Dear Advocate,
AVAC is pleased to announce the selection of the 2012 HIV Prevention Research Advocacy Fellows! We hope you’ll join us in congratulating and collaborating with them as their projects unfold over the course of the next 12 months.
The 2012 Advocacy Fellows were selected from a pool of almost 90 applicants from 14 countries in Africa and South America. AVAC thanks all of the applicants and their proposed host organizations for the time and effort put into this rigorous process, as well the independent review committee who supported this undertaking.
The 2012 HIV Prevention Research Advocacy Fellows are:
- Clever Chilende at the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Zambia
- Lucy Ghati at the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), Kenya
- Alice Kayongo Mutebi at International HIV/AIDS Alliance Uganda, Uganda
- Memory Makamba at the Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention Project-University of Zimbabwe (ZAPP-UZ), Zimbabwe
- Chamunorwa Jefrey Mashoko at the University of Zimbabwe-University of San Francisco Research Programme, Zimbabwe
- Lydia Mulwanyi Mukombe at the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) East Africa, Uganda
- Bukelwa Sontshatsha at the World AIDS Campaign, South Africa
- Jacqueline Mwangi Wambui at Health GAP and the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), Kenya
The 2012 Advocacy Fellows will focus on a variety of issues including: optimizing the prevention benefits of voluntary medical male circumcision; scale-up of treatment as prevention in line with WHO and national guidelines; advocacy to define the role of serodiscordant couples’ prevention services; coalition-building to change national policies and processes; advocacy to bring discussion of positive research results to the political landscape; building civil society engagement in research processes; and creating linkages among trial communities, policy makers, the media and other stakeholders.
Fifteen Advocacy Fellowships were awarded to individuals from eight sub-Saharan African countries over the first two years of the program (2010-2011). Please visit the AVAC Advocacy Fellows page and subscribe to P-Values, our partners’ newsletter, to learn more about the new Fellows’ work throughout the year and to learn about the alumni Fellows’ ongoing work.
A Call for Applications for the 2013 Fellowship Program will be announced in May 2012 with an application deadline in July 2012. To learn more about the Advocacy Fellowship program and the application process, please refer to the 2012 Fellowship application materials. Also, if you want to be sure to be notified of the 2013 Call for Applications, please email us at fellows@avac.org, and we will send you the application package in May 2012.
If you have any questions about the Fellows or the program, please email us.
Best
AVAC
