Our ‘theory of change’ underpins our 2017-21 strategy. It explains the change we want to bring about, how we believe we can most effectively contribute to and bring about that change, and the assumptions this thinking is based on.

Read more about our strategy and theory of change, or support us to build momentum and reach those most at risk of HIV infection with the information they need to protect themselves and others.

Nancy and Peter who participated in our Young Voices workshop were with us at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. If you missed them talking to Charlize Theron about what meaningful youth participation looks like, click to catch it again:

Mohasoa, from our partner organisation in Lesotho (PB), presented a poster on PB’s Avert-funded work with LGBT young people at the AIDS 2018 conference.

 

He outlined the project’s approach to overcoming the barriers to HIV service access that LGBT communities face. PB run safe spaces to improve self-efficacy among LGBT and encourage HIV service take-up. In tandem they build relationships with influential people to improve social relations at community level, which helps LGBT people to access HIV services without discrimination.

We are back from AIDS2018, where we have had an exciting week showcasing our new Young Voices project and speaking to people working across the HIV response about our work.

 

Sharing with them ideas on how to engage young people to co-create sexual health materials that speak to them.

 

We have launched our brand new Young Voices project. Get the first five stories on our Young Voices hub now.

Each story was co-created with young people from across Southern Africa and comes with downloadable resources including key facts, discussion points and comic strips, to help you run group sessions around them.

We’ve just launched a way for people to donate to Avert directly through Facebook. We’d love it if you’d let all your friends know about this!

 

Our partners from Zambia and Lesotho will be presenting their Avert-funded youth work at the AIDS 2018 conference.

Isaac from BISO and Mohasoa from PB will be travelling to Amsterdam to give poster presentations about their work reaching young people with SRH information in rural Zambia and empowering LGBT youth in Lesotho respectively. More about this soon!

We’ve worked with our partner PB in Lesotho and young people they work with to develop a theory of change for their youth work.

 

They wanted a colourful and eye-catching diagram to show community leaders and parents how they are working to achieving their desired change; that young people and key populations in Leribe district have access to youth-friendly HIV services and area empowered to challenge harmful cultural practices, avoid risky behaviour and demand their rights.

Avert has just launched a new information video as part of our exciting collaboration with Hornet, one of the world’s premier gay networking apps.

The second video in the series focuses on the importance of regular HIV testing for gay and bisexual men. We’ve also got a whole range of other resources in our Gay health hub. Check it out and let us know what you think. 

Meet Theresa - She is 22 and is a peer health educator as part of BISO’s (our partner in Zambia ) ADHERE youth project.

 

“My name is Theresa. I got involved with the work of BISO when I was working as a volunteer at Chibefwe hospital and I was picked to help my fellow youth. I felt that this is the work I am supposed to do because there are many youths who don’t know about sexual and reproductive health, they don’t have information, especially in rural areas. I can educate others. It is a challenge to talk to people who are older. As a young person, they will come to me and open up. If they go to a doctor they won’t say what is really worrying them. There’s now a big change because young people feel free and are open to talking to us. We are also sharing our experiences between the volunteers”.

Avert is going to be showcasing our co-creation project, ‘Young Voices’, at the International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam at the end of July. We have been working with young people from Southern Africa to develop sexual and reproductive health materials that young people can really relate to.

 

We don’t want to spoil the launch, but there’s a series of animation and an interactive comic creator as well, so you get to choose how the stories end. More about this soon! 

 

Last month we featured a video from Zambia of youth peer educators working with our partner in Zambia, BISO. They were talking about some of the barriers for young people to access sexual health services in their community. Hear from another group about some of the work they are doing to reach young people with HIV information:

We’ve been preparing for the new GDPR regulations and getting in with our newsletter subscribers. But if you missed our emails and still want to hear from us, just sign up for our newsletters here.

 

We have updated our consent page. It now covers a far broader concept of consent as an ongoing process.

Have a read and let us know what you think!

In follow up to our post last month about the Sisonke project in South Africa, we wanted to share some of the learning from the end of project evaluation. Between 2005 and 2018 the project supported over 15,000 vulnerable elderly people and young children across 20 rural communities during the most challenging phase of the HIV epidemic. 

Avert helped establish the Sisonke Project with the Diocese of Grahamstown’s Department of Social Responsibility (the DSR) in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, in 2005. Read more in our learning brief here.

Our HIV timeline holds a wealth of information and education on the global response spanning four decades.

Click on the multimedia tab for a whistlestop tour of how far we’ve come from the silent epidemic in the 1980s to where we are now, gathering momentum to reach the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets for people knowing their status, being on treatment and being virally suppressed.

At the end of May, our partner organisation in Malawi, the Umunthu Foundation, held a launch event for their HIV education through football programme. The event brought together government officials with communities involved in the project to watch football and promote it as a great approach to increase the knowledge of young people about HIV and sexual health. Over 5,000 attended the event and 100 people tested for HIV at the side of the pitch .

Last month our pages on Avert.org were read nearly 1.3 million times!

 

 

Our most viewed page? ‘What are HIV and AIDS’ – perhaps the most important page on the site! We’re doing all we can to reach more and more people with clear and accessible information on HIV and sexual health.

Avert launched a new Instagram account at the end of last year. We are using this new visual platform to engage with younger audiences around the world. Follow us at @avertaids

 

At Avert we have annual learning exchange programmes for our partner organisations. This year David, the Director of Umunthu Foundation (Malawi), visited BISO in Zambia. 

Here, he learnt about how they mobilise and train community volunteers to enable more people to access HIV services. David said “We learnt that there is strong community participation in health programming and implementation as planning starts from the community. The community involvement gives the people a sense of ownership”.