Organization: EGPAF
Region: Africa
Nationality: Lesotho
Country: Lesotho
Interests & expertise: Ageing with HIV
Profession or occupation: Advocate/activist
What inspires you to work in the HIV field?
I tested positive for HIV at a young age and experienced stigma from a doctor who was initiating me in care. That's when I got more interested in breaking the stigma and discrimination around HIV. Then I realized that adolescents and young people living with HIV are neglected and their voices aren't heard. Implementers just give them things to do or take without asking how they feel about them or what their side-effects are. And now I'm inspired by how much many young people living with HIV want to share their stories, be heard and be involved in decisions that affect them.
What are your goals as an IAS change maker?
My goal is to advocate for more involvement of young people in decisions that affect them, especially in Africa or my country, Lesotho. We are occasionally invited to join technical working groups (TWGs) in the Ministry of Health for them to pitch new innovations or changes to us young people, but you find that the decisions are already made. We also have adolescent and young people TWGs that don’t consist of young people.
We still have adolescents in rural areas who have no say whatsoever over their health because of child marriages. Their families marry them to old men because of poverty and they are not allowed to take medication because these grandfathers feel that they own them because they paid a dowry or gave their families livestock. Then you find a 15-year-old girl out of school with more than two children, living with HIV, with a high viral load, not on ART, repeatedly reported for STIs and not on contraception. My top goal is being a voice for the voiceless.