In Zambia, young people with HIV often struggle to complete school due to stigma, illness and hospital visits making their prospects for economic security challenging. Our partner in Zambia, BISO, has been working to change that, by providing entrepreneurship skills training for young people living with HIV.

Corrie Wingate

One of their members, Emmanuel, said this of his time in the programme:

‘I really want to thank BISO for introducing this training for us. Many times people think that being HIV+ is the end of the world and that PLHIV are not viable and productive anymore. Ever since I got these skills, we worked with my colleagues to establish a business which has helped me become more economically independent in the future.’

Did you know we’re on Give as you Live? So you can raise money for us just by doing your regular online shop!

Simply sign up to the Give as you Live, choose us as your charity and for every online purchase you make from one of the thousands of shops listed, we will receive a donation.

We’ve been revamping our fact sheets: updating the information and giving them a fresh new look. From HIV testing and treatment, to pregnancy and breastfeeding, we cover a range of topics to help you know the facts about HIV.

Great to hear this feedback about our HIV quizzes! We agree, learning about HIV and sex should be fun, interactive and enjoyable.

“As an HIV/AIDS Health Educator, I think this is a great tool to engage people in learning about HIV in a fun and interesting way. The memes accompanying the quiz questions were clever and entertaining, and made the whole process less intimidating and more approachable. I have copied down this link to your quizzes to refer to for people who want to learn more and test their knowledge.”

We have started to get some data back from organisations using our Young Voices materials via online surveys.

86% of respondents said the materials were ‘very useful’, with the same percentage saying they had enhanced their training/sessions ‘a lot’.

Did you know? Since May 2018 we’ve been supporting the WHO HIV and Hepatitis department on its news and newsletter communications.

Todd Brown/WHO

Find out more about our partnership here.

“Thanks to PB through the support of Avert, fear of getting tested for HIV is history.”

Masetene is 19 and is a member of one of our partners PB’s youth groups in Lesotho. She had been hearing HIV prevention messages for years but was still finding it hard to go for a test. The youth group leader didn’t give up on her though and continued to encourage her to test. After she went to the health facility to get tested, she said she was proud of herself for finally taking a step in the right direction and felt responsible for her own life.

The results are in from our latest qualitative surveys on Avert.org!

• Over 75% of respondents said the information was ‘very easy’ to understand
• 85.6% said they had learned something new
• 62.9% reported attitude change as a result of Avert's information.

We’ve had a great response to our Young Voices campaign! Young people from across the globe have been watching our animations, debating the dilemmas on social media and adding their own endings and stories through our online comic creator.

Here are some of our favourite comics so far! 

More great feedback from one of our users! 

"Information very informative, educational and easy to understand."

Our partner in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation, have been using the Young Voices materials in their youth group sessions to start discussions about sexual health. We asked the youth group leader what they thought about Young Voices.

“The group loved the animations and kept asking to watch the rest of them. They thought cartoons were a good way to present information as they are used to seeing cartoons in the newspaper, and this is the section of the paper they always go for.”

We’ve recently created a new page on Avert.org - ‘Developing a vaccine against HIV infection’.

Avert

Explore the page to find out more about the need for a vaccine against HIV, challenges in vaccine development, progress in developing a vaccine and achieving an effective vaccine for HIV.

Our partner in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation, run a youth group to bring young people together from the community and talk about sexual health.

The group meets twice a week at the Umunthu clinic where they have a dedicated youth shelter, which means they can they can talk in private about things are worrying them. Members share what they have learned with their friends and encourage them to come for an HIV test.

Are you looking for a quick and easy way to support our work? Then look no further. We’ve recently signed up with Donr – a new UK text giving service.

So all you have to do is text AVERT followed by the amount you want to give (e.g. ‘AVERT 5’ to donate £5) to 70085. Your donation will then be added to your phone bill or deducted from your pay as you go credit. You can opt to give any whole amount up to £20.

We’re currently developing a new digital information hub for community health workers working in HIV and sexual health in Southern Africa. The new Hub will provide a range of resources on HIV prevention, treatment and support.

To understand the current gaps and priorities, we will be engaging with community health workers and the organisations they work with throughout the process. Here's one of our focus groups in action.

Emily is a HIV education through football coordinator from our partner organisation in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation. We recently spoke to her about what the biggest challenges girls are facing when it comes to their sexual health and how the football project is helping to change that.

“Early pregnancy and large numbers of girls having STIs. Dropping out of school because of pregnancy is the main challenge for girls here. We think having programmes for sexual and reproductive health can help to educate those girls in terms of how they can prevent those challenges and overcome them.

At first girls were feeling shy to even ask you about the condom thing, it was difficult. But now when I go for the session they ask me ‘did you bring condoms for us, we need condoms!’”

Our Young Voices project was nominated as one of the three finalists for this year’s Bond Collaboration Award. The award recognises the importance of effective relationships and collaborations within and across disciplines to tackle difficult issues.

Collaboration and co-creation were core to Young Voices, bringing together 20 young people and 6 NGO partners from across Southern Africa to create the materials. So far, we’ve reached thousands of young people through social media and are now working with NGO partners to pilot the materials in their youth programmes.

Our partner organisation in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation, has its own clinic in the heart of the local community. Here Eddah, one of the HIV testing counsellor, talks about the benefits of the clinic.

“People coming to Umunthu commend our infrastructure - the privacy itself, as it’s away from most of the people. And the way we provide our services, we can take more time with each person.”

In 2017, almost 600,000 young people got HIV worldwide. Our Young Voices project is helping to change that, giving young people the knowledge and skills they need to make informed choices about their sexual health.

“They feel that it’s safe discussing it [sexual health] with their fellow youth, rather than other people like parents or someone older than them. They are more open discussing issues about sexual reproductive health.”

Our partner organisation in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation, run youth education programmes in schools and youth clubs. Tadala, one of the youth club coordinator, spoke to us about how these programmes are helping young people open up about their sexual health.