Dan Clinton Semakula

What inspires you to work in the HIV field?

For the past five years, I have been volunteering and working as an HIV advocate, human rights defender and trained HIV/syphilis and hepatitis B rapid tester to ensure that appropriate services are delivered to people living with HIV in care, especially the key populations in Uganda who are criminalized, stigmatized and discriminated.

Also, as a youth leader with skills and knowledge on HIV response, I want to be part of the progress in ending HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Lastly, as a medical student, I am passionate about HIV-related research, like HIV cure and HIV vaccines.

What are your goals as an IAS change maker?

As an IAS change maker, I want to use the skills and knowledge gained during the IAS Mentorship Programme to ensure that appropriate services are delivered to people living with HIV in care, especially the LGBTQ community in Uganda, to achieve the 95-95-95 goals by 2030.

As an IAS change maker and a medical student, I want to use my knowledge in the HIV response to provide quality HIV care, treatment and support to people living with HIV, as well as HIV prevention methods, like PrEP and PEP, especially to the key populations in Uganda.

I also want to be part of advocacy for HIV vaccines and cure in East Africa and the whole of Africa by ensuring that people are informed about HIV vaccines, what is happening both past and present in research, what the challenges are, and what the current needs are. Once advocates and people are informed, they will be able to push for the HIV vaccine agenda, promote recruitment of potential participants in vaccine studies, and engage with relevant stakeholders, including IRBs, to ensure that we have an enabling environment for vaccine studies. I am looking forward to making it happen.

As a medical student, I also want to become one of the recognized researchers in the HIV field.