaign.

“On International Transgender Day of Visibility, UNAIDS recognizes the indispensable contributions made by transgender communities in the HIV and COVID-19 response. The leadership and resilience of transgender and gender-diverse communities continues to be an inspiration for our region,” said Eamonn Murphy, Director of the UNAIDS Regional Support Team for Asia and the Pacific. UNAIDS will continue to work with APTN and transgender-led organizations to work towards a region where transgender people and gender-diverse people can thrive as equals.

The World Health Organization estimates that, globally, more than 1 billion people (15% of the world’s population) have a disability. Disability is increasing in prevalence due to ageing populations, trauma, accidents and chronic health conditions, including HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19. 

Persistent discrimination against and exclusion of people with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities, increases their vulnerability, including their risk of HIV infection. People with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities, also experience barriers to accessing HIV services and are left behind in HIV policy-planning, programme development, service delivery and data collection.

People with disabilities face stigma and discrimination in families and communities, lack transport to health-care facilities and are faced with poor attitudes of health workers while seeking health care.

Since 2004, the AIDS Service Organization (TASO), based in the Mulago Hospital Complex in Kampala, Uganda, has attempted to reach out to people with disabilities. However, it has had limited success due to the complexities of community-based care.

In 2016, in response to these challenges, Positive Women with Disabilities (POWODU) was formed out of TASO to pay special attention to people with disabilities living with HIV in order to reduce AIDS- and TB-related deaths, stigma and discrimination and to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights.

POWODU is headed by Betty Kwagala, a formidable advocate, trainer and woman living with HIV who has 25 years’ experience serving as a counsellor at TASO Mulago. Ms Kwagala is a respected and well-known figure in the community, who has uplifted the lives of many people living with HIV in Uganda.

POWODU, in partnership with TASO Mulago, reaches out to people with disabilities in the urban districts of Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono. According to TASO’s client register, there are more than 13 000 people with disabilities in Kampala and Wakiso enrolled into HIV care. Seventy per cent are women and the majority are homeless.

HIV testing and TB screening are integrated into every POWODU community outreach. “The services are always offered near to where people with disabilities reside because of mobility and transport challenges,” says Ms Kwagala.

If a client tests positive for HIV, POWODU offers immediate initiation of HIV treatment, as per the Ministry of Health guidelines. If a sputum TB test is positive, POWODU will refer the case to the main laboratory for further investigation and proper management. POWODU will then follow up, and, with the support of a TB focal person, arrange pick up for the client in a TASO van to escort him or her to receive the appropriate health service.

Other services offered on site by POWODU include sensitization on adherence to both HIV and TB treatment, prevention of HIV, TB and COVID-19 and accurate information on sexual and reproductive health and rights among people with disabilities.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to clients who have been lost to follow-up because they are homeless or reside in informal settlements. The lockdown caused more challenges, such as lack of food and a significant disruption to the usual activities that give them some income, such as begging,” says Ms Kwagala.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, UNAIDS supported 200 people with disabilities living with HIV with food rations, personal protective equipment and personal hygiene kits. It also supported a project to equip 40 people with disabilities with skills on how to identify income-generating activities. They were provided with popcorn-making machines and groundnut grinders.

TASO members were provided with megaphones and sensitized members of their communities on HIV, TB, COVID-19, sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence.

“POWUDU and TASO have shown remarkable resilience by putting people at the centre during the COVID-19 pandemic by ensuring that people with disabilities living with HIV are safe and not left behind,” says Jotham Mubangizi, UNAIDS Country Director, a.i., for Uganda.

The United Nations General Assembly will hold its first high-level meeting on HIV since 2016 on 8–10 June 2021.  

In the run-up to the meeting, before the end of April 2021, an interactive multistakeholder hearing will be held with the participation of communities and other stakeholders, who will also participate in other activities before and during the high-level meeting itself.

To ensure the involvement of civil society and ensure an open, transparent and participatory process, UNAIDS is forming, by the end of March, a multistakeholder task force comprised of representatives of civil society and the private sector. The task force will advise UNAIDS on the format, theme and programme of the multistakeholder hearing and will help to identify speakers for the hearing and high-level meeting plenary and panel discussions.

Different constituency networks are asked to use their own networks and selection processes to nominate people to be considered for the task force. UNAIDS and the Programme Coordinating Board nongovernmental organization delegation will select individuals for each of the categories of members:

• One representative openly living with HIV of networks of people living with HIV.
• One representative openly living with HIV of networks of women living with HIV.
• One representative openly living with HIV of networks of young people.
• One representative of each of the key populations (people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people in prison settings).
• One member of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board nongovernmental organization delegation.
• A representative of a women’s organization, particularly working on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• A representative of a young’s people organization, particularly working on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• A representative of the private sector.
• A representative of a faith-based organization.
• A representative of networks or organizations of indigenous people.
• A representative of networks or organizations of people with disabilities.
• A representative of an organization working with tuberculosis and HIV. 

“The engagement of people living with HIV, key populations and other priority communities is fundamental for the success of the high-level meeting. Communities have led the way in the HIV response since the beginning and know what is needed to make sure that all people everywhere have what they need to prevent new HIV infections and to ensure that people living with HIV can survive and thrive. The task force represents an important platform for participation in the preparatory phase for the meeting. As the task force is necessarily limited in size, we are particularly interested in nominations of people from networks, who are closely linked across their communities and across regions, to be able to bring a deep and broad perspective. Additional opportunities for people living with HIV, key populations and other affected groups to engage with be made available throughout the lead-up to the high-level meeting,” said Laurel Sprague, UNAIDS Chief/Special Advisor, Community Engagement.

Civil society networks and relevant stakeholders are asked to submit nominations here by 16 March 2021 at 18.00 CET. The call for nominations with detailed information can be accessed here.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by political instability since the 1990s and has seen widespread attacks against civilians, violence between ethnic factions, rape and other forms of sexual violence, and murder. Sexual violence against adolescent girls and young women is common.

Violence against women and girls continues to be a global pandemic that affects one in three women in their life. Violence against women is a major factor for contracting HIV—in areas with a high HIV burden, such as sub-Saharan Africa, women subjected to intimate partner violence are 50% more likely to be living with HIV. And men who are perpetrators of violence against women tend to be at a higher risk of HIV themselves and to use condoms less frequently, thus increasing the risk of HIV transmission.

According to the latest Demographic and Health Survey of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, HIV prevalence is three times higher among women aged 15–49 years (1.1%) than among men of the same age (0.4%) and twice as high among young women aged 15–24 years (0.46%) than among young men of the same age (0.22%).

RENADEF (Réseau National des ONG pour le Développement de la Femme), a platform of approximately 350 non-state groups working for women, is tackling this issue front and centre. As a subrecipient of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, RENADEF is running a project to strengthen awareness around sexual and reproductive health and rights, including HIV, to facilitate access to support services and to encourage behaviour change among adolescent girls and young women in 16 HIV high-burden provincial divisions.

In collaboration with health-care providers, almost 200 peer educators and mentors have been trained on sexual and reproductive health and more than 600 educational talks in different settings, including schools and communities, have been facilitated, reaching more than 6500 people, including 2500 girls.

“I was not informed about sexually transmitted infections and their consequences on my life, but I had the chance to participate in an awareness session organized by the peer educators and mentors in my neighbourhood; at the end of the session, I approached one of the sensitizers to explain my problem to her. She gave me advice and referred me to a health training, where I was taken care of for free and I feel good now,” said Nathalie Nyembwe (not her real name), who attended one of the educational talks.

The project also supports clinics giving psychosocial, legal and judicial support to survivors of sexual violence. Since 2018, clinics have been held that have provided psychological support to almost 5500 people and legal/judicial support to more than 3500 survivors of sexual violence.

The community sensitization, capacity-building of legal clinics and support for survivors of sexual violence have contributed to an increase in the reporting of rape.

“It’s particularly important, particularly as we reflect on our experience with COVID-19, that we acknowledge the important role that women have played to protect others from violence, to ensure continued support to vulnerable families and to ensure access to food and medicine. Women have provided invaluable support to keep people connected to neighbours, services and information, all the while ensuring that homes remain a safe space for children and families to continue to learn and grow socially,” said Susan Kasedde, the UNAIDS Country Director for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As a champion country of the Global Partnership for Action to Eliminate all Forms of HIV-Related Discrimination, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has a unique opportunity to strengthen its implementation of coordinated, comprehensive and scaled-up action involving a range of stakeholders and to build synergies on action on gender equality across sectors. 

Ingrid Bretón learned that she was living with HIV when she was 19 years old. It was 1994 and HIV treatment was not yet available in the Dominican Republic.

“I lasted almost five years alive, but dead inside,” she remembers. “I went through every denial process that a newly diagnosed person goes through. Health centres did not want to assist me. I lived every kind of stigma and discrimination.”

In her town, La Romana, she was known as “the AIDS girl”.  It was impossible to find work.  

HIV treatment helped changed the trajectory of her life. With the guidance of her doctor, José Román, she became the first woman living with HIV in La Romana known to have given birth to an HIV-free baby. As she continued treatment it occurred to her that she was perfectly healthy and could live a more meaningful life.

“I thought to myself, “I am not getting sick, my hair is not falling off, I do not have sores, I do not have AIDS. I want to do things,”” Ms Bretón remembers.

In 2002 she formed the Paloma Group Foundation (La Fundación Grupo Paloma), which provides psychosocial support, legal assistance and job opportunities for people living with and affected by HIV in the eastern region of the country. The organization also plays a key advocacy role, bringing visibility to issues such as treatment adherence, prevention and stigma and discrimination.

One of the foundation’s innovations is an agriculture project that employs people living with HIV.

“It’s a beautiful process,” Ms Bretón says while walking through the sunny, red earth fields, past tomatoes, papayas and bananas. “The idea is that people living with HIV are able to move forward, working and providing for their families.”

The families with whom the Paloma Group Foundation works have been directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of the foundation has been critical during this time. Its volunteers do home deliveries of food, medicine and clothing. The foundation is a source of connection and emotional support at a time when communities living with HIV are more isolated than ever due to social distancing measures.

The first Rapid Survey on the Needs of People Living with HIV in the Dominican Republic in the context of COVID-19 found that while 92% of respondents received their antiretroviral therapy, roughly one in six had less than one month’s supply left. Thanks to the advocacy of the UNAIDS Country Office for the Dominican Republic, protocols have now been amended so that people living with HIV and accessing treatment through the public health system can receive a three- to six-month supply of their medicine at one time.

The country office has urged the government to strengthen comprehensive care programmes, including through alliances with civil society. For example, the Paloma Group Foundation provided assistance to people living with HIV at the Francisco Gonzalvo Provincial Hospital during a five-month period in 2020 when medical personnel were not available at the La Romana facility.

The UNAIDS Country Office for the Dominican Republic has also called for particular attention to be given to the social protection and food security needs of people living with HIV who are in economically fragile situations. The office responded quickly to the fallout of COVID-19, offering support to the Paloma Group Foundation and other community organizations contributing to the national HIV response. UNAIDS’ comprehensive response included the provision of personal protective equipment and information specifically for the community of people living with HIV. The second stage of their response included mobilization of nutrition support.

“This was of great value to families given the economic crisis caused by COVID-19,” Ms Bretón says.

“Civil society plays the leading role of bringing awareness to communities and advocating on their behalf,” says the UNAIDS Country Director for the Dominican Republic, Bethania Betances. “As we respond to two pandemics—HIV and COVID-19—is it vital that they are at the decision-making table to help shape an effective, humane response.”

Watch: The extraordinary story of a woman living with HIV in the Dominican Republic

Malohat Sharipova, pictured above, teaches in a primary school in Bohtar, Tajikistan, but in her spare time she works as an outreach worker for AFIF, a nongovernmental organization that helps people living with HIV, tuberculosis and key populations.

AFIF works closely with the regional AIDS clinics, providing outreach workers who support and work with people living with and affected by HIV. During the COVID-19 pandemic, AFIF’s outreach workers have provided people living with HIV with three-month supplies of antiretroviral medicines, food and personal protective equipment, including antiseptic, masks and gloves.

The outreach workers are trained to carry out screening to detect tuberculosis and hepatitis in people living with HIV and injecting drug users. “It is necessary to ask 10 to 12 questions on HIV and tuberculosis developed by specialists to determine the need for further diagnosis. If there are symptoms, a person is advised to undergo timely testing, either at the nearest medical centre or using a kit for self-testing, which we provide,” said Ikram Ibragimov, the Director of AFIF.

AFIF’s activities are supported by the Ministry of Health of Tajikistan and conducted within the UNAIDS Regional Cooperation Programme for Technical Assistance for HIV and Other Infectious Diseases in the Commonwealth of Independent States, funded by the Russian Federation. Since the beginning of the project in 2019, about 7500 people have undergone community-based testing.

Ms Sharipova has four children, two daughters who are married and have left home, an older son who works in another city and her youngest son, who is in the 11th grade in school.

“In 2010, my husband was admitted to hospital. Before that, he had been complaining of abdominal pain for a long time. I tried to persuade him to visit a doctor, but he didn’t. He was hospitalized when it got bad, was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis and died soon after. I got a call from the hospital, and they told me to get tested for HIV.”

“When they told me that I had HIV, I thought, “Thank God I'm still alive, I can walk and work.” After my husband’s death I needed to raise my children, support my mother-in-law, who I loved like a mother.”

She has been taking antiretroviral therapy since 2010. “I feel fine. Previously, it was necessary to take the pills strictly twice a day. Now doctors have prescribed a different scheme, so I can take medicine only once a day. I need to stay healthy for my children and be able to help them. I do not talk widely about my diagnosis, but I don’t hide it. I think I was seen by many at HIV prevention events and trainings.”

Ms Sharipova leads a group for women—“We have female consultants working with women and men work with men. When people first learn about their HIV-positive status, they usually feel confused and scared, do not know what to do next. We talk to them, invite them to our self-help groups, explain the therapy, the future. Sometimes it is challenging to work with them, but I always say: we must move forward, only forward.”

Photography: Nazim Kalandarov/UNAIDS

GENEVA, 23 February 2021—UNAIDS warmly welcomes the appointment of Andrew Spieldenner as the Executive Director of MPact Global Action for Gay Men’s Health and Rights. MPact has been working since 2006 at the intersection of sexual health and human rights for gay and bisexual men and is linked to more than 120 community-based organizations in 62 countries. MPact has long been a key partner of UNAIDS—its work is critical for the promotion of the health and rights of gay and bisexual men and their communities and to ending AIDS.

“Andrew Spieldenner is a long-time respected HIV activist and scholar. In recent years, he has provided invaluable service to UNAIDS and the global AIDS response through his role as a delegate to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “We look forward to continue working closely with him in this new position and to strengthen our relationship with MPact to address the challenges and inequalities faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities in accessing health and fully enjoying their human rights around the globe.”

Mr Spieldenner’s commitment to people living with HIV, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, feminist principles and racial justice has been evident throughout his 30 years of activism. A skilled organizer, communicator and mentor, he brings to his new position at MPact a long history of engagement with networks of people living with HIV. Working within local organizations, national networks of people living with HIV, health departments and academia, he has been at the centre of movements for social justice, leading from within, in partnership with the communities of which he is a part.

Mr Spieldenner will take up his new role on 1 March 2021.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

A spontaneous HIV test that yielded a positive result changed Martha Clara Nakato’s life forever. When Ms Nakato, who lives in Uganda, found out she was living with HIV, she was 14 years old and had never had sex.

“I accompanied my twin brother only to support him to take up the test. I didn’t know taking one too would change my life forever,” she says as she recalls her shock and confusion at her result.

Her brother’s HIV test came out negative. 

Ms Nakato soon discovered from her father that she was born with HIV. She is the only one of her eight siblings who contracted HIV from her mother. She lost her mother to AIDS-related illnesses when she was just five years old. 

“I don't know why this had to happen to me. Maybe I was the lucky one; maybe there was a purpose meant for me. When I look back, I now know the only way you can find your purpose in life is to think about that one thing that hurt you the most,” Ms Nakato says.

Ms Nakato has transformed her pain to power and works as a human rights defender and HIV advocate with the Uganda Network of Young People Living with HIV/AIDS (UNYPA). 

In 2019, she was recognized as one of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s five faces that championed the worldwide sixth replenishment campaign.

“I do a lot of mentorship and motivational speaking,” says Ms Nakato, who uses her own story to demonstrate how adherence to HIV treatment can help people living with HIV live a full and healthy life. 

Much of Ms Nakato’s advocacy and mentorship involves interacting with young people in their communities with in-person dialogue. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, she had to rethink how to reach young people while adhering to the social distancing measures that followed because of the pandemic.

“Most of those engagements that involved face-to-face were not able to happen. Looking at young people in the rural areas who don’t have access to the Internet or a smartphone, we really had challenges reaching out to them,” Ms Nakato says.

However, Ms Nakato and her team realized the importance of reaching out to young people on social media platforms, such as Facebook, to get her message across. 

UNAIDS provides financial and technical support to the annual Y+ beauty pageant and youth summit, events that are organized by UNYPA. The pageant crowns a Mr and Miss Y+, encouraging young people living with HIV to come together, celebrate their beauty and address HIV-related stigma and discrimination.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, UNAIDS ensured that community-based organizations such as UNYPA had access to national platforms—for instance, the national COVID-19 national secretariat—so that organizations could engage in dialogue with the government and thereby provide better relief and food support to communities in need.

Ms Nakato was born in 1996, a time when HIV treatment was inaccessible in Uganda. In that year alone, 34 000 children between the ages of 0 and 14 years acquired HIV. 

Today, 95% of women living with HIV in Uganda have access to services to prevent vertical (mother-to-child) transmission of HIV. There has been a significant drop in vertical transmission and the country has achieved an 86% reduction in HIV infections among children since 2009. 

“I don’t want to give birth to a child who is HIV-positive or see any other young woman do so. We now have the power to prevent this from happening, not like many people in the past who didn’t have that chance,” she says. 

As an AIDS activist, Ms Nakato has plans for herself and society, hoping to see an AIDS-free world. She stresses the importance of adhering to HIV treatment to help make that a reality.

“One thing I know is that I am the proof of treatment. I am proof of what self-love is,” she says.

UNAIDS provides financial and technical support to the annual Y+ beauty pageant and youth summit, events that are organized by UNYPA. Above, Nabanoba Vivian Alice and Niwamanya Hillary, winners of the Y+ beauty pageant. Kampala, Uganda, October 2019. Credit: UNAIDS

GENEVA, 29 January 2021—UNAIDS is deeply troubled and concerned about the detention by military police of the Venezuelan citizens and humanitarian workers Johán León Reyes, Yordy Bermúdez, Layners Gutiérrez Díaz, Alejandro Gómez Di Maggio and Luis Ferrebuz, who are members of the nongovernmental organization Azul Positivo. The five have been held since 12 January 2021.

“I call on the Venezuelan authorities to release from police custody the five humanitarians working for the nongovernmental organization Azul Positivo, and to return essential equipment seized at the time of their arrest,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “A strong and empowered civil society plays a central role in providing much-needed services to the most vulnerable people and is critical to making progress against the HIV pandemic and other health threats in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.”

Azul Positivo was established in 2004 to work on the prevention of HIV in the state of Zulia, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. UNAIDS has supported Azul Positivo’s work for many years and has witnessed the positive impact of their contributions to the community.

UNAIDS is strongly supportive of the full empowerment and engagement of civil society organizations in the AIDS response and in humanitarian work. It looks forward to continuing its partnership with community and civil society organizations in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as well as with government officials, in ensuring that all people affected by HIV have access to HIV prevention, treatment and social support services and that their human rights are protected.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

South Africa has lost one of its most gutsy social justice and AIDS activists—Andrew Mosane. Mr Mosane died on 15 January 2021, at the age of 45 years, and was laid to rest on 20 January.

He was a seasoned AIDS activist who brought the voice of marginalized people and communities to the centre of the AIDS response. He was known to many in South Africa and around the world as a tireless advocate for human rights.  

An openly gay black man living with HIV, Mr Mosane experienced stigma and discrimination, yet he worked tirelessly to address the many challenges facing people living with HIV. Activism was in his blood and he naturally weaved into this the politics of race, class and gender. As part of the Civil Society Forum of the South African National AIDS Council, he represented the sectors of people living with HIV, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and sex workers.

Embracing his reputation as a radical, he had an infectious laugh and a sharp intellect, and he conducted himself with sincerity and precision. He was a loud and unapologetic human rights defender. His fellow activists remembered him as “feisty, dedicated, chaotic, lovely, unwavering and passionate.”

Mr Mosane engaged with UNAIDS as he did with networks and institutions across South Africa and beyond, advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights and encouraging young people in the response to HIV and gender-based violence. He would reach out to UNAIDS, wanting to interrogate and better understand the content of our work and how that reflects the lived experiences of people living with HIV and communities broadly.

UNAIDS Country Director for South Africa, Mbulawa Mugabe, said Mr Mosane had made a lasting contribution to the AIDS response. “He had strong facilitation skills that were honed in the trenches of the Treatment Action Campaign treatment literacy programme—an organization he proudly led and worked for. His talent to make scientific information accessible to communities was the hallmark of his advocacy, and that will be missed,” Mr Mugabe said. “We have lost a giant in social justice and the AIDS movement who touched the lives of so many.”

Mr Mosane engaged with UNAIDS as he did with networks and institutions across South Africa and beyond. Above, with UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.