Tina Louise Dassé has been working as a community counselor since 2009 for Femmes Active, a local organization that works with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation at General Hospital of Koumassi in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s, Project Djidja. Louise has seen patients of all ages, social statuses, and genders—women, children, men, families, young, old—pass through the HIV testing and counseling services she provides. Keep reading
Hellen Abura, 53, is a businesswoman and mother living in Homa Bay, Kenya. She purchases dagger fish on the beach in Mbita and transports them inland to sell. Hellen has been living with HIV for the past 12 years. Her husband died from an AIDS-related illness in 2004, but, thanks to strict adherence to her treatment, she has continued to lead a healthy, productive life. Fortunately, all of her four grown children are HIV negative. Keep reading
Emily Njerengo is a peer educator in rural Malawi. She is living with HIV; she lost her two children and husband to AIDS-related illnesses. Emily credits a safe motherhood support group with having helped her move past her grief and find a purpose educating and counseling other women. She was trained by the Foundation for Community and Capacity Development (FOCCAD), a community-based organization that receives technical assistance from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). Keep reading
At 14, Corazon Aquino is finally a big sister, a role she finds “exciting”. She enjoys helping her mother care for 1-month old Rose and thinks about her future, when she will be a doctor and have three children of her own. She feels secure knowing that her children, like her baby sister, can be born HIV-free. Both Corazon and her mother, Esther Opinya, are living with HIV. Keep reading
In July 2016, Chip Lyons, the president of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), traveled to Cameroon, for the ribbon cutting of a new office in Youndé, the capital city. EGPAF began working in Cameroon in 2000, with the historic Call to Action initiative that greatly expanded support for HIV prevention and treatment in the countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Keep reading
Last week during her whirlwind visit to the United States, EGPAF ambassador, Josephine Nabukenya, took time out of her busy schedule to join me on a visit to Capitol Hill. While the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) often engages with Capitol Hill to educate offices on issues and legislation related to pediatric AIDS. It is especially impactful to be able to bring someone to a meeting who has been personally impacted by HIV as well as EGPAF programs. Keep reading
Alice Tinga welcomes us into her tiny earthen home on the outskirts of a Maasai village near Aitong in Narok County, Kenya. Alice, 37, is one of the founding members of a peer support group for villagers living with HIV. We are soon joined by Stephen Koitumet, the HIV community facilitator who works with the local health center, who has arrived by motorbike. Keep reading
Despite Malawi’s success in expanding HIV prevention, care, and treatment services, the proportion of people living with HIV who know their HIV status is only 53% ; well below the 90% target set in the country’s Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS. Malawi aims to meet the ambitious 90-90-90 targets released by UNAIDS in 2014. Keep reading
UNAIDS and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation hosted a high-level Congressional briefing in the United States Senate to increase momentum around an ambitious Super-Fast-Track framework—Start Free, Stay Free, AIDS Free. The initiative, which was launched by UNAIDS, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and partners in June 2016, outlines a set of time-bound targets to reach in order to stop new HIV infections among children, prevent new HIV infections among adolescents and young women and ensure access to antiretroviral treatment. Keep reading
