“HIV does not care about gender, sexual orientation or ethnic background. So PrEP is designed to prevent against HIV for everyone.”
Pre-exposure prophylaxis or “PrEP” is the use of an antiretroviral medication by HIV-negative people to reduce the risk of HIV acquisition. As of September 2015, WHO recommends that people at risk of HIV should be offered PrEP as part of comprehensive prevention. PrEP is highly effective at preventing HIV when used as directed.
Universal access to PrEP is essential to end the HIV epidemic. By promoting PrEP diversity we aim to contribute to ensuring access to PrEP for everyone, regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status, or geographic location. Without promoting PrEP we cannot fulfil our promise to end HIV and AIDS by 2030!
PrEP has shown to be effective and safe, but there are still many challenges to its widespread use, especially among vulnerable populations. Awareness about PrEP and how it works is low, stigma related to use of PrEP is real, and many groups such LGBTQIA+ and sex workers communities, especially in the global South, experience socio-cultural barriers to accessing PrEP. Moreover, women, especially those with a migrant background, are still largely ignored in prevention programs. To make good on our promise to end HIV/ AIDS by 2030 we should urgently include women in PrEP programmes right now!
Fighting these barriers, we engage in local PrEP action in many ways: Through our local activisim as a PrEP outreach worker as well as through our support to local groups working on PrEP access world wide:
PrEP outreach
We are part of the Outreach team of PrEPnu, a Netherlands-based NGO. PrEPnu aims to strengthen advocacy for better PrEP care and also inform the community about PrEP and related services. PrEPnu’s Outreach team is present at major events to educate the general public and especially potential PrEP users about PrEP. By being visibly present, PrEPnu aims to integrate the understanding of PrEP better within our community.
If you live in the Netherlands and are interest to join the outreach team as well, get in touch with PrEPnu as they need reinforcements! As part of the outreach team you will be able to advocate for PrEP at various events throughout the Netherlands. Think of festivals, pride walks, or informational gatherings.
Support to local HIV partners on PrEP
Our network on PrEP Diversity is ever expanding. We engage with various grassroots organisations in countries such as Japan, South-Korea, Burundi, etc.
An example of local PrEP support is our engagement with BAWA (Burundian Association for Women in Action), who are interested to learn more about PrEP use and access. We support BAWA to identify barriers to PrEP access, remove these by developing and providing training modules on PrEP, and guide them through the health system towards regular PrEP access.
Join us!
We are always looking for collabs with other activists and grassroots organisations working on PrEP. If you are interested to work with us or provide resources for our team, we are happy to discuss collaboration possibilities with you. Get in touch with us!
HIV stigmafighter 