Each year, the Youth Hub of IAS – the International AIDS Society – supports five Young Leaders with capacity building and seed grants of USD 10,000 to scale up HIV-related innovation projects that respond to a need for young people living with and affected by HIV. Meet a Young Leader who has completed the programme and hear about how it has affected them personally.
“My experience as an IAS Young Leader was a pivotal part of my journey as a young HIV activist and sex worker.”
Elizabeth Atieno Onyango, Kenya, Class of 2023
My experience as an IAS Young Leader was a pivotal part of my journey as a young HIV activist and sex worker. I got to learn a lot about engagement of sex workers in HIV prevention programmes and influence participation in scientific studies, as well as broaden my understanding of HIV science. My project, “Put a ring on it”, was able to create mass awareness of the dapivirine vaginal ring. Through this project, I was able to influence the involvement of young sex workers in the MOSAIC study in Mombasa county for oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), injectable PrEP and ring PrEP. I take pride in being the first woman from the Kenyan coast to lead in conversations that centre marginalized women in HIV science.
I am currently engaged in different spaces in the HIV prevention movement. I was the representative of young people on the organizing committee of AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference, where I was the Co-Chair of the Global Village. I am now the Programmes Officer at the Coast Sex Workers Alliance. During AIDS 2024, I founded the Young Africa Sex Workers Alliance, which brings together young sex workers aged 18-32 years from the African continent and supports them in advocacy initiatives.